In a highly competitive digital marketing era, nonprofit leaders are always keeping up with the next big thing to make their message stand out. However, trends alone aren’t enough to produce the results you want—effective marketing is based on proven tactics unique to your message and audience.

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Analytics is the systemic examination of data to find meaningful patterns, draw conclusions, and make predictions based on those findings. In nonprofit marketing, this process helps you understand the performance of previous campaigns to determine the best way to move forward and engage your audience in the future. 

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In this guide, we’ll explore how you can take a more strategic approach to your nonprofit’s marketing efforts using data-backed insights.

1. Choose the right metrics to track.

There are four primary types of data analytics that can benefit your nonprofit:

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• Descriptive analytics, which describe what has happened over a specific time period
• Diagnostic analytics, which help nonprofits understand why something occurred
• Predictive analytics, which use trends from past data to anticipate future outcomes
• Prescriptive analytics, which simulate or suggest different strategies to help your team understand the risks and benefits of different decisions

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Before you can start analyzing your nonprofit’s marketing efforts through the above lenses, you need to compile and organize all relevant data. Let’s review the metrics you should prioritize.

Social media metrics

Social media is the channel that most inspires donors to give, with 56% being impacted by Facebook posts alone. In other words, your nonprofit can’t afford to ignore social media metrics, including:

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• Engagement data, such as likes, comments, impressions, and shares
• Social listening data, including the discussions your supporters engage in on social media 
• Fundraising data, specifically relating to supporters’ motivations for participating in specific campaigns, like a Challenge on Facebook, and how much you raise through social fundraising

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While you can access some social media analytics directly on the networks themselves, investing in a dedicated social fundraising solution or management platform is the best way to access and analyze social analytics. 

Fundraising and donor data

Your supporters are the main focus of your nonprofit’s marketing efforts. Therefore, donor data points are some of the most valuable metrics you can track to learn more about your target audience and send messages that resonate with them.

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To enhance your marketing strategy, keep track of the following donor metrics:

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• Engagement history, such as past donations, event attendance, volunteer shifts worked, or other methods of involvement with your organization
• Giving habits, including giving frequency, gift size, and preferred giving channels
• Donor retention rate, or the number of donors who give to your organization again after giving the previous year
• Donor acquisition rate, which measures how many new supporters your nonprofit gains over a specific period of time 
• Major gift indicators, which signal how likely a donor is to make a major gift
• Donor demographics, such as age, gender, geographic location, and employment information
• Online giving rate, which is the percentage of gifts coming in through online channels like eCommerce stores or mobile giving campaigns
• Donor communication preferences, including their preferred channels, frequency of messaging, and types of content

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This data enables you to craft marketing campaigns and messages that align with supporters’ interests. The more you know about your donors, the better you’ll understand which questions, resources, and calls to action will grab their attention.

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For example, you might identify corporate matching gift-eligible donors and personally invite them to submit their match requests using their employer’s auto-submission tool. Or, perhaps you’ll share a weekly impact newsletter with supporters who prefer frequent updates on your current fundraising efforts.

Website data

Your nonprofit’s website analytics tell you how effectively your site drives traffic, engages users, and converts visitors to supporters. You can monitor website data using a free Google Analytics account or other free tools like Bitly and SEMRush. 

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Using these tools, track the following website analytics: 

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• Traffic sources: This metric indicates how visitors find your website, which helps you determine which channels are most effective for driving traffic. For example, visitors may access your site through an organic search using Google or by clicking a link on a social media post.
• Average session duration: This metric shows how long users remain on your website before clicking away to something else. Different pages, such as your homepage or donation form, may yield longer session durations than others. 
• Conversion rate: This measures how many website visitors take a desired action while on your website, such as submitting a donation, registering to volunteer, or signing up for your email newsletter. This metric tells you how effectively your website transforms visitors into true supporters of your cause. 

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These analytics provide a solid foundation for optimizing your website’s design to maximize its effectiveness. By identifying your most successful pages—those yielding the most traffic, longest session durations, and highest conversions—you can replicate what’s working across the rest of your site to maximize visitor engagement.

2. Leverage your CRM software to track and store insights.

As you pinpoint the most important metrics, you’ll need a system for systematically storing and assessing this data. It’s helpful to save information on all your campaigns in one centralized database. 

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For nonprofits, this database is called a constituent relationship management (CRM) system. These solutions offer features like: 

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• Donor profiles: Track all the information you gather on each of your donors using in-depth donor profiles within your CRM.
• List segmentation: Segment your donor list within the system to send more relevant marketing messages to each group.
• Data reporting: Choose a CRM that generates detailed reports based on any metrics you want to analyze. 
• Marketing functionalities: Leverage your CRM’s marketing-specific tools, such as email automation, event management, and social media posting tools.

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When searching for the right CRM for your organization, make a list of the features you need most and compare platforms to find one that fits your budget. You should also work with a technology consultant who can help implement the new solution and customize the software to incorporate the key functionalities you need.

3. Use data hygiene best practices to stay organized. 

Using analytics to improve your nonprofit’s marketing means the work doesn’t end after you’ve collected relevant data. When the time comes to apply the insights you’ve gathered, you’ll need a well-organized CRM to find the information you’re looking for. 

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To keep your analytics process organized, incorporate these nonprofit data hygiene best practices into your procedures:

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• Audit your database frequently to identify irregularities, such as inaccurate donor information. 
• Remove unhelpful information, such as duplicate entries or information about donors who are deceased or incarcerated. 
• Create standardized data entry procedures, including guidelines for abbreviating addresses or correcting errors once discovered. 

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Remember, it’s better to take a “less is more” approach to data management. The simpler you can make your data analytics processes, the better. This allows you to cut through the clutter and work with your data efficiently. 

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These data analytics best practices will allow you to craft a more well-rounded marketing approach backed by hard facts rather than guesswork. Even if you aren’t a data expert, you can incorporate straightforward practices such as segmentation and data hygiene to give your marketing strategy more of an edge.