Data values are fundamental principles guiding the ethical collection, analysis, management, and dissemination of data. These values ensure responsible and respectful data practices, fostering trust among stakeholders. Living these values means maintaining data quality and reliability, protecting individual privacy and rights, and promoting fairness and inclusivity. By using these values, organizations make informed and ethical decisions, leading to more effective and equitable outcomes that benefit the entire community.
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This workbook and a bonus toolkit aim to build these data values within nonprofit teams, fostering trust among the community, beneficiaries, and donors. It ensures accountability and ethical data handling while encouraging continuous learning and improvement.
To use the workbook, review the definitions, examples, and prompts for each data value with your team. Then, work through the three exercises for each value, individually or in small groups, to apply these principles to real-world scenarios. Encourage open discussion and collaboration to build a shared understanding and commitment to strong data values. Regularly revisit the workbook to reinforce these values and assess progress.
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The way we collect, analyze, and use data can significantly impact their communities and the individuals we serve. For nonprofits, this impact is even deeper as they strive to meet their mission of service and advocacy while upholding ethical standards and values. This Data for Everyone resource is a checklist  designed to guide nonprofits in adopting a responsible, ethical, and inclusive approach to their data practices. It ensures that every aspect of data handling, from collection to usage, is aligned with principles of equity and respect for the individuals and communities involved.
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By integrating the checklist into their data strategies, nonprofits can enhance trust with stakeholders, improve program effectiveness, and contribute to a more equitable data ecosystem. This mini-resource is an investment in building a data-informed culture that prioritizes the humanity of all individuals, ensuring that data acts as a tool for positive change and not a source of harm.
If you're in the nonprofit sphere looking to sharpen your survey game, this toolkit on Crafting SMART Survey Objectives is your next must-have download. Tailored for organizations big and small, across any sector, it's the key to lifting your survey strategies to new heights. This guide isn't just about making good surveys; it's about crafting brilliant ones that align perfectly with your mission, ensuring every question you ask is a step towards achieving your goals. Whether you're a leader making pivotal decisions, a program manager measuring impact, a volunteer coordinator engaging your community, or a fundraiser understanding donor behavior, this resource is designed to make your data collection meaningful and your analysis actionable.
Diving into this toolkit means moving beyond the basics of survey creation. You'll be equipped to set objectives that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART), turning your surveys from mundane tasks into powerful tools for insight and action. It's for those at the starting line of survey strategy and veterans aiming to refine and enhance their data collection methods. With a step-by-step approach, it promises to guide you in formulating survey objectives that not only resonate with your mission but also empower you with data to make informed decisions. Don't miss out on transforming your surveys into strategic assets – download this indispensable resource today.
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These 50 ready-to-use prompts are created specifically for nonprofits to streamline and enhance their year-end fundraising efforts. Nonprofits often juggle limited resources, tight deadlines, and the pressure to raise funds in an increasingly competitive landscape. By playing with these generative AI-driven prompts, fundraisers across annual giving, major gifts, planned giving, and events can save valuable time while improving the effectiveness of their outreach and campaigns.
This resource is designed to be a flexible toolkit for your year-end fundraising efforts. The 50 Gen-AI prompts are categorized by different fundraising teams—Annual Giving, Major Gifts, Planned Giving, and Events—allowing you to quickly find prompts relevant to your focus.
While these prompts give you a strong foundation, they are most powerful when tailored to your organization’s unique context and voice.
Feel free to experiment, adapt, and make these prompts your own!
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Community surveys are THE MOST important tool for every nonprofit. This is because surveys can provide valuable insights into community behavior and preferences, which can help nonprofits improve their fundraising strategies and build stronger relationships with their donors. Nonprofits can conduct donor surveys to:
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Understand donor motivations that can help nonprofits tailor their messaging and fundraising strategies to better appeal to donors.
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Improve donor retention by listening to the community.
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Gather feedback on fundraising appeals that can help nonprofits understand what types of appeals resonate most with donors.
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Inform programmatic decisions that can help nonprofits make informed decisions about program priorities.
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Download this resource of 52 every possible survey question a nonprofit team can have about conducting surveys. With short answers on the most commonly asked questions, this document can help a nonprofit get better prepped when starting to consider an effective way to connect with their supporters.
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AI has emerged as a transformative tool that's reshaping industries, including the nonprofit sector. While its potential for enhancing mission-driven work is immense, understanding how to navigate its ethical complexities and harness its capabilities is critical for sustainable, long-term success. This guide offers a “conversation starter” guide for nonprofits, addressing role-specific questions and ideas on getting started with AI.
By downloading this guide, nonprofits gain access to vital insights into three questions:
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What ethical AI questions must I ask?
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What are some unique ideas for my role around AI?
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For my role, how can I get started on learning with AI?
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Donor surveys and donor journey mapping play a vital role in year-end giving campaigns for nonprofits. These strategies provide valuable insights into donor preferences, motivations, and behaviors, allowing organizations to tailor their approaches and maximize engagement. Donor surveys enable nonprofits to gather feedback directly from donors, gaining a deeper understanding of their interests and needs. This information helps shape the messaging and content of year-end appeals, ensuring they resonate with donors on a personal level. On the other hand, donor journey mapping helps visualize and analyze the donor's experience from the initial touch-point to year-end giving. By mapping the journey, nonprofits can identify critical moments where personalized and targeted communications can have a significant impact.
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By leveraging donor surveys and journey mapping, nonprofits can enhance donor engagement, strengthen relationships, make data-driven decisions, and continuously improve their year-end giving strategies. These insights enable organizations to create more meaningful connections with donors, increase donations, and drive impactful outcomes during the crucial year-end giving season.
