If you know that's a 65 Thunderbird up there, you already grok that dashboards don't have to be boring. If you like what you read, support us by becoming a member.
INTRODUCTION
I don't want you to think this is typical behavior for me, but last Sunday, I watched the Masters. (Tiger really blew it in the end, didn't he?) During the commercial breaks, we were treated to ads for three things: mutual funds, luxury cars, and intelligence -- the business kind. Who sells intelligence? Can I have a double order?
The BI ads were from IBM. They have a new Smarter Planet initiative focused on turning data into, well, intelligence. I've been preoccupied with this very thing for the last few months. (Incidentally, you should read The Numerati.)
While the recent Amazon.com debacle surely points out that machines will never replace good old fashioned human judgment -- at least, I hope not -- you have to agree that we could, and should, use data to help our organizations make better decisions about future plans, rather than using data to adjust to what's already occurred. Let's be predictive, not reactive.
Essentially, the platitude is true: We need to work smarter. We need to design our work flow in ways that will create data points we can capture: How many? How often? How much? Then, we need to design systems that can turn this data into intelligence: What are the trends? If the trends continue, where will we be?
Data tells you what's true here, in this place. Intelligence tells you what may happen tomorrow, around the corner.
This is getting easier to do. Think of it this way: We used to send direct mail out the door, and the only data point we had about the success of the mailing was whether or not the checks rolled in. Even that's hard to track. Now, when you send an email, you can see how many people opened the message (Was the subject line effective?), if they clicked on the call to action (Was the text/image effective?), and if they took the desired action on the landing page (Was the landing page well designed?).
Your communication is now DATA. Every click your visitors take on your website is a piece of data. Every service you enter into your client database is a piece of data. It's all data, everywhere, all the time.
The organizations that will survive in the next decade are the ones that recognize they're swimming in a sea of data. The organizations that will thrive are the ones that make sense of it. So, this issue of NTEN Connect is dedicated to that idea. Across websites, email, and program, we're sharing some of the best tips out there for diving into the sea of data.
Just remember, data is only the start. It's what you do with it that makes you smart.
Best,
Holly
Karl Hedstrom, NTEN
NTEN's Dashboard is a snapshot of our many different program areas and associated goals. By tracking specific data related to our Memberships, Events, Website, and a few other areas, we can use the Dashboard to see at a glance where we ARE, where we WERE, and where we SHOULD BE (and sometimes even where we're GOING).
If your organization hasn't spent much time developing a dashboard, let our experience be your guide.
We focus too much on micro reporting on our websites, most of which is comprised of too much page level analysis. When you get to page analysis, you can easily get down and dirty and waste too much time.
The time is right to focus on metrics, Key Performance Indicators, and tips on how to measure the effectiveness of individual pages. Basically:
- Don't Obsess About Your Home Page
- Compute Your Cliff, Then Jump
- Determine Your Bounce Rate
- Use the Site Overlay
- Think Holistically
Alison Cherry & Joanna Miles, Beaconfire
When it comes to nonprofit fundraising, everyone wants to know "the best" way to do things, but deceptively simple questions keep coming up. And the answer is usually the one we all fear (and hate): "It depends." It depends on your mission. It depends on your audience, and the design of your site, and the goal of your campaign.
There's only one way to know for sure what's best: test it for yourself.
Jeff Patrick, Common Knowledge
Email marketing is the foundation for most nonprofits' education, advocacy, volunteering, and fundraising efforts online and the best practices for evaluating email marketing campaigns are well established. But nonprofits continue to underutilize ways to measure and evaluate the success of these campaigns.
It's not hard to take the first step to improving your email campaign performance through evaluation and optimization.
Melissa Barber, Friends of Trees
Like most small nonprofits, Friends of Trees doesn't have the budget for elaborate bar-code systems or a chunk of staff time to track the success of its direct mail campaigns. Until about a year ago, we attributed all the contributions we received between the drop dates of two successive mailings to the first mailing in that series. It makes sense, and feels true -- until you start tracking the data.
Fortunately enough, you can even use your existing supplies and systems to track the success of your different direct mail campaigns.
Maren, German, and Kristie, Google Grants
The Google Grants team receives a lot of questions from grantees on how best to evaluate their AdWords performance. Since we've recently asked our grantees to more actively manage their accounts, this has become even more important.
