Analyzing Your Data With TrueAppend

What are you looking for?  No really, what are you looking for? Enhancing your data with TrueAppend is easy and it's fast. But what good is it if you don't know what you're looking for? Making good use of your data append starts with a strong research question.

We defer to the experts, like Kevin MacDonnell, on predictive modeling. His book, and the many fantastic articles on his blog, go into great detail. We'll cover one simple concept here - lookalike analysis.

Data append and lookalike analysis

In the context of marketing, lookalike modeling is used to reach new prospects that look like a marketer’s best customers. It's just a short hop to apply that methodology to fundraising. This strategy is especially useful for creating or improving how you segment your donors.

Segmentation has benefits in both direct mail fundraising and major giving programs.

Lookalike for Direct Mail

Combine your data append insights with what you already know about your donors. What events did they attend? How often did they donate last year, and what was their gift size? When you can answer those questions, your enhanced data can tell you how to re-prioritize your direct mail programs. TrueAppend data is useful for determining what your donors' lives look like, and that can inform how you determine everything from your mail calendar to your ask amount. For instance, if you have a lot of households with Presence of Children, back-to-school season is tough time of year to catch their attention with your carefully crafted solicitation materials.

Lookalike for Major Giving

You don't want to do a simple segmentation, find your top prospects, and then send a gift officer running to make their next big ask. But you can use enhanced data to learn more about people who are already giving major gifts and try to understand what traits or behaviors they have in common. For example, you might learn that your historic major donors all Business Owners with a Census Zip Median Household Income of $100,000+. From there, you've got an idea of who else might be a good fit for your major giving program. Data append and segmentation is an important first step to help you clarify your research question, establish goals, and develop tailored outreach strategies.