The Nonprofit Show Misinformation Is Costing Nonprofits: The Data Leaders Need Now
With the kind of energy that makes you sit up straighter: Tim Sarrantonio, now Chair of the Fundraising Effectiveness Project (FEP), leads a boardroom-level conversation about one of the biggest business threats to nonprofits today: misinformation.
Tim pulls back the curtain on what FEP actually is—an ambitious collaboration where major CRM and data partners contribute anonymized giving data that is organized into a secure warehouse overseen by GivingTuesday and the AFP Foundation. The result: monthly, real-world insights into donor behavior at a scale that fundraisers rarely get, and fast enough to influence decisions in real time. For nonprofit leaders trying to forecast revenue, frame strategy, or explain retention trends to a board, this is not “nice-to-know” information—it’s operational intelligence.
From there, the discussion pivots into how misinformation sneaks into our sector: vendor marketing that cherry-picks success stories, “benchmark” claims without context, and social posts engineered for clicks rather than truth. Tim’s advice is blunt and practical: follow the sources, examine methodology, and treat data as a tool for leadership—not a headline to repeat. As he puts it, “All data is the electronic representation of relationships.” That single line reframes retention drops and donor shifts as more than numbers—they’re signals about trust, connection, and experience.
The conversation closes with a future-facing lens on AI. Tim urges nonprofits to treat generative tools like a junior staff member—helpful, fast, and absolutely in need of editing. He even teases a new project: an educational role-playing game for fundraisers that uses AI to interpret workshop artifacts and accelerate learning. The takeaway is clear: in a world full of noise, nonprofits win by becoming disciplined stewards of evidence, context, and credibility.
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