It's said that the Royal Library of Alexandria may have held up to a half million scrolls at its height more than 2,000 years ago, all the knowledge of the ancient world. In a lifetime, you couldn't have read through them all.
Today you still can't know everything about everything. But when it comes to knowing your audience I don't believe you can afford to be in the dark. From donor demographics to customer satisfaction scores, the information is easily attainable and infinitely valuable. That data will allow you to do any number of things like:
- Identify and address problem areas in service delivery
- Model donor profiles to cut direct marketing costs
- Spot trends in general attitudes to your offerings
How do you go about getting this data? Start by asking good questions. Survey your donors and patrons regularly. This can be done through a private research firm or in-house. Even the most cash strapped of organizations can usually afford the $200 a year it takes to use online survey tools like www.surveymonkey.com, www.surveymethods.com, www.zoomerang.com, www.esurveys.com. If you can't match the responses back to your database, make sure your surveys include lots of optional questions on demographic info (age, education, home address).
As a next step, you can spend $5,000-$10,000 a year for services like demograhicsnow.com. They'll take your consumer and donor lists and compare them with the rest of your market using SCR data. This can give you much more sophisticated models for your potential new customers and donor targets. That information can inform your media buys, your story pitches, your direct marketing lists, possibly even the geographich areas you select for doing community outreach.
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