The concept of measuring key performance indicators (KPIs) might sound intimidating, especially if you’ve never done it before. But fundraising KPIs give you tons of insight into your campaigns, your donors, and your broader community.
Tracking the right metrics is an essential part of running effective campaigns and building a sustainable development strategy. It helps you measure what’s working, identify areas you can improve, and make data-driven decisions that will make you (and your organization!) more successful.
If you know you need to start tracking your performance and have been wondering where to start, you’re in the right place. In this article, we’ll outline key metrics every nonprofit should monitor and why they matter.
General Fundraising KPIs for Nonprofits
These metrics give you a high-level view of your overall fundraising performance. Keep an eye on these over time! The more you track them, the more easily you’ll be able to plan effective campaigns in the future.
1. Overall Fundraising Progress
What this is: This measures the percentage of your fundraising goal that you’ve achieved to date. This is useful for anything from annual campaigns to individual initiatives!
Why this is important: When you keep an eye on campaigns’ progress, you can catch potential challenges before they become big problems and adjust your tactics. Say you’re running a capital campaign and need to raise $100,000 in the first six months. If you’ve only raised $45,000 by the end of the end of the fourth month, you may need to consider changing your approach so you can meet your goal.
How to measure this: Divide the amount you’ve raised by your total goal, then multiply by 100.
Example: If your annual goal is $100,000 and you’ve raised $60,000 by June, you’ve achieved 60% of your target.
2. Average Donation Size
What this is: This is the average amount your financial donors contribute during a given time period.
Why this is important: This gives you insights into your donors’ capacities and can help you predict how much you may be able to raise based on your number of active donors. This can also be helpful when you’re setting donor acquisition goals or planning capital campaigns! If your average donor gives $200 each year, you probably shouldn’t set a goal that’s only feasible if your donors gave much more than that.
How to measure this: Divide the total amount you’ve raised in a time period by the number of people who gave.
Example: If you’ve raised $50,000 from 500 donors, your average donation size is $100.
3. New Donor Acquisition Cost
What this is: This is the average amount you spend to recruit each new donor.
Why this is important: Understanding this metric is the best way to determine if your current fundraising strategy is actually sustainable in the long run. If your average new donor acquisition cost is higher than a donor generally gives during their lifetime with your organization, it’s time to switch up your strategy.
How to measure this: Divide the amount of money you spent on donor acquisition activities by the number of new donors.
Example: If you spent $5,000 on marketing and gained 50 new donors as a result of those campaigns, your acquisition cost is $100 per donor. If your average donor gives $200 over the course of the year, you’re in pretty good shape… especially if you retain those donors for a long time. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves—we’ll talk more about donor acquisition rates later in the article!
Percentage of Online Donations
What this is: This is the portion of total donations that come in through online channels. The majority of your online donations will probably come in the form of gifts made on your organization’s donation page, but it can also include gifts made through social media channels and other avenues.
Why it’s important: This KPI provides insight into your donors’ giving preferences and, to some extent, the effectiveness of your online presence. If you’ve got a low percentage of online donations, it could mean a couple of things. It could mean that your donor base prefers to give through channels like direct mail or in-person gifts. If you don’t think that’s the case, you could start looking into why more people aren’t giving to you online. Can people find your website? Is it easy to use? Does your donation process feel clunky or confusing? There are lots of ways to improve!
How to measure this: Divide your online revenue by your total revenue, then multiply by 100.
Example: If your total revenue is $200,000 and $120,000 of that came from online gifts, 60% of your donations are online.
5. Donation Page Conversion Rate
What this is: This is the percentage of people who visit your donation page and complete a gift.
Why this is important: A good donation page will give your donors a great experience when they make a gift. If your conversion rate is low, you may want to consider making tweaks like reducing the number of fields on your form, adding copy or impact statements, or improving performance on mobile devices.
How to measure this: Divide the number of donations processed on your page by the number of people who visited that page. Then multiply by 100.
