Analytics for Fundraisers Using R: A Beginner's Course
From Exploratory Statistics to Regression
Enroll in Course11 CFRE Credits!
Donors to nonprofits increasingly suffer from solicitation
fatigue when charities canvass them several times a year asking for gifts. With
the advent of more personalized web pages and online advertising targeting
their audience, charities must rethink communication channels, prospect
segmenting, and engagement efforts. Additionally, gift officers have a larger
need to work with the best prospects for cultivation and solicitation in an era
where travel is more expensive and gift officer portfolios are being reduced in
size to afford deeper cultivation. The tools needed to address these trends are
under the analytics umbrella.
In
this online course, you'll be introduced to R, a free statistics and data
processing package that has been developed by hundreds of programmers over
time.
Using
R, you will work several exercises to build skills in
visualization, data exploration, donor modeling, and prospect identification modeling. You'll
watch theory and demonstration videos, then complete analytics exercises on
your own data. Once you finish the exercises and quizzes, you'll be able to
estimate an ask amount for your prospect pool and identify prospects most
likely to make a major gift.
Class
outcomes include donor models that you will derive from your own prospect pool.
The course offers:
- Lectures on concepts and techniques
- Video demonstrating how to do each exercise to cement your skills
- R script for the exercises so that you can check your own programming
- Resource list relevant to each topic, including recommended books, videos, and other documents
- Comments section where you can ask questions and read other student questions and Staupell answers
Your outcomes will be:
- A linear regression model of the highest likely gift from each prospect to set ask amounts
- A probability equation for each prospect's likelihood to make a major gift
Course Curriculum
Your Instructor
Marianne Pelletier has over 35 years of experience in fundraising, with the majority in prospect research and prospecting. She is one of the first adopters of donor modeling and data mining techniques, and is now a world-renown leader on this segment of the research profession. Her prospect research experience began when she was a research analyst for Harvard and Lesley Universities. She later served as a department director for Carnegie Mellon University and Cornell University.
Pelletier’s career also includes running an annual giving program with average increased revenues of 27% per year and providing software consulting through the Datatel Corporation, teaching clients both how to use their new software and assisting them with better analysis and more efficient processing. She occasionally serves as a best practices consultant through CampusWorks.
Pelletier is a recipient of a lifetime achievement award from the New England Development Research Association and a Woman of the Year designation by the National Association of Professional Women, along with earning an entry into the Marquis Who's Who in America annual directory. She has served as a volunteer for both election campaigns and social service agencies. She has served on the boards of the New England Development Research Association, the Upstate New York chapter of Apra, and has served as secretary for the Apra International board. She currently serves as a trustee for Habitat for Humanity of Tompkins County and the Finger Lakes chapter of AFP.
Pelletier is a graduate of Rockford University, and earned her MBA at Southern New Hampshire University. Her recent workbook, Building Your Analytics Shop: A Workbook for Nonprofits, was a finalist for the Terry McAdam Award in 2016.