At Staupell Analytics Group, we constantly strive for innovation and efficiency when it comes to fundraising operations. Our data management associate, Wilford Bailey, led the discussion in our recent Water Cooler Chat about Microsoft's Power Automate. This powerful tool provides a user-friendly platform for automating tasks, reducing errors, and improving communication within an organization. This is a recap of our discussion about how to streamline workflows using this versatile tool. Getting to Know Power AutomatePower Automate is essentially a digital assistant that can connect to various apps and services, such as email, Teams, or social media. After setting up the rules, Power Automate can automate tasks like sending notifications, filing documents, and posting updates. One common question that arises is whether Power Automate only works with Microsoft products. The answer is no, it can be integrated with numerous other applications. Power Automate comes in two versions: cloud-based for tasks across various online applications, and a desktop version for tasks on your local computer. Power Automate in ActionUsing Power Automate effectively requires understanding the concept of "connectors" and "actions". Each connector allows you to take certain actions within Power Automate. For example, you could select a group of event participants, then immediately update their status to 'attended'. This can streamline the process at an event, allowing you to keep track of attendees in real time. The Benefits and Barriers of Power AutomateImplementing Power Automate can enhance productivity by automating repetitive tasks, reducing the likelihood of errors, and improving communication. However, there are also barriers to consider. Understanding the tool requires a learning curve, and building complex workflows can be challenging. There can also be security and compliance concerns, integration limitations, and cost management factors to consider. Overcoming BarriersDespite these challenges, there are ways to overcome these barriers. Starting with simple tasks can help you gain confidence and experience. Planning your workflows and utilizing resources like Microsoft's documentation, tutorials, and community forums can assist in learning and troubleshooting. Due to limited resources and the need to manage daily responsibilities, many nonprofits choose to hire a consultant. This allows them to have the automations set up more quickly and effectively, realizing efficiency benefits sooner than if they attempted to do it themselves. F.I.T. Approach to AutomationAt Staupell Analytics Group, we've used Power Automate for a range of tasks. One example is generating draft contracts for donors. We use Microsoft Forms to collect data, Power Automate then inputs this data into a Word template, and the drafted contract is emailed to the gift officer. Power Automate offers immense potential for improving efficiency and productivity. With careful planning and understanding, this tool can be a valuable addition to your fundraising operations digital toolkit. We use our Fix, Innovate, Teach (FIT) approach to develop solutions tailored to your specific operational needs. If you're having trouble accomplishing more in less time, schedule a consultation to discuss your unique needs. We can provide a fresh perspective to innovate existing procedures and set up automations within your digital assets. In the meantime, watch Wilfred’s Water Cooler Chat presentation below for a deeper understanding of streamlining workflows using Power Automate.
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As we approach the holiday season, it can be easy to get swept up in the festivities and lose focus on our professional goals. But with the right methods and strategies, you can stay on task with your prospect management even while hibernating at home. In this Water Cooler Chat, we discussed practical tips for staying organized, prioritizing your outreach, and maintaining positive relationships with your prospects. In November, we gather to feast and celebrate abundance. In this Water Cooler Chat, we discussed effective ways to manage prospects during the holiday season. We provided tips for staying organized, prioritizing your outreach, and maintaining positive relationships. Watch now for our practical advice on how to make the most of this festive time of year while still achieving your prospecting goals. In this Water Cooler Chat, we explore how to keep your data clean so that it's ready for analysis. We discuss auditing techniques and best practices for ensuring that your data is accurate and up-to-date. We provide practical tips for improving your data analysis skills and making better-informed decisions for your organization. Liz Rejman, Principal of Liz Rejman + Co. lead this Water Cooler Chat on how to optimize your organization's data by understanding the data life cycle. The chat will covered ideas such as developing a data governance policy, selecting data, onboarding data, performance management, and offboarding data. By thinking from a data-driven perspective within your organization, you will gain a deeper understanding of how to use information for your mission and vision, and how to optimize it when making strategic decisions. With the "back to school" season upon us, now is the perfect time to learn some techniques to fine-tune your portfolio for the upcoming campaign year. In this Water Cooler Chat, Ruthie Giles shared some of her best practices for profile management. Will you be celebrating your fundraising success with fireworks? In this Water Cooler