Emily Coolville
Emily Courville is Senior Director of Information Solutions and Analytics. American Humane Society, living her mission.
“Being with HSUS in a virtual office environment means my cat is always a meeting attendee, whether invited or not,” she said.
Her experience with the technology side of the non-profit sector goes back 21 years in the early days of CRM. After being laid off from her theater job, Ms. Courville turned to the non-profit tech field at the recommendation of her friends. She started working in the Targeted Analytics group in various roles such as individual reporting, collaborative databases, acquisition list building, predictive modeling and trend analysis. Since then, she’s flitted between her agency role and that of the Humanitarian Society of America.
“I was learning to use SQL with an Oracle database while working on reports for Target Analysis Group and their PB clients.These tools are not just for non-commercial use,” she said. “But the data came from specialized non-commercial systems, such as RE and TA, and some systems that no longer existed. I had to.”
Courville will be on stage at this year’s inaugural BridgeTECH, a technology-focused event for nonprofit executives, fundraisers and marketers on August 2nd. 18th Annual Integrated Marketing Bridge and Fundraising Conference. Session “Machine Learning for Nonprofit Marketers: Finding the Right Constituents to Drive Fundraising,” by Courville. John McCarthy, Vice President of Technology and Data Services, ROI Solutions. PETA Foundation’s Senior Vice President of Development, Steve Carey, will optimize areas such as audience selection, retainer conversion and retention, and target asking volume for lost-recovery efforts. See real-world examples of how nonprofits are adopting machine learning models to help .
Nonprofit PRO We met with Courville to learn more about her work in nonprofit technology and why she is so passionate about machine learning and data.
How has technology impacted your nonprofit?
Without our current CRM and trusted payment processor, we would not have grown to the size and reach we have today. Being able to automate most of the sustainer processes has allowed us to enhance and improve other aspects of our operations.
What are the biggest challenges nonprofits have with technology, and how has your nonprofit overcome them?
Time — Giving existing staff time and space to learn something new, or freeing up new staff to take on new things that the rest of your staff have to learn.
Why is it so important for nonprofits to adopt technology regardless of staff size, revenue, or misperceptions of overhead costs?
If you get stuck doing everything manually in a spreadsheet, [or] You have to query and import data every time you update a report, and you simply don’t have the time, space, or freedom to think beyond maintaining what you already have. Automation is the key to unlocking the physical and mental capacity to think beyond today’s needs and into tomorrow’s needs. And today, we have the technology to automate using spreadsheets and underlying software, freeing up staff time to pursue more critical technology and data infrastructure needs.
What are you planning to present at BridgeTECH, and why are you so passionate about the subject?
I am on two BridgeTECH panels. One is about how. [business intelligence] These tools have helped me with critical questions about funding and questions about AI, especially machine learning and predictive modeling.
Both hit my sweet spot of data-driven decision-making.
Join BridgeTECH
Coolville, McCarthy and Keriri Find the Right Constituents to Maximize Campaign and Fundraising Impact at BridgeTECH on August 2nd at Gaylord National Hotel & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland share how. sign up About BridgeTECH and Bridge Conference By selecting the “BridgeTECH + Bridge” option.
