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MONDAY, AUG 05, 2024
Kenneth Gerlack Preserve, photo Adam Weidenbach
John Muir Land Trust (JMLT) cares for open space, ranches, farms, parkland, and shoreline in California’s Contra Costa and Alameda Counties. JMLT trusts Social Explorer to support the nonprofit by delivering data and tools to advance fundraising.
When biodiverse landscapes of California's Contra Costa and Alameda Counties are under threat from development, the John Muir Land Trust (JMLT) ensures that certain areas remain untouched. JMLT’s mission is to safeguard the splendor of the East Bay and preserve open spaces for both wildlife and people. On the forefront is Jay Dean, the Creative Strategy Director of JMLT, whose passion for preserving natural spaces is matched only by his drive to innovate through data.
“Development is needed and necessary, but in the right places. There are some places that are much more appropriate for ecosystem protection, habitat, clean water, and shoreline restoration.”
—Jay Dean, Creative Strategy Director, John Muir Land Trust
JMLT is one part of a larger movement of land trusts across the country, each dedicated to protecting and preserving land for future generations. Land trusts protect land by purchasing and setting it aside as wildlife habitat or as parks for human recreation. They leave ecosystems in a natural state—keeping them from being developed residentially or commercially.
“Development is needed and necessary, but in the right places,” says Jay. There are some places that are much more appropriate for ecosystem protection, habitat, clean water, shoreline restoration, and things like that. It’s better for the environment for certain places to be protected and other places to be developed.”
With more than 3,500 acres protected in California’s Contra Costa and Alameda counties, ridgelines to valleys in the East Bay are permanently preserved for the benefit of all through JMLT’s stewardship.
However, the challenge lies not only in acquiring land but also in securing the necessary support to continue their mission–finding donors. JMLT raises money from a variety of sources such as grants from state agencies and foundations.
"But, we need individual donor support so we can keep the lights on and do the things that state and agency funds don’t cover," Jay explains.
Painted Rock
Jay’s always been a data analyst. He began his career in corporate marketing and advertising where he learned the value of data early on. He’s been at the forefront of determining how persuasive communication can achieve objectives.
Unsurprisingly, people who’ve made charitable donations of any kind are most likely to donate again. And donations specifically related to JMLT’s mission, such as another land conservation group, animal welfare, etc. are even more relevant. But that information is challenging to find.
Through Jay’s collaboration with Sungha Jang, Associate Professor of Marketing at San Francisco State University (SFSU), Jay discovered the power of Social Explorer's data platforms and data enhancement capabilities for nonprofits like JMLT.
SFSU was already taking advantage of Social Explorer's academic product and its extensive demographic library and geo-spatial visualization tools. Jay works with SFSU every semester, exchanging data and modeling techniques with the Capstone Program graduate students, offering them an opportunity to work on “real world” business analysis challenges.
“If you were to mail a random sample of people you think have some likelihood of giving, the response rates are maybe .5 to 1%. If you can get it up to 2% or 3%, that’s amazing. I’ve managed to build models that can identify people who give at a 30% level. Through modeling, I can very accurately predict the giving rates of various cohorts of prospects, so I’m always looking for new data to help me identify high giving cohorts.”
In preparing JMLT’s upcoming Spring Appeal, Jay will look at giving patterns revealed by Social Explorer Pro’s prospective donor dataset to craft JMLT’s mailing list. With industry statistics showing a 50% donor retention rate year over year, it's essential to continually engage new supporters while nurturing existing relationships. That's where Social Explorer comes in.
Jay uses Social Explorer as prospect research software. Granular geospatial data help Jay visualize and segment prospective donor types. In addition to donor data, Social Explorer’s demographic Census variables around number of households and income allow Jay to see relationships that aren’t as easily accessible in spreadsheets.
Using Social Explorer, Jay can eventually upload his own donor and fundraising data and use Social Explorer to enhance his data for more detailed donor prospecting.
Jay notes, “Right now, we’re looking at who these interest groups are—who cares about wildlife, who cares about equestrian activities, who cares about mountain biking, who cares about the Bay and the Delta water, etc.
“We can develop different interest groups and work with them specifically. The Social Explorer data helps us get people in the door. And, then we combine that with other kinds of communication and research that helps us really define our understanding of them.”