Chat, Greg Duke will share methods for developing reports that pinpoint where your fundraising successes and opportunities lie to better prepare you for your next campaign. Year-end fundraising is always a frenzy. In this Water Cooler Chat, our special guest Maya Gasuk, Managing Partner at West Wind Consulting, shares some best practices for making sure that your year-end annual giving program. What kind of prospecting can you do to get the maximum benefit at the end of the calendar year? Join us at May's Water Cooler Chat, where our special guest Jen Filla will be joining the discussion. Jen will present a few ways to help clients prepare for specific end-of-year fundraising activities. You can also learn what other organizations are doing by participating in polls and discussions during the chat. The old saying “April showers bring May flowers” holds true in fundraising. Join us for this Water Cooler Chat as we discuss last-minute prospecting techniques to bring in last-minute gifts. March is normally a quiet time in fundraising, but June is coming up fast. Join Greg Duke to discover more ways to ease your administrivia load with Greg's latest Excel tricks and tips. In this session, we'll show how to build a word cloud in Excel based on the content of your organization's contact reports. You'll find those keywords that relate to major gifts donors vs. those that defer or refuse the ask. In colder locations, January starts the Travel to Florida season for our frontline staff. While you're back at the office, take a look at some ideas to automate your tasks, update your frontline staff portfolios, and build alert systems to serve your internal clients. As the tax year comes to a close, our organizations try to catch those last few gifts from donors. This week we discussed ideas on identifying possible re-asks and on modeling those who are likely to give at a certain time of year. This week we discussed automating stewardship and appreciation activities to both honor your donors and to never miss a beat. Sharing our ethical dilemmas and stories and ideas on coping with them. Staupell team members will share a few of our own. As September hits, we all turn our minds to segmentation, direct mail, and other annual giving campaigns. In this Water Cooler Chat, we took a look at a variety of ideas on annual giving segmentation. And yes, we covered RFM.
How do we position portfolios so that they may allow our fundraisers to be successful? Using cultivation stages, capacity ratings, RFM scores, engagement scores, and various other data points … coupled with right-sizing the portfolio. Sounds simple enough, but there is a delicate art to how we balance the data side of this work with the relationship side. In this Water Cooler Chat, we talked about our tactics, methods, challenges, and obstacles that we encounter as we work to make a portfolio ready for our fundraisers as we position them for success.
AFP's Fundraising Effectiveness Project was designed to help all nonprofits understand the giving patterns among their donors. We went over how to use it and how to interpret what we find using sample data. Resource link: https://afpglobal.org/FundraisingEffectivenessProject
In June, we are counting every gift, trying to reach our annual fundraising goal. Can we find those last-minute prospects to take us over the top? We'll explore some data-driven ways to find those last-minute opportunities.
You’ve been tasked with raising annual fund giving by 20%, and you know that it’s a big priority for your organization. You’ve made lots of changes to your fundraising plans, and the first few months seem to have been successful. But are you on the right track to reaching your goal? How would you even know? There’s a simple but powerful tool available to everyone which will help provide an answer. The Monte Carlo simulation technique can help you to identify the likelihood that your fundraising program will reach its end-of-year goal. It is flexible enough that you can update it throughout the year to find out if you are moving in the right direction. Best of all, Monte Carlo simulations can be created with a program you already own: Microsoft Excel.
We constantly seek ways to make better and to make better use of our capacity ratings. Often IRS aggregate data are used for this purpose. This Water Cooler Chat focuses on what's available in the IRS data for your shop's rating efforts.
Marianne and Jen are back again! Jennifer Filla, EO at Aspire Research Group and the Prospect Research Institute, will join Marianne for this Water Cooler Chat to cover the latest in prospect identification. Jen will share AFP’s “Linkage, Ability, Interest” framework, used for developing a custom system for identifying, verifying, and qualifying mid and major gift prospects. Marianne will share ways to automate prospect identification for any size shop.
As fundraisers, we focus our resources on major gifts prospects. However, with Big Data bringing out a lot more information from social networking, we now see the value of using modeling and mining tools to help annual giving, membership, and events programs. This water cooler chat is centered on engagement –a rather nebulous term we use to try to understand what our donors feel about us before they give for the first time.
Marianne coined the term, "Donor Journey," based on the marketing term, "Customer Journey." During this Water Cooler Chat, we'll talk about ways to identify and understand the Donor Journey.
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June 2024
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