Data Tells a Story

How do you know that a fairytale is a fairytale? What does a classic fairy tale bring to mind? Is it magic, a hero/heroine, a crown, a castle, a forest? We can easily name multiple fairy tales when asked because we are familiar with the historical elements that form them. Researchers can predict a potential prospect in the same way using data.

Our goal as researchers is to present the facts, hoping that the fundraisers can help us bring a prospect to their happily ever after. We utilize data points that we know indicate someone is a potential prospect, for example, a glass slipper or their history with talking animals … I am joking, of course. Our data points look like past giving, public interests, and history with UGA. We use those things in our proactive research to identify our fairy tales that may have their endings unwritten.

We want each potential prospect to achieve their philanthropic goals. We want to be the beginning so that our fundraisers can help them finish their story and make a difference. The donor chapter is just the start, as we know, next comes the scholarship that changes a student’s educational career, or the naming that inspires years of new opportunities.

How do you know that a potential prospect is a potential prospect? By the story their data tells.