Introducing Salsa “Smart” Features

Salsa Labs is excited to announce the release of an entirely new set of game-changing “Smart” features.  Salsa's Smart features are informed by Predictive Analytics, powered byMachine Learning technology, and created to improve the efficiency and efficacy of our users’ online efforts to move their missions forward.

What is Predictive Analytics?

Predictive analytics is an approach to predicting future outcomes by employing a variety of statistical techniques, including data mining, predictive modeling, and machine learning. It uses big data sets and historical information to identify patterns that can predict probable future events. 

As an example, a company may use predictive analytics to "predict" what any one consumer will purchase based on the buying patterns of all of their previous customers. Have you ever been amazed that your music app can recommend songs that you like?  That's predictive analytics!

Nonprofit Machine Learning Powers Predictive Analytics

Machine Learning enables computers to analyze those large data sets for patterns that a human might miss or take a long time to calculate. It uses algorithms to create predictive models based on those patterns and determines which data is important and ultimately used for predictive recommendations.

As more information about your supporters becomes available, machine learning continuously adjusts the model for higher accuracy.

How does Salsa use Predictive Analytics?

Salsa applies machine learning to Predictive Analytics techniques in the nonprofit space by using vast pools of historical supporter activity data and demographic attributes to predict future behaviors. 

Salsa uses Predictive Analytics to create models that represent how a supporter is most likely to interact with your organization.

Predictive Analytics is now infused throughout Salsa's platform, and our machine learning models help make informed predictions about the donation amounts individual supporters would be willing to give your organization. We call this "Smart Engagement" and it's put into practice in our platform as "Smart Ask Amounts" and "Smart Giving Levels."

How can Predictive Analytics make your life easier?

As a fundraising professional, one of the more difficult questions to answer about online fundraising pages is, “Which dollar amounts should I display on the donation buttons on my pages?” This is an important question, because displaying amounts that are too high may discourage some donors, and, showing amounts that are too low may cause other donors to donate less than they would otherwise be willing to give..

Currently, Salsa's Smart features use predictive analytics to make life easier for our nonprofit users by:

• Identifying supporters who are potential mid-level or major donors..
   
• Dynamically displaying Smart Ask Amounts, which power the ask array on donation forms, thereby individually optimizing the ask amounts for each donor.

Salsa helps you to best use your time and resources by bringing attention to those supporters whose attributes and interactions suggest they could be willing and able to donate larger amounts to your organization. These supporters are added to “Smart Giving Level” dynamic groups and flagged as “Potential Major Donors” and “Potential Mid-Level Donors,” so that you and your staff can send personalized messages and cultivate as you choose. These “Smart Giving Level” groups are available for querying and reporting in both Salsa Engage and Salsa CRM.

With the introduction of Smart Ask amounts, donation appeals in Salsa Engage become a “set it and forget it” solution. When a campaign manager chooses to display “Smart Amounts” on their fundraising page, Salsa Engage will use all of the data that it knows about a supporter, as well as models that represent similar supporters, to display a series of donation buttons that optimize the ask amounts for each individual donor. This leads to higher conversion rates and greater donation amount averages, without any of the guesswork or compromises that fundraisers usually contend with.

What does the future hold for Predictive Analytics and Machine Learning in the Salsa Smart Engagement Platform?

Salsa software is getting smarter every day. As your supporters continue to interact with your organization, machine learning continuously adjusts the model and automatically updates recommendations throughout the platform.

We're constantly updating these Smart features and continually adding new and exciting features that allow you to focus your attention where it most effectively and efficiently drives your mission forward.

Stay tuned!