WHAT THE FUNDRAISING
92: The People Behind the Products: We All Use Data and Now It’s Time to Harness It with Nejeed Kassam
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“I come to the space without the biases and the myopic view of only being a fundraiser or only being a program manager … I’ve been able to be at 10,000 feet and not always in the weeds, but I’ve also been in the weeds.”
– Nejeed Kassam
Episode #92
Overview
In this episode of What the Fundraising Podcast…
How’s your data hygiene? No need to panic! As we learn on this episode of What the Fundraising, our metrics don’t need to be perfect. In fact, according to my guest, Nejeed Kassam, Founder & CEO of Keela and Co-Founder of Fundraising Kit, missteps and gaps are a given. But that’s not the bigger problem here. The first hurdle is the tendency to bury our heads in the sand. Prone to perfectionism, many of us in the nonprofit world are afraid that our data isn’t pristine enough, and our numbers are not impressive enough. The truth is, says Nejeed, things are seldom as bad as we fear and always better positioned for success – when we actually look at the numbers! And the Keela platform that he and his team have developed is designed to make your nonprofit’s numbers empowering, not intimidating!
Founded in 2013, Keela’s mission is driven by people like Nejeed, for whom giving back is a core value. Using a targeted, multi-channel communications and marketing approach, the Keela platform was designed expressly to ease the burden on the humans providing the heart and soul of fundraising. So if you’re feeling fearful of all things data-driven, this episode is your point of entry. Take the plunge and you’ll see: What we imagine is never worse than what we actually know – and have the tools to address. There is a powerful upside potential of deploying technologies like artificial intelligence and pinpointed communications if we’re open enough to try them.
Please come on over and visit our lively new What the Fundraising community forum. You can join the conversation at this link.
Please note: This episode is a part of a very special series called The People Behind the Products. More than ever, nonprofits care about the company behind their technology and service providers. What’s the underlying mission and vision of the company? What do they stand for? And how are they thinking about the sector and serving nonprofits? This series is an opportunity to get to know some of my favorite nonprofit technology companies so that the next time you’re making a tech decision, you can understand a little bit more about the people behind the product. There is no sponsorship or industry money behind the production of this series and the editorial content was at the sole discretion of the What the Fundraising team.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
- (02:16) Nejeed shares a personal reflection on the meaning of his work in the nonprofit sector and what has driven his longtime commitment to eradicate a legacy of persecution he has known intimately through his own immigrant family’s history.
- (04:28) The two critical lessons Nejeed’s parents imparted to their four sons, which he took deeply to heart as a three-year-old more than three decades ago:
- Get the best possible education.
- Never forget to give back to your community.
- (06:41) The intersecting journeys and commonalities between Mallory’s family story and Nejeed’s – displaced people for whom community provided the first rung.
- (09:09) How Nejeed views the role of technology as transformational across almost every sector of business and civil society – except philanthropy, which has remained stagnant rather than leveraging new tools to empower fundraisers.
- (11:01) An overview of data management and other nonprofit systems that aren’t efficient and in many cases frustrate users.
- (12:24) How Keela, Nejeed’s comprehensive fundraising, and donor management system, came into being.
- (13:13) A Shower “Aha” Moment: About Nejeed’s realization that AI (artificial intelligence) had a vital role to fill in the fundraising landscape.
- (14:34) About the resistance to data Mallory observes among fundraisers who are afraid to look at metrics because of the harsh perceptions and self-judgment that follow.
- (16:04) Nejeed de-fangs fear:
- Rather than being intimidated by it, we can regard data as nothing more than information of the type we base all kinds of calculations on every day.
- Measuring things means having a tool to make things better.
- (23:11) Why you don’t need to be paralyzed by “clean data.” Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good! Nejeed suggests recognizing that the data:
- Need only be clean enough to trust, i.e. amounts, dates, and addresses.
- Will without a doubt be imperfect – and that’s okay! It’s not a show-stopper.
- (24:26) About the role of fear, which is only inflamed when we hide from data and concrete metrics that are ultimately allies in making our organizations more transparent, predictable, and successful.
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NEJEED KASSAM
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
- More about Beth Kanter, a nonprofit facilitator, and co-author of “The Smart Nonprofit: Staying Human-Centered in An Automated World.”
