Nonprofit Data Collection: What Numbers You Need For Donations

Published on
January 31, 2025
nonprofit_data_collection_Sherlock_Holmes

It is no exaggeration to say that nonprofit data collection is the foundation for any venture that wishes to create a real impact with its work. While inspiration and altruism are the grease that makes the wheels of charity turn, data is the map that tells nonprofits which road they need to take to reach specific destinations. 

Nonprofit data collection is the art of gathering, analyzing, and disseminating that data to maximize impact and fundraising while minimizing costs and dead ends. 

As a nonprofit, you need to know what data you need, how to gather it, what tools you need to collect it efficiently, and how to share it with donors and as marketing material with the public. 

Let us take a look at how to do all of that now.  

4 reasons for nonprofit data collection 

According to a study by the Generosity Commission in 2023, 67% of those surveyed wanted “to know all the details about how their money would be spent to be sure it wouldn’t go to waste.” (page 6)

Fair enough, you say. As a nonprofit, you have nothing to hide. But what do they mean by ‘details’? The details a nonprofit needs to provide to keep attracting donors, volunteers, and new projects are the primary reasons why nonprofit data collection becomes crucial. Let’s look at the big four reasons.

Impact reporting 

In the 2007 PhD thesis of Dr Edmund Flack, he interviewed 12 kinds of ‘stakeholders’ of nonprofits – everyone from managers to donors to board members to volunteers to even administrative staff of nonprofits, to find out their attitude to annual reports that nonprofits generate and submit regarding the work they did the previous year. (page 272 onwards) 

Every stakeholder (he interviewed nearly 100 people) confirmed that creating, receiving, and sharing an impact report made them feel accountable to donors, gave them confidence about the direction the nonprofit was going, and inspired them to donate/work more. (Even if many admitted they did not read the whole thing.)

Impact reports are a flywheel of positivity and progress for the nonprofit, requiring much-varied data to generate, and are a must-have. 

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2020 Impact report of TreeAid. Source

Pro tip: The primary goal of nonprofit impact reports is to inspire long-term support from donors. Learn how to do that here.  

Donor cultivation and stewardship

As a path-breaking study by Richard D. Waters examined in 2008, a strong relationship with the nonprofit drove major donors to give regularly. Indeed, by simply gauging how strong the relationship with the nonprofit was, Waters’ study was able to predict a donor’s donating behavior with 91% accuracy. 

A 2020 study reinforced this point by highlighting how strong financial disclosures by nonprofits greatly affected the intention to donate. 

All of this simply means that a nonprofit must cultivate a strong and personal relationship with donors and present them with accurate financial statements to boost their donations. Both of these require a large amount of data – both about the donor and the nonprofit’s work.    

Data is also critical for donor acquisition (or stewardship). Data ensures your outreach efforts focus on those most likely to contribute, improving return on investment and helping you convert one-time donors to long-term donors. Data will answer questions like who donated less or more this year. Who is more likely to donate more? Who should be contacted often, and who has been approached too often? 

Donor acquisition and retention is like making friends you take loans from – but with strangers. It can be done with charm and a handshake. But it is more likely to be done if you have data about who to ask and when. 

Read more: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Donor Engagement Cycle 

Ultimately, a data-driven approach leads to smarter decisions, higher donor acquisition success, and greater overall fundraising impact.

Donor pipeline
From identifying potential supporters to stewarding existing ones,
we’ll walk you through the essential steps to construct a pipeline
supporting your organization’s mission.

Read more here

Program evaluation 

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Image: California Community Foundation document to help understand how to evaluate nonprofits. Source

Measuring outcomes is essential for any nonprofit striving to enhance the quality of its services. Without understanding their strengths and areas for improvement, nonprofits risk delivering the same services year after year without assessing whether alternative approaches could yield greater benefits for their communities.

To provide the best services possible, a nonprofit must measure its outcomes and apply those changes regularly. And outcomes can only be measured if the correct data is collected from those running the program constantly – daily, weekly, monthly, etc.  

