We Can Make This “S” Car Go: A Message From Our CEO

I’m a car guy. Over the course of my lifetime, I have owned many cars, the first one being a used 1953 Plymouth Coupe. My first new car was a black 1964 two-door Dodge Polara 500 with red and white interior, bucket seats and a center console. I migrated to convertibles starting with a 1970 Fiat 124 Spider. In the years since, I have driven a variety of vehicles—some convertibles and a few retractable hardtops. I usually traded up.

I also owned a (very) used 1976 Triumph TR6 convertible that needed constant maintenance work. The amazing thing about the TR6 was opening the hood at the windshield end and seeing the six-cylinder engine and all the related components and steering gear. I could also see the concrete driveway underneath! In order to drive the TR6, I needed to adjust two Zenith Stromberg 175CD carburetors, which was time consuming and not nearly as fun as driving with the top down. All in all, the TR6 was a money pit.

Eventually, I traded my Triumph for a 2012 Mercedes SLS convertible. That hood opens from the front, and, although the V8 is not turbocharged, there are no carburetors to work with and you cannot see concrete even if you remove the plastic engine cover.

So how are engine adjustments handled on the SLS? Certainly not by me. The SLS has an engine computer and database that has stored engine data. The Mercedes service department has a computer that can download that data and analyze the engine’s operating history. Based on that analysis, the service technician will get a report of the actions that need to be taken to get the highest performance from the 6.2-liter engine.

To keep my Mercedes running, I rely on important data and vital information that is gathered over the course of time. And none of this would be possible without technology and using the data to its fullest potential.

In comparison, the donor database of every nonprofit is the engine that drives the mission and delivers the critical information to encourage gifts. Donor contributions are the fuel that makes the engine run.

Sharpe Group’s Artificial Intelligence service does the work for you by incorporating the analysis that will make your donor database engine run smoothly, delivering the highest results possible—gifts. Using AI, databases we analyzed usually identified unknown donation patterns or correlations between large gift donors and donors that have the capacity to make a large/major gift.

We have found that the database is much more productive when additional donor information is included. The needed information is unique to each nonprofit’s mission. To gather donor data needed, we augment the database with income and wealth, education level, gift type, gift frequency, length of giving, in addition to the old traditional, limited information of age, gender, marital status.

To gather more valuable and actionable donor information, we work with the development team to create a custom donor survey, in digital and printed formats. The digital survey results are automatically downloaded into the database. Printed surveys returned by the donor are scanned and downloaded into the database. The outcome is a report that will provide accurate action plans to be taken by the major gift officer to achieve the largest gift results possible.

I learned a valuable lesson long ago. By switching from the tiring (and time-consuming) maintenance work on the TR6 to relying on the SLS’s technology and what it provides, I am now working smarter and garnering maximum results (i.e. more time behind the wheel instead of under the hood).

When it comes to mining your donor database, it’s time to change the way you use the information contained in it. Share it with Sharpe Group for a comprehensive analysis and assessment using our Data Enhancement Service and Artificial Intelligence revenue projection capabilities and prepare to see measurable results.

Kind regards,
Jim Ross
Chairman and CEO