This document discusses various aspects of constituent data management for arts organizations. It covers tracking constituents through constituent management systems, stand-alone ticketing systems, and integrated ticketing and donor systems. It also discusses tracking online communications through methods like broadcast email, online donations, and the importance of list building. Finally, it stresses the importance of good data management practices like having clear data entry rules, periodic cleaning, access controls, training, and integrating or coordinating different data systems.

1. The Art of Technology CONSTITUENT DATA MANAGEMENT The Art of Technology is made possible by generous funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

2. Topics for This Segment Tracking Your Constituents Constituent Management Systems Stand-Alone Online Ticketing Integrated Ticketing and Donor Systems Online Integrated Systems Tracking Online Communications Broadcast Email Online Donations The Importance of a Good List Recruiting Supporters Good Data Management

3. Tracking Your Constituents

4. CONSTITUENT Members Patrons Volunteers Patrons Donors/ Sales Partners Understanding Your Constituents

5. Consider Your Processes Outreach Conversion Service

6. Understanding Your Constituents Outreach Conversion Service Major Donors Clients Volunteers Event Attendees Press Staff Etc.

7. Group Work The Constituent Matrix

8. Constituent Management You need some way to keep track of your constituents…

9. Excel is Not a Constituent Database Having unorganized data won’t get you anywhere!

10. What Do You Need to Track? Box Office Donor Management Online Ticketing Other Processes

11. Poll Who does their own ticketing?

12. If You Don’t Do Ticketing… Then you don’t need ticketing software!

13. Custom Fields Can Help A few custom fields in your database might capture all the performance data you need… What show did they attend? When did they come? How much did they pay?

14. Tracking Constituent Data Constituent Management Systems Stand Alone Ticketing Systems Integrated Ticketing and Donor Systems Online Integrated Systems

15. Constituent Management Systems Systems that specialize in tracking different kinds of constituents… but without a lot of built in support for ticketing. Giftworks

16. GiftWorks A friendly installed program to manage donors (plus some events and volunteers) at a low cost. www.missionresearch.com

17. Salesforce.com Gaining strength in the nonprofit world as a very flexible way to manage all your constituent relationships. Many plug-ins are available, including for Brown Paper Tickets. http://foundation.force.com If you need ticketing, consider: PatronManager CRM

19. DonorPerfect Online

20. Donor2

22. Stand-Alone Online Ticketing Provides an affordable way to sell tickets – either general admission or reserved seats. You’ll likely need a constituent database as well. Brown Paper Tickets

23. Eventbrite Basic but quite inexpensive option for selling general admissions tickets online. Patrons are taken to PayPal to buy. Free for free events. www.eventbrite.com

24. Brown Paper Tickets Surprisingly robust option for the price – feature-rich online ticketing, including some basic reserved seat features and physical paper tickets. www.brownpapertickets.com

25. Tix.com Useful box-office and online ticketing software– costs nothing but a flat transaction fee. No constituent tracking. www.tix.com

27. TixHub

28. Vendini

29. TicketLeap

30. Tick-It! Trak Pro

32. There are three basic approaches to integrating data Integrating Systems Manually synch import/ export Use an integrated package Create a feed via API Least up front investment Can create “best of breed” approach; can use existing systems All data is in one place and easy to access, without extra effort Pros Can be time consuming ongoing, especially if high volume Bigger investment up-front. Requires replacing existing systems Requires skilled programmer and investment up front Cons Flexibility of import and export tools A tool that can support all your constituent tracking needs A tool that allows programmatic access to data Look for…

33. Full Integration Isn’t for Everyone A few custom fields and a manual process might provide all the integration you need… Basic Show info What show? When? $? When contacted? What email? Other communication? Online Donations/Sales How much? When? Why?

34. If You CAN’T Get the Data… Then it isn’t an integration issue, but a list building issue

35. Integrated Ticketing + Donor Systems Combines box office and fundraising processes in one system Theatre Manager by Arts Management Systems

36. Total Info by Easy-Ware Fairly affordable system that integrates real fundraising functionality into reasonable box office functionality. www.easy-ware.com

37. PatronManager CRM Ticketing and box office functionality built on top of Salesforce. Fully integrated with Patron Mail for a quite affordable solution. www.patrontechnologies.com

38. Theater Managerby Arts Management Systems Widely used system which provides more sophisticated donor and box office functionality www.artsman.com

39. Tessitura Well respected system that truly integrates complex box office, online ticketing, and fundraising and more. More appropriate for multi-million dollar orgs than for small ones. www.tessitura.com

41. Audience View Ticketing

43. WildApricot Basic but well designed system that allows you to create a website, track members, basic event registration, send emails, take donations, and more. www.wildapricot.com Basic but well designed system that allows you to create a website, track members, sell general admissions tickets, send emails, take donations, and more. www.wildapricot.com

44. Z2 Systems Neon Somewhat more expensive but more feature rich system with real support for fundraising, website content management, email, and basic event registration. www.z2systems.com

45. eTapestry This modular online system is strong in fundraising, with additional features for emailing, online payments, and event registration. It’s free to track under 500 constituents, but gets expensive fast. www.etapestry.com

46. DonorPerfect Online Similar in functionality and cost to eTapestry but more upfront customization. Includes fairly robust general admission event registration. www.donorperfect.com

48. Convio

49. Blackbaud SpherePhoto: The Oude School

50. Ticketing Software Centered around patrons? Define one or two types of systems that will cover the majority of your needs Donor Management Centered around donors? Choose Your Central Systems Integrated Many different?

