While interviewing for my first fundraising position at MIT, I was asked, “How do you feel about numbers?” I chuckled and thought to myself, ‘One, two, three, four, five. I feel good.” The truth is that I had no idea what my interviewer really meant by that question, but I soon found out. She was talking about data and data analysis. How did I feel about working with numbers? What was my level of competency? Thank goodness for that required statistics class in grad school!
In the early ‘90s, the data we collected, tracked and analyzed was basic, especially compared to today. Starting my fundraising career at MIT was a piece of luck because, of course, it’s all about the math! I remember the annual giving director leading meetings devoted to reviewing results and trends he noticed in the reports – where we were up or down as compared to this time last year? When I became a director, I did the same with my staff. I knew that at least one person was listening (perhaps a future annual giving director), even if I was boring everyone else. At MIT, I was definitely listening.
When I was asked recently how to measure annual giving success, the data analytics gears began to turn. Despite my subsequent revelation that all fundraising success is measured by the impact on the people the funds support, there are numbers we should track to measure our results.
In annual giving, here is what you should be measuring on a basic level.
· How many total donors? How many as compared to this time last year and/or over the past four years? How many donors at each giving level?
· How many dollars? How many dollars as compared to this time last year and/or the past four years? How many dollars at each giving level?
· % Participation = of undergraduate donors/# of solicitable donors x 100
· Sources of gifts: how many donors have given through each solicitation channel including mail, phone, email, online (through your website), social media, face-to-face?
· Return on investment for each marketing channel: How much do you spend on each channel and how many dollars and donors come in through each?
· How many are new donors, reacquired lapsed donors, and renewed donors? In other words, how many have we acquired, reactivated or renewed year to date and as compared with prior years?
In the next part of this series on Annual Giving and Data, we will discuss how to set annual fund goals.
For help with your data and annual giving needs, reach out. Theresa@TJLPartners.com 508-523-3893