Nonprofit data collection for success: What should you collect and measure

Goals provide benchmarks that stakeholders—such as donors, staff, and beneficiaries—can use to assess the organization’s performance and ensure it stays true to its mission. 

Like any organization, defining a goal to chase motivates employees and volunteers internally. Additionally, for nonprofits,  defined goals give an ‘urgency’ factor to external communications – like when pitching to donors. (For example, “We need just $500 to reach our goal of saving ten pandas. Can you make the difference?”). 

As this Columbia Law School study preaches, having appropriate evaluations allows donors and volunteers to see what was achieved. It keeps nonprofit managers on the straight path by making them commit to a fixed outcome when taking donations.   

While these are the four main reasons, they also encompass many critical future goals for nonprofits. For example, a good impact report for current donors inspires more people to donate for the following year. Similarly, having strong program evaluations in the current year helps the nonprofit launch better programs in the future. 

Nonprofit data collection: What type of data can you collect?

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Image: Photo by Maarten van den Heuvel

A restaurant analogy is useful here to understand the difference between what a nonprofit does with data (which we discussed above) and the kind of data the nonprofit actually collects and from where. 

For restaurants, raw ingredients are collected by type (vegetables, meat, seafood), and every type has a different source, different ways of collecting them, and different regulations that apply to collecting them. 

So the restaurant has to follow all of these to source these ingredients, and then follow more rules to store them separately. Eventually, these are combined to create a huge variety of dishes. 

Similarly, nonprofits need to collect a large amount of data from different sources, all of which have different standards. The nonprofit then needs to sort and store this data as per certain standards. And only then can the nonprofit combine everything to create whatever data-led report it wants to generate.   

Here are the sources of data broadly: 

Nonprofit supporter data

  • Basic details (name, age, gender, address, contact details, etc.) 
  • Background details (education, job, marital status, religion, income, etc.)
  • Personalization details (birthdays, causes they care about, passions, hobbies, etc.) 
  • Financial details (donations, frequency of donations, how the money was paid, etc.)   

Nonprofit marketing data 

  • Website data (visitors, scroll depth, clicks, popular pages, blogs, page views, etc.) 
  • Digital ads data (click-through rate, viewership, results of ‘A & B’ testing, etc.) 
  • Emails data (open rate, click rates, readership, spam markings, etc. ) 
  • Social media data (engagement, views, likes, shares, mentions, etc.)   

Nonprofit financial data

  • Income (donations, grants, sponsorships, etc.)
  • Expenses (program costs, administrative costs, salaries, etc.)
  • Board member details (as required by the government) 
  • Tax filings and nonprofit status documentation

Nonprofit volunteer data

  • Personal details (name, contact information, location, etc.)
  • Skills (availability, interests, technical knowledge, etc.) 
  • Background checks 
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Image: A page from the yearly Nonprofit Finance Fund survey of nonprofits. Source.

Nonprofit survey data 

  • Surveys of beneficiaries about the impact of programs 
  • Surveys of volunteers and staff about the working of the nonprofit 
  • Surveys of donors about the work and impact of the nonprofit 
  • Surveys of the market to identify new grants, new areas people are passionate about

Survey Phone Calls: How To Set Them Up For Success!

Broadly, these are the kinds of data a nonprofit must gather to be effective. As mentioned, each will be blended with others to create comprehensive reports, marketing outreach campaigns, targeted donor acquisition, donor cultivation and engagement programs, and awareness tools.

For example, donor cultivation requires personalization (a happy birthday message) and accountability (a financial statement for the year).  

How can nonprofits collect data? 

Now that you know all the data a nonprofit needs and how to use it, it is important to maximize the sources of this data. As a nonprofit, make sure no opportunity for data collection is underutilized. You need to adopt a proactive approach – which includes regular ‘cleanliness’ sweeps. 