Social Explorer Pro point filter feature
Another key challenge Jay faces is JMLT’s broad spectrum of funding projects. Some land trusts almost exclusively work with specific types of environments. JMLT, however, might protect a salt marsh, a wildlife corridor on top of a ridge, or a small park in a neighborhood so people can walk out their front door and go hiking. It’s an enormous diversity of projects.
"I use a movie studio analogy for this," Jay explains. “Every time we do a new project, meaning we have a new 300-acre property we’re protecting, it’s like launching a different movie. For example, this year it’s a family movie, next year it’s an action thriller and the year after that it’s a romantic comedy. And those appeal to slightly different audiences, which is a challenge.” With Social Explorer's prospective donor data, however, Jay can more easily pinpoint specific interests and tailor JMLT's messaging accordingly.
Jay understands that all land trusts need fundraising to be more efficient and effective. But, not every land trust has a large staff of data scientists to support their efforts. Some land trusts might be five people, some might be 300 people. The expertise varies dramatically.
Jay sees that land trust segmentation enables duplications. “Let’s say each land trust works in a different county—that’s an oversimplification—but land trusts don’t compete for the same resources. They’re all trying to do exactly the same thing and they’re all reinventing the wheel in exactly the same way. So, I’m interested in how much more effective we can be if we share insights and best practices. What’s done in Minnesota is relevant to the people in Alabama. I see that as a giant opportunity.”
Social Explorer's data enhancement tools not only help JMLT's local fundraising research, but also support his determination to share insights with other land trusts.
Through his involvement with The Land Trust Alliance (LTA), Jay is spreading the word to other land trusts on best practices for finding donors. Each land trust works independently and is bound to their respective board of directors. The LTA organization helps bring all the independent land trusts together.
Jay hopes to develop practices that, once vetted for JMLT, can be shared with other nonprofits. “If I can help make JMLT better, that will make the East Bay better. But if I come up with a really cool idea and 500 land trusts do it, that’s having a real impact. I research models, platforms, and practices that can be easily replicated by other groups of people. That’s why I’m excited about Social Explorer, because it’s easy to use, it’s got a lot of great data and it’s something any land trust could use. That’s not always the case. Mapping is really a hard thing to do, but on Social Explorer’s platform, it’s really easy.”
Jay uses Social Explorer’s platform to share stories around impact and opportunity. “Let’s say we’re putting together a grant proposal and we want to describe the people who live near a property. With Social Explorer’s platform it’s so easy to produce really compelling maps and charts. Especially if there are people who don’t have access to nature the way other neighborhoods do. We’re able to demonstrate that and make our case—it’s really compelling.”
“That’s why I’m excited about Social Explorer, because it’s easy to use, it’s got a lot of great data and it’s something any land trust could use. That’s not always the case. Mapping is really a hard thing to do, but on your platform, it’s really easy.”
—Jay Dean, Creative Strategy Director, John Muir Land Trust
The ability to understand donors and find more prospective donors like them is a game changer for Jay. Social Explorer’s map visualizations reveal patterns that can’t be seen on a spreadsheet.
Jay explains, “It’s useful when you’re moving into a new area. Let’s say we’re going to a new city or town, and we plot where the data say the prospects will be. With the maps, we can see the neighborhoods very clearly. This is so useful when it comes to something like staging an event—where do you have the event, who do you invite to the event, and what people do you mail, etc.”
JMLT supports the entire East Bay and as many as 15% of the entire population of some towns and cities have donated to JMLT’s efforts. And there are other towns where JMLT is entirely unknown. “We are constantly introducing and reintroducing ourselves and Social Explorer’s information—because it’s at a neighborhood level—is really powerful for me,” Jay notes.
A few years ago Jay made the move to the nonprofit sector because it was something he’d always wanted to do. “I’m having fun working for JMLT because it was my local land trust at that time. Now I have the opportunity to do a lot more fun things—like what I do with Social Explorer’s data,” Jay said.
As JMLT continues its mission to protect and preserve California's natural beauty, Jay remains committed to leveraging data to drive positive change. And he continues to share his successes with the wider nonprofit land trust community. Jay believes that collaboration and knowledge-sharing are key to scaling impact.
That's why he's been an advocate for platforms like Social Explorer, which empower organizations of all sizes to harness the power of data-driven decision-making to improve the world we share.
