Fundraising Analytics Spotlight: Nonprofit Segment Animal Welfare

Advances in Data Science and Computing capabilities allow us to gain insights into prospective donors that were not possible even a few years back. The prevailing practice in fundraising analytics even a short time ago was that the analytics would be driven by a single model, and in some instances augmented by some segmentation. As effective as this approach was in improving fundraising response rates, all of us involved in the development process knew that more was possible, we just did not have the computation horsepower to do it. 

In reality, donors exist in small PODs with unique drivers and attributes, and the model equation captures the more prevalent trends across the PODs. However, in the process a lot of the smaller PODs might just get buried and not considered in the model generated list, even though there is opportunity to raise funds there profitably. Leveraging machine learning algorithms, Jigyasa’s PDISM scoring solution tries to overcome this problem. The solution developed for different types of non-profit segments, begins with a general SEED score. These SEED scores are developed with machine learning algorithms that do not look just for the “lowest common multiple” across the population, but also try to incorporate the diversity of the PODS. Further, as an organization uses the PDISM scores to drive its fundraising campaign, the algorithm self-learns from the results, finds the PODS that best represent the donors from successful campaigns, and customizes the scores for the organization.

In developing the PDISM scores we have gained some valuable insights into different types of non-profits which we will share in a series of posts. We begin with Animal Welfare.  Donors to Animal Welfare are very diverse, and here some of their prominent PODS.

The response index for any POD uses donation rate for Animal Welfare charities across all US individuals as the baseline.

Fun Facts:

1) Plus size women are much more likely to give to Animal Welfare Charities than Petites

2) Across all reader categories, Science Fiction lovers are most likely to give to Animal Charites