Little Data Solutions

People hear the word "analytics" and picture something intimidating. Complicated models, walls of numbers, maybe a whiteboard covered in equations.

Here's the truth: analytics is really just structured problem solving. And at Little Data Solutions, every analytics project starts the same way, with a conversation, not a spreadsheet.

We define the goal first. What does "done" actually look like? Then we break it down. If you want to improve donor retention, what are the pieces of that puzzle? Retention by fund? By giving method? By years of consecutive giving? Once we can see the levers, we prioritize the ones most likely to move the needle and build a plan around them.

Only then do we dig into the data. Sometimes that means simple summary statistics. Sometimes it means regression, clustering, or predictive models. The method always follows the question, never the other way around. You don't need the fanciest tool. You need the right one.
And when the analysis is done, my job isn't finished until it's translated. Not a data dump, but real findings in plain language, packaged into a document your team can actually reference, share, and act on.

Because insights that sit in a file nobody opens didn't solve anything.

Curious what a question like "why are we losing donors?" or "which programs are actually growing?" could look like as a project? That's exactly what this work is for.

Learn more here: https://www.littledatasolutions.com/services/analytics

The first several weeks of July are the quietest your office will be all year. Most people are easing back in after the holiday. Your fiscal year just closed. And that window — right there — is the highest-leverage time in nonprofit operations to get your systems set up right.

The organizations that feel behind by October? They skipped this part.

Here's what's worth tackling right now, while things are still quiet:
- Create new Campaign, Fund, and Appeal records for FY27. If your CRM has a clone or duplicate function, use it. "FY27 Fall Appeal" should exist before you need it.
- Set up your Events records for the full year. Your annual gala, your homecoming weekend, your spring luncheon. Having them in the system now means invitation lists, registration forms, and logistics can start taking shape before things get urgent.
- Refresh your reports. If any report filters are hard-coded to July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026, fix them now. Better yet, challenge yourself to make every report dynamic so this is never a July task again.
- Update your acknowledgement letter templates. Once a year, minimum. Get the new versions from your fundraising team and load them now.

The organizations playing catch-up in October started July without doing this. Don't be them.

Save this, share it with whoever owns your CRM this month, and if your organization wants support getting your systems set up right for FY27, let's talk. https://www.littledatasolutions.com/consultation

It's July. The fiscal year just closed. And somewhere between Development and Finance, the numbers don't match.

This happens every single year, and it doesn't have to be a crisis if you know what to look for.

Here's where to start your reconciliation:
- Agree on total dollars raised by fund. If the numbers differ, dig into whether it's a timing issue, a clerical error, or a miscommunication before you assume the worst.
- Line up your pledge balances. Finance and Development often define "pledge" differently, and that gap alone can explain a lot of discrepancies.
- Check that pledge payments aren't being booked as new cash. It's one of the most common causes of reconciliation headaches and one of the easiest to miss.
- Pull documentation for your top gifts: pledge forms, acknowledgement letters, email correspondence. Auditors will ask. Have it ready before they do.

The organizations that dread reconciliation are usually the ones who skipped it in June. The ones who do it monthly? July feels like a formality.

If reconciliation is something your organization wants to get right this fiscal year, reach out. You can find me at https://www.littledatasolutions.com/consultation.

Audit season is coming. The organizations that sail through it have one thing in common: they didn't wait until the auditors arrived to get organized.

If your fiscal year just closed, here's what audit prep actually looks like right now:

- Pull documentation for your largest gifts. Pledge forms, donation slips, acknowledgement letters, any correspondence that shows the purpose of the gift. Auditors will sample these. Have them ready.

- Review pledges booked at the end of the prior fiscal year. If they're not progressing, they may need to be written down or written off. Better to surface that now than during fieldwork.

- Make sure Finance knows about and agrees with any new pledges that need to hit pledges receivable. Surprises here slow everything down.

- If differences exist between Finance and Development, document the explanation. "We know, and here's why" is a very different conversation than "we hadn't noticed."

- Auditors aren't trying to catch you. But they will find the things you haven't looked at. Get there first.

What's your organization's biggest audit prep pain point? Drop it below, and save this post to share with your finance team. Follow along for more in the Fiscal Year-End series this month.

Save this, share it with whoever owns your CRM this month, and if your organization wants support getting your systems set up right for FY27, let's talk. https://www.littledatasolutions.com/consultation

Happy Fiscal New Year to those who celebrate!

If your nonprofit's data feels like a mess right now, I promise you're not doing anything wrong.

Most of the organizations I work with are stretched thin — not enough time, not enough hands, and software that was never really set up to work for them in the first place. Of course things feel chaotic.

When I'm working with a new client, I always say: don't try to fix everything at once. Just find the one thing that feels the most unclear or frustrating. That's almost always the right place to start — and it's usually where things start to click.

For a long time, the role of data in many organizations was simple: report what already happened.

Monthly dashboards. Quarterly reports. End of year summaries. These are all still useful, but they're not the end goal.

More orgs are starting to ask a different question: "What decisions should this data help us make?" When reports shift from documenting history to guiding action, they become far more valuable.

💡 The best data reports don't just explain the past, they help shape the next decision.

It's easy to jump straight into analyzing data. But a lot of time can be spent analyzing data that never gets used. So let's take a quick pause and make the work much more valuable.

Before you dig into the numbers, ask yourself:

1️⃣ What decision are we trying to make?
2️⃣ Who needs the insight?
3️⃣ What action could this drive?

Answering these questions help make sure the analysis actually supports something meaningful instead of becoming an interesting report that sits on a shelf somewhere.

💡 Analysis should always be connected to decisions that move work forward.

With AI everywhere right now, the word "data-driven" has started to feel a little intimidating — like if you're not running machine learning models or letting an algorithm make your decisions, you're somehow behind.
That misconception is real, and it's creating a quiet kind of imposter syndrome for a lot of nonprofit leaders and staff. Like, if we're not doing all of this, are we even data-driven at all?

Here's the thing: data-driven work can start really small. Looking at your donor history — whether that's in a spreadsheet or a CRM report — to figure out the best segmentation strategy for your next appeal? That's data-driven. That counts.

When an organization describes itself as "data-driven," it doesn't mean decisions are made entirely by numbers with no human element. That's rarely how effective orgs work. Data alone seldom tell the complete story, and strong decision-making usually involves both. Numbers can highlight patterns and outcomes, but they don't always explain why something is happening. Experience, context, and human insight will always play an important role.

💡 Data and intuition aren't opposites. They're partners. And you don't need AI to get started — you just need to start.