![\"Data](\"https:\/\/cdn2.hubspot.net\/hubfs\/257922\/wecare.png\")
<\/p>\nIn a world where donations drive charities, maximizing impact and minimizing overhead is not just key to a nonprofit\u2019s credibility, but also critical to its donor retention. For nonprofits, digital transformation \u2013 an overhaul of the way they leverage information to better serve stakeholders and amplify value \u2013 is increasingly critical to survival.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A global Microsoft survey<\/a> shows nonprofit donors want to see the impact of their dollars; 89% of decision-makers and 86% of donors and volunteers said it\u2019s important to know how a charity uses its contributions. The most successful charities understand this. Leaders in the nonprofit arena have a shared success strategy; they\u2019ve tactically planned for and invested in modern tech platforms, leveraging critical data to inform decisions, streamline organization, and promote transparency.<\/p>\n BlueGranite has had the honor of empowering several nonprofits with technology, including one of the nation\u2019s largest, devoted to aiding U.S. families of children fighting life-threatening illnesses<\/a>, and another, which lifts children across the globe out of poverty<\/a>.<\/p>\n These nonprofits have turned to data to support key decisions. From expanding reach and increasing donations to uncovering impact and analyzing success, the nonprofits that flourish are driven by data.<\/p>\n A data-driven charity is one that uses data to inform and direct critical decisions. Gathering and analyzing quantifiable and pertinent information is key to the process.\u00a0 Rather than the old ways of doing things \u2013\u00a0 turning to intuition, gut feelings, or past experiences \u2013 information analysis guides the actions and choices of the most successful nonprofit decision-makers.<\/p>\n For many organizations, the first step in a technology transformation begins by gathering and centralizing data that might be scattered across multiple systems. The children\u2019s healthcare charity we partnered with once struggled with an expensive, unwieldy financial reporting system built on multiple vendors and services; others struggle with disparate budgeting or payment systems, or distributed donor lists. Other charities grapple with disparate external information, like the group alleviating childhood poverty once did; those external data challenges may include census data, education assessments, or even weather statistics.<\/p>\n Once a data-driven organization has a strategic method for collecting its data and assuring the quality, it can begin to surface and analyze the information, gleaning and sharing insight through reports and dashboards. These tools can quantitatively convey a broad spectrum of information \u2013 from operations transparency to programming impact.<\/p>\n In the nonprofit realm, every dollar saved is a dollar that amplifies impact. As uncovered in the Microsoft survey<\/a> referenced earlier, decision-makers, donors, and volunteers believe strategic technology investment is also ultimately key to a charity\u2019s impact. A well-planned technology transformation, with leadership embracing good IT governance \u2013 a strategic scaffold aimed at meeting a nonprofit\u2019s needs in alliance with its goals \u2013 and staff and volunteers who are prepared to adopt the new solution, are critical to overall success. Once in place, a successful modern data platform can drive transparency, efficiency, and cost-savings.<\/p>\n The increased transparency of a data-driven charity can boost satisfaction, provide clarity, and build trust across a nonprofit\u2019s network \u2013 from board members and corporate and major donors, to staff and volunteers.\u00a0Board members can easily ensure governance policies are in compliance. Staff can accurately and quickly track budgets.\u00a0Volunteers and donors can visualize the extent of their impact. The ability to visualize and share the effect of a charity\u2019s efforts can build momentum and boost involvement.<\/p>\n In addition, adopting a data-driven business strategy offers great opportunity for increasing efficiency.\u00a0 Data can highlight potential areas for improvement that are often otherwise overlooked.\u00a0 This can look like identifying and removing delays from operations to amplify impact or enhancing targeted outreach to prevent wasted marketing dollars.<\/p>\n How does an organization successfully embrace data-driven strategies? Think big, but start small. The amount of data that can potentially be collected and analyzed can initially seem overwhelming, but with a strategic road-map the steps forward become clear. Start small; identify important factors that drive operations but aren\u2019t currently supported by data, particularly data you already have but that may be challenging or difficult to analyze.<\/p>\n Utilize your existing resources.\u00a0Microsoft provides help to get you started. Check out the Power BI starter kit here<\/a>, to learn more about getting started with the dynamic, visually rich suite of business analytics tools; its simple interface lets you share data across your organization.\u00a0 Keep an eye out for upcoming BlueGranite webinars and events https:\/\/www.blue-granite.com\/events<\/a>, or contact us<\/a> when you\u2019re ready to create a road-map to deliver value across your charity \u2013 from those you help to those who help you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For nonprofits, digital transformation \u2013 an overhaul of the way they leverage information to better serve stakeholders and amplify value \u2013 is increasingly critical to survival.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":13212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[260],"tags":[305,273],"class_list":["post-15782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-data-ai","tag-modern-bi","tag-power-bi","topics-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What Does it Mean to Become Data-Driven?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
The Benefits of Investing in Data-Driven Technology<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Start Here<\/strong><\/h3>\n