Example: If your page gets 1,000 visitors and 50 of them complete a donation, your conversion rate is 5%. It might be time to give your page a refresh—here’s an example of a great form to get you started!
Fundraising KPIs for Tracking Donor Engagement
These metrics dive deeper into how your donors interact with your organization. If you want to build a base of loyal supporters, understanding these KPIs will be important!
1. Donor Acquisition Rate
What this is: This is the rate at which you build your donor base by inspiring new supporters to make their first gift.
Why it’s important: If you want to grow your donor base, you’ll need to attract new supporters. That’s pretty intuitive, right? That alone makes this useful! This can help you understand how successful your marketing and outreach initiatives are, too.
How to measure this: Divide the number of new donors by the number of your total donors, then multiply by 100.
Example: If you have 200 total donors and 50 are new, your donor acquisition rate is 25%. If you measure this KPI again in three months and notice it’s dropped to 20%, you can start experimenting with the tactics you’re using to reach new people.
2. Donor Retention Rate
What this is: This is the percentage of donors who continue giving from one year to the next.
Why this is important: Low donor retention rates have been an issue for fundraisers for a long time. Retaining donors is more cost-effective than acquiring new ones, and building strong relationships with your supporters is the best way to keep your rates high. Monitor this metric to get good insight into how well your donor stewardship strategy is working. You can monitor it for your donor base as a whole, but you can also track retention rates for different donor segments, like monthly donors, new donors, or donors to specific campaigns.
How to measure this: Divide the number of returning donors divided by last year’s number of donors. Then multiply by 100.
Example: If you had 300 donors last year and 110 returned this year, your retention rate is 36%. That’s not bad by industry standards, but it does mean that you may want to explore new ways of keeping your supporters engaged.
3. Percentage of Recurring Donations
What this is: This is the portion of your revenue that comes from recurring donations. These are usually monthly gifts, but some donors may choose to give bi-weekly, quarterly, or even annually!
Why this is important: Recurring donors give you stable, predictable income, and they also tend to support your organization in other ways, too. Tracking this KPI will help you understand how effectively you’re inspiring people to make this kind of gift.
How to measure this: Divide your recurring revenue by your total revenue, then multiply by 100.
Example: If $15,000 of your $50,000 revenue is from recurring donors, 30% of your income is recurring. That’s pretty good! As you focus on building your monthly donor program, you should see this percentage begin to rise.
Why Tracking Fundraising KPIs Matters
We get it: Tracking fundraising KPIs can feel like a huge pain. You’re busy, and keeping an eye on these metrics can feel like a huge time commitment.
But understanding these KPIs gives you really valuable insight that you can use to strengthen your fundraising efforts while making sure you’re doing so in a sustainable way. For instance:
- Low donor retention rates might indicate that it’s time to revamp your existing donor stewardship program, switch up your communications, or focus on building relationships with your supporters.
- A high cost per acquisition signals that it’s time to reevaluate your marketing strategies or how much you spend on things like advertising and events.
- Online giving trends could give you insights into how effectively you use channels like email and social media to reach your community.
And these are just a handful of insights you can get from your metrics—there are so many ways to use this data! KPIs aren’t just numbers—they tell you a story about your fundraising program, your community, and how you can be a more effective fundraiser.
Do You Have the Data You Need to Track Your Progress?
Choose a few KPIs you want to keep an eye on and track them consistently. As you get more comfortable analyzing your data, you can start tracking new ones. Over time, you’ll develop an understanding of your own unique baseline performance. Wobbles and changes in that baseline will help you make good decisions about how you can adjust your strategies to be as effective as possible.
Of course, this is only possible if you have access to good data. A good nonprofit CRM will give you that access—it may even do some of these calculations for you!
Looking for a solution that will help? Check out The Buyer’s Guide to Choosing a Nonprofit CRM. It’s a handy resource you can use as you find CRM that’s the best fit for you and your organization!
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