Investment in your loyalty strategy will pay dividends

This article translates well to the nonprofit sector.  Focusing on those donors with the most promise is more important now than ever.  Analytics is an effective way to efficiently target in on these populations.  From the article:

Invest in customer insight. The current economic slowdown has produced a new urgency among U.S. retailers to extract additional value from customer data. One of the best investments during a downturn is in internal or external resources who can help you dig deeper into customer data to deliver actionable insight to get the right offer to the right customer, through the right channel.

Dedicated analytics experts can help you pinpoint your most promising customers and connect with them effectively. Using loyalty-program and transactional data, overlaid with publicly available demographic information, a skilled analyst can zero in on buying patterns and lifestyle traits to determine what products and brands your customers value most—and which customers will deliver the most value to your business.

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Strategies for donors in the recession: "Giving When It Hurts"

As readers of the DonorCast Newswatch focus on identifying donors for their nonprofits,  I thought it might be helpful to read about strategies Betsy Brill of Forbes is recommending for the donors.  

Some key points I might stress after reading.  1) Focus on your donor relations.  It is important to understand how major donors view giving as an investment.  From the Forbes article:"There are ways to mitigate some of the risk in your philanthropic investments while still achieving your overall charitable objectives." 2) Consider "give while you live" strategies.  3) Identify those donors that are still giving.  I have found building "prospect resiliency models" can be helpful.  Simply use donors since January (perhaps by level) as a dependent variable.

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