Data is the talk of the tech and political spheres for good reason. The prudent use of data has the potential to transform a political campaign in surprisingly little time. Although implementing data analysis does not guarantee your campaign’s success, it has the potential to ramp up your visibility and financial support.
Fundraising data provides invaluable insights that make it easier to raise money and generate goodwill with prospective donors. Let’s take a closer look at the many different ways fundraising data can improve your political campaign.
Fundraising Data Allows for Targeted Appeals
One of the real strengths of fundraising data is the way it helps you target specific demographics. A good source of data will allow you to take a look at people across a broad spectrum of categories, from income and education levels to whether they’ve given to campaigns like yours in the past, or even whether they are likely supporters of issues that matter to your campaign. Taking a thoughtful approach to what kind of donor would be most likely to support your campaign can help you raise more money.
Continue to update your fundraising data at least once each financial quarter so you have accurate data. This can range from just updating the phones, emails and addresses on your existing list to going to your vendor to get a whole new list. Having updated data will make sure you don’t miss any potential donors or waste time and money on bad contact information.
Fundraising Data Doesn’t Have to Be Intimidating
The discussion around data can often sound intimidating or confusing, but this type of data doesn’t require a team of experts to analyze it. In this case, it means a list of names and information about those people. Quantitative data can make it easy to set goals and make sure your campaign is moving in the right direction.
Quantitative data includes anything you can count or add up – the amount of money a donor has given in the past, how much money you raised from a given event, how many potential donors you have, or the demographics of the people in your database. As long as this data is updated and accurate, it provides the backbone for your campaign’s fundraising strategy.
You can also collect data that is more subjective in nature, like information obtained through interviews, donor surveys and other means that can help round out your information about your donors and the voters in your district.
What About This Subjective Data?
Shifting away from stats and numbers can give you a broader perspective of how people feel about your campaign. Consider the responses to surveys, polls, and comments on your website, donation pages, and social media pages. Looking for common themes in these responses can help you find issues with the way your campaign is approaching donors. For example, you might find ways to make your website or donation pages more effective by paying attention to the comments left on your site.
You can also collect data directly from your donors. using a tool like a survey to ask your audience how they feel about your social media campaigns the functionality of your donation page. Comments on social media page can be helpful in tailoring your messages to the audiences on various platforms have, such as Instagram or Twitter.
Identify Trends on a Year-Over-Year Basis
Fundraising and political data allow make it easy to compare your performance in the current year to that of previous years. Hard numbers make it easy to see whether your fundraising is plateauing, declining, or growing. Compare numbers from fundraising events, mailers and calls from one year to the next and you’ll see clear trends on which strategies worked and which failed. Rely on your treasurer and fundraiser to help you analyze this data and identify the revenue sources and perform that help you raise the most money. Zero in on enhancing areas of growth and correcting areas of decline.
Fundraising Data Helps You Better Understand Your Audience
It may sound like using fundraising data will take a lot of time and effort, but effective use of data almost always ends up saving you both. Data-driven fundraising makes it easy to see who your best prospects are and what they care about, making sure you raise the most money that you can.
Data-driven fundraising means approaching donors based on specific criteria ranging from employment and giving history to issues, location, and hobbies. Analyze data appropriately and be patient with the process, and you’ll find that your efforts significantly boost campaign donations.
Aristotle is Here to Help With Your Campaign
Tap into the power of Aristotle’s fundraising data and services and you’ll find your campaign quickly builds momentum. Our cloud-based campaign manager is a three-in-one product for compliance, fundraising, and preparing and submitting accounting and other business reports. Reach out to us today to find out more about how our high-tech solutions will empower you to launch and manage a winning campaign.
