Nonprofit Board Accountability

[Mike Burns]

Usually when I discuss nonprofit board accountability I am referring to those occasions for understanding how and when a board is meeting its fiduciary responsibility.  Today though I want to focus on how a board can be more strategic about achieving mission.  The answer: analytics.

Analytics -- effectively the work of grabbing and translating lots of statistics about an organization's audience is not a new science.  For profits have been using analytics for too many years too count and the analytics science is getting more and more sophisticated.  As all marketing strategy folks, the key to effective marketing is knowing and understanding the needs and wants of your target audience including demographics and psychographics.

So it should come as no surprise that museums have latched onto the science of analytics and are using it to the max.  The Wall Street Journal article tells much about how this science can work and the many benefits it can bring to a nonprofit.  The lesson: analytics is not just for the for-profit or for-profit "like" (aka museums and hospitals) but should be considered as an important resource by every nonprofit, no matter the size.  Oh, and don't think there aren't lots of resource folks out there who could be helfpul without the mega-pricetags the for-profits pay.  Pretty much every major for-profit business in your community has someone in their organization collecting and processing data.  They can be rescurited to at least start you off on your journey.  And if not from the for-profits, think about all the available grad students in your local university....