Analytics for Fundraisers Using R: A Beginner's Course
From Exploratory Statistics to Regression
Enroll in Course
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.
Course Curriculum
Your Instructor
Marianne Pelletier has 30 years of fundraising experience, with the majority in prospect research and prospecting. She is one of the first adopters of donor modeling and data mining techniques. Her professional experience includes prospect research, both as a research analyst for Harvard and Lesley Universities and as a department director for Carnegie Mellon University and Cornell University.
Pelletier’s multi-decade 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 led the analytics division of the Helen Brown Group for over 10 years, and remains an associate.
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, Pelletier 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 ending as secretary for the APRA International board.
A prolific writer, she has published articles on management, prospect research, fundraising, and personal growth on a range of platforms. A sought-after speaker, she often speaks on how to start an analytics shop, along with a variety of other subjects related to prospecting.
Pelletier is a graduate of Rockford University, and earned her MBA at Southern New Hampshire University.