51. Can You Expand It? Can you use custom fields or other features to support more constituents and processes? This will depend a lot on the system

52. Group Work Defining Your Core Data Needs

53. Based on the Matrix… In which 3 to 5 squares do you spend the most staff time? Which squares are most critical to you? What types of systems do your answers imply should be the best for your data management?

54. Tracking Online Communications

55. Online Communications Methods

56. Your Communications Strategy

57. Coordinating Communications Don’t just send the same message through every medium. Define the goal Think through the audience for each method Tailor the message What are you trying to accomplish? Why are they there? What will resonate? What will best achieve your goals?

58. Broadcast Email

59. Emails are Very Cost Effective Reach out to your constituents to let them know what you’re doing Or ask them to take action

60. But the Details are Critical What’s the subject line? Who is the email from? Is the graphic design clean? Does it depend on images? Are there spam-like words in the text? Does it seem like they know who I am? Are any calls to action clear? Is there an unsubscribe link and physical address?

61. Try to Find the Right Email Frequency Think through your overall email volume Quarterly Monthly Weekly Daily Typical Almost certainly too little Probably too much

62. VerticalResponse Strong features, and the first 10,000 emails free each month, but doesn’t have great templates. www.verticalresponse.com

63. Network for Good EmailNow(powered by Emma) Affordable, strong features, easy to use and has great templates (they’ll design one for you!) www.networkforgood.org

64. Patron Mail Affordable (especially for small lists), with strong deliverability and arts-focused support. www.patronmail.com

65. Online Payments

66. How Many and How Large? Estimate the donations you expect get: How many donations? Average donation size?

67. Stand-Alone: Few Donations, Price Is Critical www.clickandpledge.com $50 one time setup + 4.75% of each donation. Some customization of the form; strong international support Basic Donate Nowwww.networkforgood.org No fees except 4.75% of each donation - but not customizable at all. The visitor leaves your site for the NFG site

68. Stand-Alone: Best Value for Good Tools www.greatergiving.com Mid-priced specialist in donations, events, and registration. Fairly flexible donation form. Although it’s their merchant account, your org’s name appears on the credit card bill www.gifttool.com Completely integrated and fairly flexible donation form, with support for products and events as well. They offer Canadian tax receipts and multiple language support. Custom Donate Nowwww.networkforgood.org DonateNow (formerly by Groundspring) is an affordable basic tool that can be completely integrated into your site.

69. Group Work Your Core Gaps and Opportunities

70. Discuss… What are the core gaps in your current systems that would be most useful to fill? What are your key opportunities?

71. The Importance of a Good List

72. Bigger is Better The more people on your list, the more that… Hear your message Take action See your resources Donate

73. Does Anyone Open Email Anymore? Yes. Especially from organizations they know and like. 12-30% Open 2-15% Click 5-10% Act .05-2% Give These vary widely based on organization and email

74. But That’s for Actual Supporters Emailing people without their permission will do more harm than good. You may be blacklisted as a spammer. You may alienate people from your cause. You may violate the law.

75. The Building Blocks of a Successful List Consider Other People’s Lists Make Online Friends Recruit Your Current Supporters Be a Good Correspondent Track Your Metrics

76. Recruit Supporters

77. Ask When You See Them Setting up tables or sign-up lists in your physical space can be very effective. Raffles Guest Books Newsletter Sign-Ups

78. Brainstorm What methods can you use to collect patron information at shows?

79. Have Something Worth Subscribing To Make it compelling to THEM

80. Ask Your Direct Mail List Send them an invitation, with a way to sign up.

81. Ask as a Follow-up to All Interactions Ask everyone if you can add them to your list At your events At the end of phone calls In casual conversations At conferences and networking opportunities Make it a staff mandate to collect cards and email addresses

82. Make it Easy to Sign Up on Your Website A two-stage sign-up can maximize subscribers while still getting some info The absolute minimum info Subscribe them, then ask for a bit more detail. The more info you ask for, the fewer people will fill out the form

83. Ask in All Automatic Emails Someone who’s just done something is a great candidate to sign up for your list

84. Encourage Sign Ups in Social Network Sites Causes in Facebook, or email subscription widgets, allow people to sign-up Facebook Causes

85. An Online List Building Plan Ask for Contact Info Ensure People See It Create Compelling Stuff Information Videos Contests Campaigns Opportunities to be heard Get updates Petitions Donate Register to view Sign in to participate Google Ads and SEO Facebook/Twitter Ask your list to send it

86. Quantity Isn’t Everything Before embarking on a particular list building strategy, ask yourself: Are these people really opting in? Will they actually be interested in my cause? What’s the likely return on my time? A subscriber’s value is proportional to the effort they took to sign up

87. Good Data Management

88. You have all this constituent data… Patrons and Donors Email List Social Media Interactions Ticket Sales …you need rules to manage it!

89. Know what constituent data you have Social Media Email Contacts Donations and Ticket Sales

90. How do you enter data uniformly? How will it be recorded? Time frame for data entry? What will and will not be recorded? Make sure to have clear instructions

91. Periodically Clean Your Data

92. Know who is working with the data …you might consider a data focused staff member!

93. Privacy versus Access Different users need different levels of access: Executive Director Other Staff Development Staff Volunteers

94. Security is a key concern Hosted vs. Installed Software How is it backed up? How do you access it? Who has access?

95. Training is Essential Clean and Usable Data

96. Integrating Your Data If you can’t integrate, at least coordinate

97. Key Take Aways Tracking Your Constituents Decide what type of software fits your needs If you do ticketing, then you probably want to start with ticketing software Integration is helpful, but not always necessary Tracking Online Communications Choose the right software for your needs and budget List building is essential to effective email and online fundraising programs Be thoughtful and creative in recruiting supporters Good Data Management You need rules and plans to manage your data