Fundraising Data & Trends: Putting It All Together
1. Fundraising Data and Trends: Putting it All Together PRESENTED BY: ANDREW WATT, FINSTF & MELISSA S. BROWN for the Association of Fundraising Professionals
2. No longer trying to catch up to for-profits…
2 #bbcon
We have:
•Technology
•Best practices
•Expertise
•Innovation
•Benchmarking
7. Giving USA
•Americans donated an estimated $335.17 billion
•An increase of 4.4% - $18.94 billion
•The fourth straight year of gains
•Not at 2007 prerecession highs, but increased 22% since end of recession
7 #bbcon
12. Effectiveness
But what is your definition of effectiveness?
Whose idea of effectiveness?
Does effectiveness matter that much to everyone? Yes, but…
12 #bbcon
13. Interest in ROI
13 #bbcon
Wealth Engine: “Measuring Fundraising Return on Investment and the Impact of Wealth Intelligence”
14. Efficiency
Efficiency is critical, but again, being efficient at WHAT?
•Overall costs?
•Specific program costs?
•Internal/external costs?
•Program delivery?
14 #bbcon
15. Other factors
•Internal management
•External benchmarking
•Lifetime value of a donor
•Institutional/Long-term investment in fundraising
15 #bbcon
16. Measurements Depend on Application
• Organization’s plan
•Management of your FR program
•An identified peer group
•ID opportunities, strengths
•Your organization’s subsector
•Is your boat rising with the tide?
•All nonprofits
•ID trends in other sectors (“threats”)
17. Who decides what we want to measure? We ALL need to play a role here!
17 #bbcon
21. Greenfield’s The Big Three Data Items
1.Number of donors (or donations)
2.Income from this appeal or group of appeals
3.Expenses, including staff time and indirect costs, for this appeal or group of appeals
21 #bbcon
22. Greenfield: Key Metrics
•Percentage participation: Donors/Number of asks
•Average gift: Amount of income/Number of asks
•Net income: Income - expenses
22 #bbcon
23. Two Sides of the Same Coin
•Return on investment: Revenue/Expenses
•Cost to raise a dollar: Expenses/Revenue
•MUST compare in different ways:
•Short-term
•Long-term
•Against original goals
•Against other programs
23 #bbcon
24. Donor Retention
•Donor retention: Number of donors in this year/Number of donors in previous year
•Increasingly important metric with increasing competition and fewer donors
•Retaining existing donors much less expensive than finding new ones
24 #bbcon
25. Other Key Metrics
•Upgrades
•Acquisition
•Donor interaction and conversions
25 #bbcon
26. Outside the Box: What About Loyalty
•Donor satisfaction/commitment and trust
•Exit polling
•Number (and categories) of complaints
26 #bbcon
27. Other Metrics
•Monitor percentage of new donors who report learning of organization from existing donor or volunteer
•Track MEDIAN, not mean, gift amount
--dzo Strategies
27 #bbcon
28. Actionable Information
•Phases of a donor relationship that can be measured without tracking money contributed
•Engagement
•Solicitation, specific ask
•Pending (status of continuing gift negotiation)
•Stewardship
28 #bbcon
29. What do donors want in terms of impact? Fashion your metrics accordingly!
29 #bbcon
31. Data Entry
•PLAN data entry to support selected metrics
•Gift level
•Donor level
•“Cohort” level – “Class of ‘1x” or “Grateful patients”
•Program / department level (costs, ROI, etc.)
•Do: Test runs for entry, output
•Check: Assess usefulness of test runs
•Act: Make changes, put into action
32. Data Analysis Resources
•Built into software
•Proprietary
•Fundraising Effectiveness Project
•Download selected data points
•Growth in Giving at www.APFNet.org/GIGTemplate
•Retention analysis
•Analysis by cohort or subset
•More to come in Fundraising Fitness Test
34. Examples of Comparison Resources
Giving USA
•Total changes in giving, by donor type and by sub-sector type
Nonprofit Research Collaborative
(AFP co-sponsorship)
•Semi-annual, changes by type vehicle (online, direct mail, etc.)
FEP (AFP co-sponsorship)
• Annual, retention and upgrades
Blackbaud Giving Index
•Monthly, changes in total
37. Using NRC for Analysis by Vehicle
17%
26%
24%
30%
39%
35%
24%
18%
19%
18%
27%
25%
10%
19%
23%
25%
33%
37%
33%
31%
56%
49%
66%
51%
38%
40%
43%
45%
47%
51%
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
Respondents by Change Reported, Direct Mail Receipts, Year on Year
Increased
Stayed the
same
Decreased
38. Fundraising Effectiveness Project
Median Gain/Loss Ratios, All FEP Participants
46.8%
53.1%
52.7%
50.7%
-60.4%
-56.5%
-57.7%
-59.5%
-5.6%
1.1%
1.8%
-2.5%
Gain Ratio
Loss Ratio
Rate of growth
2009 2010 2011 2012
40. Other Benchmarks
•Blackbaud. State of the Nonprofit Industry
•NTEN/M+R. The 2014 Nonprofit Benchmarks Study, focuses on online giving
•NTEN. The 8th Annual Nonprofit Technology Staffing & Investments Report
•CASE and Association for Healthcare Philanthropy have industry-specific benchmarks.
41. AFP Summary of Benchmarks
•CTRD: $0.32 for hospitals (AHP)
•% of dollars from top 10% of donors: 95%
(Median per CASE Campaign Report)
•Direct mail response: house list: 3.6%
•Direct mail response: prospects: 0.9%
(DMA)
•Member Access at AFPNet.org
43. Challenges to Metrics for Gifts Received
No universal solutions.
Consider how your organization:
•Links gift to appeal(s)
•Credits couples – before, during, after
•Gives soft credit
•Tracks planned gift commitments
44. Challenges to metrics for CTRD
Again, no universal standards.
•Does your organization consider staff time?
•Development staff?
•Other organizational personnel in fundraising work?
•Do you track total costs, marginal costs, or both?
•Volunteer investment of time?
47. Goals for Metrics
•Part of management strategy and controls
•Measure things organization can change
•Set benchmarks ahead of time
•Use free or low-cost resources at first
•e.g., Services from software vendor or GIGTemplate
48. Back to the “Why”
•We are under considerable pressure by different audiences to benchmark and analyze:
•Funders and donors
•Board of directors
•Executive staff
•The public
•There are benchmarking/trend “standards” in place but we need to take control of:
•Our message and story
•What makes the most sense for our organization
50. 50 #bbcon
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