It’s fashionable these days for many nonprofit fundraisers and their consultants to claim they’re ‘data-driven’. Problem is, most folks focus on the ‘data’ part of the slogan; few understand the requirements of the second word — ‘driven’.

I’m making this observation again at the start of the year because if you haven’t already done so, now is the time you should have some Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) from 2016 in hand to drive your 2017 actions. As the old meme goes: “What gets measured gets managed.”

So, what are you measuring and managing for the coming year?

Despite the fact that The Agitator has been hammering away on ‘Lifetime Value’ and ‘Retention Rates’ for ten years, the disappointing fact is that very few fundraisers (and almost no CEOs or CFOs) know these basic vital signs for their own organization.

In a moment I’ll list what I consider the essential Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and also list the ten data-oriented questions every fundraiser should be able to answer regardless of the size of his/her organization.

Even better, The Agitator is providing readers a fun, easy-to-use tool so you can calculate your fundraising vital signs like Lifetime Value and Retention Rates and make smarter decisions in 2017. Thanks to our colleagues over at DonorTrends you and all Agitator readers can test drive this Donor Dashboard free of charge.

Not only can you quickly retrieve your own organization’s fundraising vital signs, you can also go online and easily do your own 5-year master file audit and see the results of ten predictive models you can use to target your donors  the fundraising vital signs — all in 20 minutes!

I suspect the reason why so many small, mid-sized and even a lot of large organizations avoid the important issue of metrics is because of data overkill. And for sure, miles of metrics can lead to lots of confusion if you don’t know what questions to ask.

On top of that too many data jockeys and consultants overly complicate things. Instead of focusing in on the essentials that make for fundraising success they trade clarity for a deck of 85 PowerPoint slides of graphs — glow-in-the-dark wonders that often mean little to the account rep delivering the information and even less to the confused recipients of the ‘analysis’.

No more excuses. Tom and I and the folks at DonorTrends are giving you a simple, accurate (and fun) way to do your own analysis and set a winning course of action as we head into 2017.

In minutes, you’ll have access to the information needed to answer the 10 question  every fundraiser should master:

1. What is the lifetime value of my donors? Why is this metric so important?
2. How many new donors will give a second gift? How do I know if that is good or bad?
3. How many donors are not going to renew?
4. How do I replace the donors I lost this year? What do I need to do?
5. Where should my mid-level program start? How many donors can I upgrade and convert?
6. How many lapsed donors do I have? How often should I contact them?
7. How can I increase the number of monthly donors for my organization?
8. What are six metrics that I can use so everyone understands where the program stands, but is not overwhelmed.
9. How many donors and how much revenue is generated from major donors?
10. How can I reduce the amount of mail we send to our donors?

Here are a few more details on the basic set of KPIs every fundraiser needs and why they’re important.

• Lifetime Value of Your Donors. You’ll need this fundamental and critically important metric both for setting goals for 2017, and again, for measuring how well you did in lifting value in 2017.

[Tip: If you or your consultants want to be rewarded on performance, this is the metric that ultimately matters. It’s a mystery to me why most organizations don’t set this as the basic performance standard. Almost anyone with electricity can figure out what to print and mail, sign a purchase order or run a spreadsheet. Few understand that improving value is the ultimate test … to say nothing of how to do it.]

• New Donor and Existing Donor Retention Rates. No use pouring in all those acquisition dollars only to have them flow out the bottom of a leaky retention bucket.

[Of course The Agitator will continue to ride the retention horse in 2017.  So you might as well get those numbers for your organization in hand so you can better saddle up and ride with us.]

• Second Gift Conversion. How long did it take and how many first-time givers make that all-important 2^nd gift — a sure-fire harbinger of retention and, ultimately, Lifetime Value. What steps did you take in 2016 and what are you going to do differently in 2017 to up the number of new donors making a 2^nd gift?

• Upgrading/Downgrading/Revenue Trends. How did you do in 2016 compared to 2015, and what different or additional actions will you take in 2017  to drive the trend lines up?

• Lapsed Donor Reactivation. Every organization has some leaks in their retention bucket, but few pay as much sophisticated attention to re-capturing/restoring donors to active and continuing involvement and commitment. Here’s a great KPI for perhaps thinking about how better spend some of your acquisition budget.

Of course you need these numbers ‘yesterday’ so you can start driving action tomorrow. But many folks I talk to tell me ‘they won’t be ready’, ‘we can’t get the numbers’ for another month or two. Others report that, since they’re already paying for it, they have to wait for Blackbaud’s 4^th quarter donorCentrics numbers; but they won’t be out until March or April. Penny wise….

If you can brow beat your consultants or in-house analysts into getting you these numbers STAT that’s terrific. If not, take us up on the quick, free solution to this urgent need. Test drive the DonorTrends Donor Dashboard free of charge.

No matter how you get the essential performance indicators for 2017, please get them ASAP. Then, go to work immediately using this information to help plan, steer and drive your 2017 results and make it the best year ever.

Roger

P.S. If you take the free test drive of the  Donor Dashboard  please give Tom or me your feedback.