logo
    • Magazine
    • Membership
    • Donate
  • Racial Justice
  • Economic Justice
    • Collections
  • Climate Justice
  • Health Justice
  • Leadership
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Subscribe
  • Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
    • Complimentary Webinars
    • Premium On-Demand Webinars
  • Membership
  • Submissions

What Gets Measured Gets Done

Simone Joyaux
April 2, 2010
Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print

Simone Joyaux

So many things to measure, so little time.

Pick the right stuff, the important stuff.

Collect the information. Then analyze the information so you can talk about the trends and implications. Information is useless until we can answer the “so what?” question. What are the trends in this information? Why does this information matter? What are the short- and long-term implications for our organization?

Without quality information, it’s hard to have a strategic conversation. Without quality information, it’s tough to make good decisions.

So what will you measure in fund development? What measures (also called metrics) will you choose? Remember, measures are not just numbers. Measures can be qualitative, not just quantitative.

Here’s the usual stuff that organizations measure in fund development:

  • Total dollars raised
  • Cost to raise a dollar
  • Average gift size
  • Number of gifts at various gift levels
  • Cumulative giving by a donor in a 12-month period – and over multiple years
  • Number of donors
  • Donor acquisition, attrition, and retention rates (And retention rates are the most important. You know, keep those donors! Especially since it’s estimated to cost 10 times more money to acquire a new donor, as it is to retain a current one.)
  • Percent of donors who increase their gift size and / or number of gifts per year
  • And here’s an often-missed one: Rate of transition from first-time donor to regular donor
  • And how about this one: Size of gift compared to your estimation of donor’s level of interest and commitment

Notice how all those measures focus on money. And fund development isn’t supposed to be about money only. I’ve certainly ranted and raved about that enough in this column.

Sign up for our free newsletters

Subscribe to NPQ's newsletters to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

You’ve heard me! Operate as a donor-centered organization. Pay attention to the donors’ interests and disinterests. Your organization is a conduit to achieve the donors’ desires.

So what else can we measure?

How about the effectiveness of relationship building with donors?

Start from the donor’s perspective. Ask your donors about their satisfaction. Try these measures that focus on donor satisfaction:

  • Satisfaction with your organization’s execution of its mission and the progress made on your mission
  • Satisfaction with your customer service (and not just from the development office! Look at Sargeant’s research about donor loyalty. See Building Donor Loyalty. See also donor / members survey in Keep Your Donors.)
  • Satisfaction with your thank-you process and your recognition program
  • Satisfaction with the quality of conversations donors have with RAW
  • Satisfaction with the content and frequency of your communications
  • Degree to which donor values align with your organization’s values (essential for what a donor considers a large gift)
  • How often the donor refers others to you
  • How many times the organization has “wowed” or “aha-ed” the donor – being surprised by the organization’s creativity and ingenuity.

Now examine how effectively you do the relationship-building work. Try these measures to evaluate what your organization is doing:

  • Breadth and depth of information about donors in your files, with an emphasis on interests and disinterests, motivations and aspirations
  • Diversity, regularity, and frequency of your contacts with prospects and most especially with donors
  • Level of personalization in your communications and cultivation with prospects and donors
  • Effectiveness of cultivation at fundraising events (Remember, that’s the mingling and schmoozing that staff and board members do. See my previous columns.)
  • Donor-centered communications strategies and content (And remember, this really means following writing and readability standards summarized by Tom Ahern in his various books. Visit Tom at www.aherncomm.com.)
  • Frequency and regularity of cultivation activities, attendance and quality of conversation there, number of attendees who join mailing list or follow up with a gift
  • Effective identification of the predisposed, and the percent you qualify as prospects
  • Percent of qualified prospects who transition into donors

And there’s still more measures! Let’s make sure to measure board member participation in fund development. For example:

  • Personal financial contribution each year from every board member
  • Identifying those who might be predisposed to your organization. Helping qualify them as prospects, or not.
  • Nurturing relationships between the organization and donors and qualified prospects.
  • Helping solicit charitable gifts personally, face-to-face.

What’s most important in your organization? (And you’d better not say money! Or I’ll haunt you.) What are you going to measure? What are you going to make sure is done and done well?

Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print
About the author
Simone Joyaux

Simone P. Joyaux, ACFRE is recognized internationally as an expert in fund development, board and organizational development, strategic planning, and management. She is the founder and director of Joyaux Associates.

More about: Management and LeadershipOpinionUnraveling Development

Become a member

Support independent journalism and knowledge creation for civil society. Become a member of Nonprofit Quarterly.

Members receive unlimited access to our archived and upcoming digital content. NPQ is the leading journal in the nonprofit sector written by social change experts. Gain access to our exclusive library of online courses led by thought leaders and educators providing contextualized information to help nonprofit practitioners make sense of changing conditions and improve infra-structure in their organizations.

Join Today
logo logo logo logo logo
See comments

Spring-2023-sidebar-subscribe
You might also like
Hierarchy and Justice
Cyndi Suarez
Salvadoran Foreign Agent Law Threatens Human Rights Movements
Devon Kearney
Charitable Tax Reform: Why Half Measures Won’t Curb Plutocracy
Alan Davis
Healing-Centered Leadership: A Path to Transformation
Shawn A. Ginwright
Into the Fire: Lessons from Movement Conflicts
Ingrid Benedict, Weyam Ghadbian and Jovida Ross
How Nonprofits Can Truly Advance Change
Hildy Gottlieb

NPQ Webinars

April 27th, 2 pm ET

Liberatory Decision-Making

How to Facilitate and Engage in Healthy Decision-making Processes

Register Now
You might also like
Hierarchy and Justice
Cyndi Suarez
Salvadoran Foreign Agent Law Threatens Human Rights...
Devon Kearney
Charitable Tax Reform: Why Half Measures Won’t Curb...
Alan Davis

Like what you see?

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

See our newsletters

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

NPQ-Spring-2023-cover

Independent & in your mailbox.

Subscribe today and get a full year of NPQ for just $59.

subscribe
  • About
  • Contact
  • Advertise
  • Copyright
  • Careers

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.