Little Data Solutions

Nonprofit leaders, this one's worth your time.

Heart of Des Moines is hosting a panel on how nonprofits can navigate changing policy, funding, and grant requirements.

Nonprofits in a Changing Policy Landscape

🗓 Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026 | 1 to 2 p.m.

📍 Hamilton's Funeral Home, West Des Moines

✅ Open to all, no registration needed

Hear from Holly Ambuehl (National Council of Nonprofits), Lisa Cushatt (Iowa ACEs 360), and Bethany Snyder, MPP (Snyder Strategies), moderated by Edward Wallace (The Wallace Edge).

Learn more at https://www.heartofdesmoines.com/

Excited to be joining Timi Paccioreti and The Little Green Light Community for a live Q&A on data cleanup!

If you're using LGL and your data needs some love, this is the session for you. We'll talk through cleanup strategies, tools, best practices—and I'm here to answer whatever questions you bring.

Tuesday, October 27 • 2:00 PM CDT / 3:00 PM ET
Little Green Light Live Room

Feel free to share your questions ahead of time by adding a comment below.

Cameras on, questions welcome! Register here: https://mylgl.littlegreenlight.com/home/login

Join Tammy Armstrong + fellow tech experts Rachelle Little & Dellen Burke-Flores for real talk about making nonprofit tech work for your team—no massive budget required. We're talking data that actually makes sense, systems that stick, and tools that let small shops punch above their weight.

Iowa Nonprofit Summit 2026
Session 6: Tech Tools to Help Your Nonprofit
September 15th at 11:00 AM - 11:50 AM
Perfect for fundraisers, ops folks, or anyone tired of spreadsheet chaos.

Grab your spot below:
https://www.iowanonprofitalliance.org/iowa-nonprofit-summit

Happy Labor Day! Taking a day to rest and recharge. Hope you're doing the same.

Join Tammy Armstrong + fellow tech experts Rachelle Little & Dellen Burk-Flores for real talk about making nonprofit tech work for your team—no massive budget required. We're talking data that actually makes sense, systems that stick, and tools that let small shops punch above their weight.

Iowa Nonprofit Summit 2026

Session 6: Tech Tools to Help Your Nonprofit

Saturday, 11:00 AM - 11:50 AM

Perfect for fundraisers, ops folks, or anyone tired of spreadsheet chaos.

Grab your spot below:

https://www.iowanonprofitalliance.org/iowa-nonprofit-summit

Clean data isn't perfect data. Instead, think of clean data as an indicator that your systems are consistent and structured enough to be useful.

Some data quality challenges nonprofits encounter include:

⚠ Duplicate records
⚠ Missing information
⚠ Inconsistent formatting

For example, donor information might be entered differently depending on who added it to the system. Small differences like these can make reporting harder, but can also be corrected over time.

💡 Clean data isn't about perfection. It's about reducing inconsistencies so information becomes easier to work with.

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