How the Analysis Exchange is helping Non-Profits make data-driven decisions
January 16th, 2014 | Published in Google Analytics
The following is a guest post from Eric Peterson, Senior Partner at Google Analytics Certified Partner Web Analytics Demystified.
Summary: Web Analytics Demystified continues to advance the Analysis Exchange to help anyone, anywhere get “hand’s on” experience conducting analysis with Google Analytics in an effort to support non-profits worldwide.
While thousands of non-profit organizations use Google Analytics on their websites, many have not yet been able to take full advantage of the data generated on their site’s performance. The Analysis Exchange, an education initiative developed by Web Analytics Demystified that provides free web data analysis to non-profits, offers organizations an opportunity to gain insights from web analytics to better meet their goals.
The Exchange pairs a non-profit organization with two web analysts --- one a student wanting the hands-on training and the other a mentor with years of direct experience in the analytics field. Together, they work on projects with objectives aimed at improving the non-profit’s website performance and overall use of their analytics data.
Since its introduction, over 400 non-profit organizations have used the Analysis Exchange for more than 1,000 projects using data from Google Analytics. Among these organizations have been those involved in public media, foundations, environmental concerns, youth-focused organizations, museums, schools, and many others.
Learn more about the Analysis Exchange in this brief video:
Learn more about the Analysis Exchange in this brief video:
Paull Young, Director of Digital at charity: water, has achieved success with multiple Analysis Exchange projects for his organization. He says, “I see analytics becoming central to how non-profits do business – though I don’t see that being the case right now. charity: water is one of the most digitally focused non-profits you’ll find, but we’re at the front of a trend towards online donations that is only going to increase.
Every non-profit aims to become more and more efficient, delivering maximum impact for the minimum amount of cost. Smart application of analytics will be a must to achieve this objective.”
Other organizations have gained value from Analysis Exchange projects by not only exposing ‘what happened’ on their site and what were the successes but more importantly identifying factors that led to successes on the site and how to make improvements. An example of some takeaways have been:
- What content visitors consumed and where they came from
- What social channels drove the most activity to the site as well as off the site
- Factors that lead to significant increases in visits
- Competitive benchmarks of success
- What factors led to declines in traffic and how to correct
Analysis Exchange projects are completely free and take less than a few hours for non-profits and mentors. Google Analytics is the standard analytics tool used for all projects. Its ease-of-use dramatically improves the non-profits ability to continue to use web analytics after projects are completed.
We’re looking for more non-profits as well as student-mentor partners to sign up to the The Analysis Exchange. You can learn more about our effort at www.analysis-exchange.com or write our Executive Director Wendy Greco directly at