At the Center for Public Integrity, I was tasked with projects that aimed to increase the number of new donors and retention among current donors. My projects included creating a donor lifetime value model, creating a segmentation strategy for targeted donation appeals, creating surveys to better understand donors and potential donors who subscribed to the Center for Public Integrity’s newsletter, researching search engine optimization options, and increasing effectiveness of Google Ads campaigns.

Each of these projects fit into the organizations mission to “protect democracy and inspire change” by allowing the organization to reach a larger audience and increase their total donation revenue, in order to continue writing important investigative news reports. For example, through more effective Google Advertisements, the organization was able to substantially increase the number of new visitors to their website. Creation of a donor lifetime value model lead to an emphasis on the focus of donor retention, which increases donations.

I used key concepts from many of my CBS classes, including business analytics, marketing, media and entertainment strategy consulting, and operations strategy. It was actually surprising how many times I pulled up notes and readings from these classes to brush up on the concepts and to find inspiration for different projects. From business analytics, I applied concepts on data analysis to survey, website, and social media data to better understand the organization and guide strategy. From marketing, I applied segmenting and lifetime value concepts to better understand different donors and to plan targeted marketing campaigns. From media and entertainment strategy consulting, I applied the media analytical framework to understand and diagnose issues. I used “bottom of the pyramid” concepts from operations strategy to inform donation ask amounts. Being able to use concepts from class during my internship enabled me to build a deeper understanding of each concept. I’m happy to have had this opportunity.

Challenges I faced were mostly attributable to the organization not having as many resources as a for-profit might have. These challenges included the following:
- Building out models based on very limited data. Since the organization does not sell any products and had little data, it was difficult to segment members/donors. Although it was a challenge, finding data to use was a great exercise in discovering data where nobody typically thought to look and using data that wasn’t generally thought to be useful in the past.
- Ensuring my team understood the business concepts used in my projects. Because I had been at CBS for the past year, my head was full of business concepts that were new to me. Making sure I clearly communicated concepts I learned to my team was a bit of a challenge, but I feel it was worth it so they can carry on those important business practices.

I learned so much during my time with the Center for Public Integrity. And, while I learned these things at the center, these takeaways are applicable across businesses and industries. One of my most important takeaways is how to research and understand what drives growth in an organization. This was fundamental to my experience as it allowed me to diagnose and address problems. Other takeaways came from overcoming challenges I faced at the center. One of these takeaways was learning that there is so much useful data all around. I enjoyed creatively finding data that was not being used or not being used in ways it could have been used. Another takeaway was that it is worth it to take the time to talk through your ideas with your team, especially when those ideas are inspired by business concepts that are not necessarily well-known within your team.