For years a bunch of  committed data miners (we’re just a couple of them) have been pushing, cajoling, exhorting, and nudging  folks in higher education advancement to do one thing: Look as hard at their internal predictors of major giving as they look at outside predictors (like social media and wealth screenings). It seems all that drum beating has been having an effect.

http://cooldata.wordpress.com/2012/06/13/finding-predictors-of-future-major-givers/