Here’s a short list of ways to maximize data collection at every chance: 

Forms: Leverage every touchpoint

  • Ensure donation forms capture not just payment details but also optional fields like interests, communication preferences, and employer matching information.
  • Use event sign-ups to collect attendee details, dietary preferences (to help you tailor food offerings for the next event), etc., and make sure you collect feedback post-event.
  • Gather data from volunteer applications, including skills, availability, and motivations.

Marketing: Optimize digital channels

  • While the natural urge is to use every advertising chance to maximize ‘donate now’ messaging, you should also use a percentage of pop-ups and ad banners to encourage text message opt-ins, newsletter sign-ups, and survey participation. 
  • The same goes for social media. Devote 25% of the posts to run polls, quizzes, or interest-based campaigns to collect donor preferences and engagement data.
  • A small thing that many nonprofits forget is to include links to surveys or feedback forms in staff email signatures – which keeps the survey in the eyes of the donors to whom the staff is reaching out. 
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Image: A screenshot of various outreach tools available to nonprofits through CallHub. Source.

Phone calls: Engage in conversations that drive nonprofit data collection

  • Train staff to ask for updates on donor contact information, surveys, interests, or feedback during phone calls (PS: Make regular calls to donors.) 
  • Use QR codes for quick data collection (e.g., sign-ups, feedback) and have staff actively engage attendees to gather insights during all live events. 
  • After your donation campaign, make thank-you calls and ask donors about their motivations and preferences.
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Image: Texting solutions featured on Callhub. Source

Texting: Use technology wisely for nonprofit data collection

Donors, like most people, prefer text messages, so use them appropriately. 

  • Text-to-join: Use this system to get more opt-ins (through live events or real-life advertising), but make sure you send follow-up texts for more information.  

Follow-up texts: You can use ‘text-to-join’ to collect opt-ins from potential donors. But it is critical to send follow-up text messages to collect more information (ex: “Hi! Please tell us your location.) and to send periodic reminders for donations. 

  • Peer-to-peer texting: Use your volunteers to have one-on-one conversations with donors, asking for the feedback and suggestions. It is critical to do this every so often. 
  • Relational organizing: You can also use relational organizing for donors who are personally known to your volunteers. 

Relational organizing: Donations (and conversations) go better when the volunteer is known to the donor. Outreach software like CallHub lets volunteers contact donors (who have signed up with the nonprofit) they already know through their contact list. 

Pro-tip:  Ensure all platforms (donation tools, email marketing, event management) integrate with your CRM for seamless data flow.

Regularly audit nonprofit data collection
Review forms and surveys: Ensure they are concise, user-friendly, and capture essential data.
Train staff and volunteers: Equip them with the skills to collect data effectively during interactions.
Use new tools in the market: Experiment with new data collection tools (e.g., chatbots and interactive surveys) to stay ahead.

Improve your nonprofit data collection now 

Nonprofit data collection can only happen smoothly if the right software is used on the frontlines – when your staff or volunteer connects with a donor directly. If you lack features, scalability, or even a smooth UI at that point, the entire interaction will be wasted. Or worse, you will collect data and not be able to use it in a meaningful way. 

This is why CallHub’s tools are geared to help nonprofits enhance data collection and engagement. CallHub’s software integrates phone banking, peer-to-peer texting, and advanced analytics, enabling organizations to streamline outreach efforts, gather actionable insights, and improve donor engagement. 

Features like branching scripts, dynamic caller IDs, and automated workflows ensure seamless and efficient campaigns tailored to the audience’s needs.

By leveraging CallHub, nonprofits can scale their fundraising and advocacy efforts while maintaining a personalized approach. Learn more at CallHub.

Feature image: Image by AS Photograpy from Pixabay

Vinayak Hegde Linkedin
Vinayak Hegde is a content marketer who has been covering non-profits, changemakers, and advocacies for over six years. His experience includes all forms of digital content creation, including text, audio, and video.