Education for All Donation Report: Unlocking Donor Insights

Education for All Donations Dashboard

INTRODUCTION:

In the landscape of philanthropy, data is often an untapped resource. For organizations like Education for All, which strives to make learning accessible to underserved communities, understanding the nuances of donor behavior is critical. This understanding shapes the strategies that open hearts and wallets, driving the mission forward. My role in this narrative was not just to interpret a dataset but to weave a story from numbers that could galvanize potential benefactors into action.

The task was both a privilege and a challenge — a privilege because of the potential impact on educational accessibility, and a challenge because it required distilling a wealth of information into a clear, compelling narrative. The raw material was a rich dataset: a tapestry of figures and facts about the past year’s donation activities. My objective? To transform this into insights that would resonate with stakeholders at an all-important investor meeting.

PROBLEM STATEMENT:

Education for All, a charity organization wants to organize a fundraising event for the next year. The Head of the Fundraising team would like a report on donor insights and donation rates for the previous year, and how donation figures and frequencies can be increased.

TASK:

As a Data Analyst, working for the Charity, write a report and create a dashboard as per the requirements provided by stakeholders. Also, give actionable insights about how to:

• Increase donors in the database.
• Increase donation frequency of donors, and
• Increase the value of donations in the database.

EXTRA NOTE

In two weeks, the team is having a fundraising strategy meeting for the following year, and I will need to present insights from donation data to inform my fundraising strategy and increase donations. Two tables have been provided for this exercise. When merged together, These tables contain 1,000 records and 15 fields:

List of fields in both tables.

THE ANALYTICAL APPROACH:

The journey began with root cause analysis (RCA), a methodical approach to uncover the underlying reasons for the variations in donation figures across different regions. Employing the Five Whys technique, I was able to delve into the data and question each finding to reach the core issues that affect fundraising outcomes.

DATA CLEANING:

Before diving deep into analysis, the dataset underwent a rigorous cleaning process to ensure the integrity and clarity of the insights. This involved:

1. Removing Duplicates: Ensuring no donor was counted more than once.
2. Addressing Missing Values: Filling or removing gaps (or null values) in the data where necessary.
3. Normalizing Data: Adjusting numerical values for comparability, crucial for analysis.
4. Correcting Errors: Amending typos and inaccuracies in state names, job field, and other categorical data.
5. Consolidating Data: Merging both (donation and donor) tables while avoiding redundancy.
6. Anonymizing Data: Protecting donor privacy by anonymizing personal information where required.
7. Pruning Irrelevant Data: Removing non-essential data fields for a focused analysis.
8. Sorting and Filtering: Arranging the data for optimal analysis and filtering out the noise.
9. Verifying Accuracy: Ensuring the dataset’s reflections of real-world entities post-cleaning.

With a clean and reliable dataset, the stage was set for deeper analysis and visualization.

INSIGHTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS:

Diving into the heart of the dataset revealed narrative rich with insights. The data spoke of not just numbers, but of people, places, and the potential for change. It illustrated a nuanced portrait of donor activity, with each metric telling a part of the story.

1. Gender and Donation Patters: With the Females donating $121,457 (508 donors) and Males donating $127,628 (492 donors), we can rightly say that it is an even gender distribution.

Gender distribution.

2. Geographical Giving Trends: Digging into the maps, California’s vast donor base lit up like a beacon of generosity. California has the highest number of donors (113), and the highest amount of donations ($30,264). However, South Dakota had the highest donation density ($401.00 per donor) while Alabama had the lowest donation density ($131.45 per donor).

Map of the United States showing California with highest donations.

3. Donor Engagement and Frequency: One-time donations are the most popular, significantly outpacing the lesser frequent monthly and weekly contributions.

Most Donors only donated once.

5. Influence of Job types on Donations: Human Resources had the highest number of Donors (93) and the highest amount of donations ($24,060), while Legal had the lowest number of donors (66) and the lowest amount of donations ($17,309). However, Research and Development had the highest donation density ($272.17 per donor), while Sales had the lowest donation frequency ($229.02).

Job Field influence on donations.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR STRATEGIC OUTREACH:

• Enhanced Focus on California: The suggestion to increase efforts in California is strategic. Even though the state leads in total donations, optimizing the average donation value can lead to significant growth. Tailored campaigns could inspire larger contributions, leveraging the existing donor base.
• Expanding Geographic Outreach: Targeting other major states with potential donor bases can help diversify and increase overall donations. Broadening the donor pool is essential for sustainable growth and can also protect against regional economic downturns.
• Engagement in Underrepresented Regions: Identifying and addressing the lack of donations in the Northeast, Midwest, and South is critical. This could involve researching barriers to giving in these areas and crafting specific strategies to overcome them.
• Increasing Donation Frequency: Encouraging donors to contribute more regularly is a sound strategy for building a stable stream of revenue. Regular giving can also strengthen the donor’s emotional investment in the cause.
• Data Streamlining and Relevance: Purging irrelevant data points makes for a more focused analysis and decision-making process. It’s important to collect data that can lead to actionable insights.
• In-depth Donor Analysis: Gathering more demographic data, such as age and income levels, can greatly enhance personalized fundraising approaches and enable targeted engagement strategies.
• Collaboration with Educational Institutions: Given that a significant portion of donors are educated, partnerships with educational institutions could tap into a network of potential donors who already value learning, resonating with the charity’s mission.

CONCLUSION AND REFLECTIONS

The journey with Education for All underscored the transformative power of data when harnessed with intention and expertise. The analysis was more than a task; it was a commitment to turning data into actionable knowledge that could significantly advance the cause of educational accessibility.

For a more detailed exploration of the data story, please visit the link to the Dashboard

This project was replicated in Tableau. Check it out here!