Emerging technologies and developments in digital innovations are helping businesses worldwide change how they work — for the better. This can be seen even in the nonprofit sector, as indicated by the World Economic Forums’ feature on the role of technology in fighting climate change and the hunger crisis. From predictive technologies that anticipate climate hazards to regenerative agriculture innovations that restore damaged ecosystems, technology contributes to the combined efforts against various global problems.
Today, we will talk about an important aspect behind these technologies: data. While organizations across sectors begin to handle more and more information from different sources, NGOs can benefit from utilizing data to improve customer and donor relations. In this article, we’ll explore the three ways data can help your NGO:
Improve SEO and Marketing Efforts
Nonprofits tend to overlook marketing efforts due to limited budgets or resources. However, data can be a cost-efficient way to boost a campaign’s success. For one, you can use data to better tap into search engine optimization (SEO). Defined as the process of improving and optimizing a website to boost its ranking on search engines, organizations in the private and public sectors with a high SEO ranking have an advantage over their competitors as they are naturally more “visible” to potential customers, clients, and donors on Google.
The SEO insights from Ayima Kickstart suggest that while you may already have a website in place, establishing its presence won’t be easy. Google’s algorithms reward large brands with large amounts of incoming backlinks to rich and robust content. Knowing how to utilize data can also help better understand the target audience. NGOs can adjust their messaging and streamline the best approaches to draw organic traffic to their website. Data analytics can also significantly boost an organization’s SEO rankings by analyzing the most effective keywords connected to their cause to increase relevancy on search engines.
Personalize Donor Interactions
With the amount of data involved in nonprofit operations, organizations must have a clear way of managing and handling them. This is where data analytics comes in. We’ve previously written about data analytics and the role of CRM applications, like Akubo, in not only managing data but analyzing and drawing key insights from them as well. A drastic shift away from the age of manual record keeping, CRM can automatically generate reports based on any groupings you need that are relevant to making better decisions for your nonprofit strategy.
One such data-based decision comes in the form of personalized interactions with donors. We’ve mentioned how knowing your organization’s demographic can be helpful for SEO, but using your insights to create tailor-fit interactions with donors is likewise crucial. For example, you can determine the best messaging for different donors, depending on whether they are individuals or a group. Knowing where your traffic comes from can also help you send information on relevant local events, such as community fundraisers where your donors live. Personalized interactions are a great way to build relationships with donors and show them that their support is appreciated. If done right, you can win their long-time support.
Measure Success and Milestones
Finally, thanks to the widespread use of the Internet, nonprofit organizations can easily reach wider audiences more cost-effectively, from establishing a social media presence to having a website where your advocacies and relevant information are displayed for anyone to see and access.
A study published in the journal Sustainability indicates a current challenge among nonprofits to uphold the transparency and credibility of their organizations and the funds and support they receive. While the Internet is helping alleviate this concern, more can be done with the power of data.
Aside from analyzing data, data analytics can help organizations present information in visualized and more digestible forms. This way, nonprofits can easily share campaign successes and milestones with donors to boost the cause’s morale. It will also help them remain transparent and reliable so that people know where their support goes. As you can see, data is a powerful asset, and when used correctly, it can enhance efficiency, save resources, and build trust.
Article was specially written for https://www.akubo.com/ by Amy Lynn.