Big Data’s Role in Nonprofits

Virtually every nonprofit starts off with an altruistic motive: combat poverty, fight inequalities, etc. While these are admirable goals, they tend to attract people with a heart for those causes, leaving the star players in terms of industry knowledge and expertise to make money in the commercial world simply because they generally pay better.

Still, there’s no reason why nonprofits can’t incorporate advanced metrics and data collection into their systems. By making a few small changes, they can become just as efficient as the big corporations who pay millions of dollars for the same impact.

Incorporate Big Data Into Fundraising

Big data is currently a $42 billion industry, and companies from all over the place are using it for one primary purpose: to make money. Even though the end goal of a nonprofit is not necessarily to generate revenue, there are still is a need for fundraising to keep the lights on and operations active.

Look for ways to fundraise that have a high ROI (Return On Investment). Use high-quality images and infographics, streamlining content, optimizing the site for mobile are all ways that nonprofits can increase their ROI. Furthermore, nonprofits should target executives and managers that have experience in big data areas, specifically CTO’s or marketing managers.

Make Changes to Current Operations

Once a nonprofit has assessed the data, it’s incumbent on them to implement that within their current infrastructure. Develop a team that is responsible for analyzing and using data, that way it doesn’t get stuck in the pipeline for a long period of time.

With nearly 1.5 million registered nonprofits in the United States today, it’s a virtual certainty that the data collection methods for nonprofits will only continue to increase. The only question is whether or not they’ll implement it.

Stay Ahead of the Curve

If a nonprofit wants to continue to grow, they’ll have to stay on the cutting edge of technological process, which means mastering the resources that are at hand and learning new techniques as they become available. Once a company begins to implement the resources that are already available, they’ll begin to see other opportunities that they can grow as well, while the competition remains stagnant. Nonprofits don’t exactly work against each other, but the better a nonprofit can position themselves financially, the more impact they can make.