Download this resource of 3 questions that matter most when you are starting to think about surveys for year-end giving.
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Data collection assessment is often overlooked in nonprofits due to resource constraints, limited expertise, a focus on immediate needs, fear of negative findings, perceived complexity, and lack of awareness. However, by recognizing the value of data-driven decision-making, investing in capacity building, and embracing a culture of continuous learning, nonprofits can overcome these challenges and leverage data to enhance their impact.
Data collection assessment is essential for nonprofits as it enables effective decision-making based on reliable and accurate data. It helps organizations evaluate their programs, promote accountability and transparency, and support evidence-based advocacy. By collecting and analyzing data, nonprofits can continuously improve their services, secure grant funding, engage stakeholders, and demonstrate their impact. Overall, data collection assessment empowers nonprofits to make informed decisions, improve their programs, and advocate for their causes, ultimately leading to more effective and impactful work in pursuit of their mission.
That's why here is a resource guide answering most commonly asked questions by nonprofit leaders when they are just starting out with their data collection assessment.
Download this "9 definitely asked questions"as you prepare for an assessment like this with your team.
Here is a resource for the nonprofit leaders out there.
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Learning AI (Artificial Intelligence) can be overwhelming. It requires a significant amount of time, resources, and understanding of some technicalities. Nonprofit leaders, then, have to weigh potential benefits of AI against challenges as they determine if and which AI solutions are the right choices for their organization.
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Download this "Getting Started with AI": 27 Questions to learn and reflect on most frequently asked questions about AI by a nonprofit leader. Using this, a nonprofit leader can
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demystify AI: Move beyond the technical concepts into an easy-to-understand language.
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get a foundation: Understand the potential applications in the nonprofit sector and assess whether it is the right choice for their organization.
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save time: Nonprofit leaders are often pulled in many directions, with limited time to research and learn about AI. The guide can save time by providing answers to the most frequently asked questions and addressing common concerns.
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identify risks and opportunities: AI has the potential to transform the nonprofit sector, but it also carries risks such as data privacy and bias. The guide can help nonprofit leaders identify these risks and opportunities and make informed decisions about implementing AI.
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foster collaboration: AI requires collaboration between technical and non-technical staff to implement successfully. The guide can help nonprofit leaders facilitate communication between these groups and build a shared understanding of AI.
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Nonprofits need to learn about good data practices because it can help them to:
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Make more informed decisions.
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Measure and communicate impact to donors, supporters, and beneficiaries.
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Improve program outcomes to better serve their constituents.
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Ensure data privacy and security to ensure that data is collected, stored, and shared securely and responsibly.
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Foster transparency and accountability among stakeholders.
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Download this Good Data Bundle to start thinking how good data practices can help nonprofits improve their effectiveness, efficiency, and accountability, leading to better outcomes for their constituents and communities through data.
Collecting other, unknown and only requires attention, care, and patience.
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That first time asking these questions may not come back with all complete responses. Or that grant application for funder may annoy you with its ambiguous/harmful data collection questions. Or there may be times when you feel alone in your inability to head-on address the obvious data-led inequities.
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Whatever the case, don't forget, with a continuous mindful approach to the why, what, and how, you and I can affect change.
After all, this conversation is not made for one day, one checklist, or one webinar affair.
Download this article to start intentional, purpose-driven questions when you are ready to collect social identity data at your nonprofit.
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Community-Centric fundraising can help organizations build stronger relationships with their communities, promote greater engagement and ownership, and ultimately lead to more effective and sustainable fundraising outcomes.
There are several reasons why you should care about getting started with community-centric fundraising:
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Greater engagement and ownership: When fundraising efforts are community-centric, the community is more likely to feel invested in the cause and take ownership of the fundraising efforts. This can lead to greater engagement, participation, and support for the cause.
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Increased sustainability: Community-centric fundraising can help build long-term relationships between the organization and its community, leading to sustained support and increased sustainability over time.
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Improved outcomes: Engaging with the community can lead to better understanding of the needs and priorities of the community, which can inform the development of more effective fundraising strategies and ultimately lead to improved outcomes.
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Enhanced transparency and accountability: Community-centric fundraising can promote transparency and accountability in the fundraising process, as the community is more likely to be involved in decision-making and have access to information about how funds are being raised and used.
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Greater diversity and inclusion: By engaging with a diverse range of community members and organizations, community-centric fundraising can help build a more inclusive and equitable fundraising ecosystem.
Download this article to get started with practical ideas on how you can start with the community-centric fundraising mindset - internally, externally, and in the overall nonprofit ecosystem.
Data equity lies at the heart of creating positive and sustainable change in the communities we serve. By actively recognizing and addressing biases, power imbalances, and barriers in data collection and analysis, nonprofits can ensure that their initiatives genuinely represent and empower all voices.
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Unlock the true potential of your nonprofit's mission by embracing data equity with this workbook. Designed to help organizations of all sizes and backgrounds, this comprehensive guide equips you with a thoughtfully curated set of questions to kickstart your journey towards inclusive data practices.
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In this workbook, you'll discover an array of thought-provoking questions crafted to foster meaningful conversations around data equity within your organization. Whether you're just beginning your data-driven journey or seeking to enhance your current practices, this workbook covers every aspect:
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Inclusive data collection
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Ethical data handling
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Cultural sensitivity
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Equitable data access
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Data for social impact
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Mitigating bias
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Continuous learning