We've put together some guidance around monitoring and evaluating your Google Grants account using a few strategies we find valuable. We hope you do, too!
Ingvild Bjornvold, Social Solutions
The best nonprofits -- those passionate about changing lives for the better (and equally convinced of their ethical obligation to make absolutely certain they do no harm) -- use technology to analyze and manage their efforts, processes, and outcomes with the goal of continual improvement.
The emphasis on producing social value and placing clients' well-being first converges with high performing organizations' need to raise money effectively. A well-designed performance management system can help an organization become more effective at serving people and at raising money in an increasingly competitive market.
- Our favorite movies tend to be the ones that split audiences (and later become cult classics) like Children of Men or The Big Lebowski. Well, Idealware's new report comparing Open Source Content Management Systems has inspired some amount of controversy. But through it all, Michelle Murrain abides.
- Penguins. Watch for them at the 2009 NTC.
- BuzzFeed has a truly fantasic chart documenting the number of pirates killed by each U.S. President, all the way back to McKinley.
- NTEN Member Steve Daigneault addressed the question "How Much Email Is Too Much?" He also reintroduced us to the word "crisitunity". No, no, it's okay: it came from The Simpsons.
- As it turns out, just thinking about having a salad with dinner makes it more likely you'll order the fries. The first nonprofit to reverse engineer that psychological mechanism will be swimming in donations like Scrooge McDuck in his money bin.
- Learn10 wants to help you pick up a foreign language. Best feature: it links words to Twitter streams, so you can see how they're commonly used.
- Every year, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation gives away some of its old tech toys to NTEN Members. They're awesome that way. There's not a lot left this year, but you can join NTEN now to get a jump on the next potlatch. Just be sure to read the rules.
- Universal internet access.
- Zero Divide is sponsoring a Technology Haiku Contest. One entry: "Web2.0? Ha! / We got ninety-nine problems / But our tweets ain't one." That's right: we pronounce it "two point oh". Deal with it.
- Blue State Digital wrote a report detailing the relative effectiveness of puppies vs. kittens in fundraising appeals. But really, don't we all win?
- Thank you for reading all the way through. Your reward: the most patient cat in the world -- featuring puppies!
FOLLOW THE NTC LIVE!
The 2009 NTC has sold out (twice now, actually), but you can join 1,450 of your peers from your own computer.
We're doing more than ever to broadcast the NTC this year, including live video streaming and blogging, some webinars, and of course, the "09NTC" tag. Tune in on our NTC Live page.
NTEN PODCAST
A host of NTC speakers have already spoken to Holly about their NTC sessions, on topics ranging from storytelling to IPv6 to website usability.
You can subscribe to the series on iTunes -- or find them on our blog. We like to give you choices.
PURCHASE OUR BOOK
Have you heard? We wrote a book, Managing Technology to Meet Your Mission: A Strategic Guide for Nonprofit Leaders. We're pretty sure you'd like it.
Heck, we even made an entire wiki to support it, with added goodies from our chapter authors. Notice how it doesn't really look like a wiki? Yeah, that's just how we roll.
UPCOMING WEBINARS
- Ask the Expert - Michael Schreiber on Technology Planning in Today's Economy (April 21)
- Social Actions' Change the Web Challenge (FREE! April 22)
- 09NTC Live: Google Media: Google Grants, Blogger, YouTube, Maps (FREE! April 27)
- 09NTC Live: DIY Search Engine Optimization (SEO) (FREE! April 27)
MEMBER DISCOUNTS
Your NTEN Membership lets you save on a host of products and services:
nFocus Software
Free TraxSolutions Outcome Measurement Toolkit when you purchase KidTrax (a $750 savings). KidTrax is a web-based youth and membership tracking system, and the TraxSolutions Outcome Measurement Toolkit allows you to select outcomes and indicators specific to your organization for effective measurements to analyze and demonstrate the impact of your programs.
Track Records Software
Save $750 on your software or setup/training services. Track Records Software provides an efficient solution for client-service agencies that will strengthen your ability to provide quality services with simple, intuitive software that makes the administrative tasks involved with funding, operating, and providing quality services to clients easily manageable.
NTEN CONNECT is the monthly e-newsletter of the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN).
Photo Credit: Telstar Logistics (Header).
Contact the editor at editor@nten.org