When it comes to fundraising for nonprofits, one should clearly understand what analytical data, goals and metrics matter to them and how to measure the progress, success of each of these important goals. KPIs or Key Performance Indicators are measurable values that demonstrate how effectively one is achieving its key strategic and operational objectives. This is the best way of tracking a nonprofit’s overall performance.
Once you have clearly set out the fundraising objectives for your nonprofit, you could decide on the KPIs that would help you bring the greatest positive impact on your nonprofit.
To sum up, in order to be useful for your nonprofit, your KPIs should be:
- Clearly defined;
- Quantifiable;
- Adaptable;
- Crucial to achieving organizational objectives;
- Practical and actionable;
- Providing incentives for staff.
Here, we are listing down some KPIs or Key Performance Indicators that your nonprofit should keep in mind.
Donor Retention Rate
This is the percentage of donors who have donated more than once. Gaining new donors is usually much more difficult than retaining the existing ones. Therefore working on your retention rate could get some rich dividends for your nonprofit.
Average Gift Size and Growth Rate
This metric is really important to know if your gift size is increasing, stagnating or decreasing. Once you have some idea on this, you could take steps to make sure it’s set on an increasing path.
Giving Capacity
This measures the amount of funds your donors are able to give. This would allow you to forecast how much your nonprofit might receive over a time period. You could strategize better using this.
Amplification Rate
This metric refers to the retweets, shares, reposts, reblogs, etc. The more your content gets shared, the greater would be your reach. By looking at this metric, you could gain a fair idea of what kind of content to create and what gets your target audience interested.
Fundraising Return on Investment
This metric is an evaluation of the amount of funds received per dollar of investment. It gets really important to measure this to get some idea on what strategies to follow for best results.
Bonus: When focusing on online technology for nonprofit fundraising parameters such a- mobile giving, social media engagement, donor growth (YoY) should also be a part of your measurement index.
These are some metrics which are really essential when it comes to successful fundraising for nonprofits. Measuring them and evaluating them are just the first steps. You need to take it further and work on them to get your desired results.