- If you haven’t already, please visit our new What the Fundraising community forum. Check it out and join the conversation at this link.
- If you’re looking to raise more from the right funders, then you’ll want to check out my Power Partners Formula, a step-by-step approach to identifying the optimal partners for your organization. This free masterclass offers a great starting point!
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TIPS AND TOOLS TO IMPLEMENT TODAY
- Mad at your CRM? Don’t waste energy! There are systems out there designed to leverage technology on behalf of your organization, so if your processes leave you frustrated, it’s time to look for another, better platform!
- AI can harness data and identify important patterns, but it can’t replace the work of human fundraisers!
- Reducing fear around what data reveal about fundraising practices starts with reducing the amount of beating up on ourselves that we do!
- Resistant to metrics? Just remember: Digits are your friends. If you can't measure it, you can't make it better!
- There will be misses. AI is imperfect, but the overall net positive that comes from doing our best to keep up with data collection constitutes a significant ROI.
- The average nonprofit organization harvests hundreds of thousands of valuable data points and even if they are imperfect, that’s ok, t’s a process of refinement.
FAVORITE QUOTES
- “I come to the space without the biases and the myopic view of only being a fundraiser or only being a program manager … I've been able to be at 10,000 feet and not always in the weeds, but I've also been in the weeds.” - Nejeed Kassam
- “(Data) can make us better at decision-making. It can give us a set of tools in our toolbox that is different from the compassion-driven instincts that we all have.” - Nejeed Kassam
- “I want every fundraiser to be empowered by data. I think it can serve as a roadmap. It can serve as an enhancer. It can serve as an instinct verifier. And most importantly, it can serve as a prioritizer because if you're trying to do everything, you're going to do nothing.” - Nejeed Kassam
- “The great power of machine learning and artificial intelligence is it can look at these giant sets of patterns and build these algorithms that are getting better every day or every week … (but it isn’t) a silver bullet.” - Nejeed Kassam
- “Data is going to help you manifest your destiny in fundraising … And so to me, Yeah, it can be scary. It can be overwhelming, but if you're using the right tools with the right mindset, I actually think it makes (tracking results) less scary.” - Nejeed Kassam
- “You're going to fail no matter what you do. Nobody is perfect. Nothing is perfect … (but if) the AI helps, it’s going to way outweigh the few times we as fundraisers stumble because our data isn't clean enough.” - Nejeed Kassam
- “The average organization with 25,000 donors has a million data points. Think about that. They're not all going to be perfect.” - Nejeed Kassam
- “That one angry person who sends you the mean email back because you've got something about them wrong? Those are outlier situations. Likely, they're also not people that were going to give to you anyway.” - Mallory Erickson
RELATED CONTENT
Get to know Nejeed:
Nejeed Kassam is the CEO and founder of Keela – an impact technology company, dedicated to empowering nonprofits with accessible software. He is also the founder of Fundraising KIT – the world’s leading AI-powered predictive analytics tool, built exclusively for fundraisers and nonprofits. Nejeed was educated at McGill University (B.A.) and Osgoode Hall Law School (JD). Called to the Bar in Ontario in 2015 and in British Columbia in 2017, Nejeed is also the founder of the public policy organizations Better Canada Initiative and Believe Vancouver. He is the former executive director of both End Poverty Now and Conversations for Change. Nejeed is a global innovator with experience working for the United Nations and the Senate of Canada. He is the author of the book ‘High on Life’ (foreword written by former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien) and the co-producer of the documentary, ‘Conversations for Change’. Nejeed sits on a number of corporate, education, and non-profit boards, has spoken at conferences around the world, and is an alumnus of the Global Shapers Community (World Economic Forum) and a former fellow at the Royal Society of the Arts in the UK. In 2012, Nejeed received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee medal for his contribution and service to Canada.
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I teach nonprofit fundraisers to bring in more gifts from the RIGHT donors… so they can stop hounding people for money. Fundraising doesn’t have to be uncomfortable.
- CEO & Creator of the Power Partners FormulaTM
- Disruptor in the funding sector, changing lives everyday
- Relentlessly committed to the movement of money into the nonprofit sector
- Focused on win-win partnerships that allow fundraisers to be authentic and empowered in their work
- Over 15 years working in nonprofits (managing director and ED of multiple fast-growth organizations)
MALLORY ERICKSON
episode transcript
