Question of the Month: Which fundraising metrics are the ones that actually matter?
Many fundraising managers rely on measuring fundraisers’ activity, i.e., how many phone calls an MGO makes, the number of face-to-face donor meetings each month, or the number of asks. The problem with action-based metrics is that they don’t demonstrate results, and...
Measure Something Meaningful
I was recently at a fundraising conference and there was a session on benchmarking. The discussion evolved around measuring the effectiveness of each stream of revenue, how to do that right, whether or not that was even relevant, etc. There was no discussion on how to...
For a Path to Sustainable Growth, Look Beyond Membership Programs
Are you a non-profit leader who sees the writing on the wall that maybe your membership program has hit a plateau? If so, you’re not alone! Here’s an example of what this might feel like. The membership program or giving society that your organization has relied on...
Beyond Fundraising Metrics: How Great Managers Get Results
In a recent blog post, I wrote about the renewed interest non-profits had to revert to old, action-based metrics in times of financial uncertainty. It’s like watching a poorly scripted re-run where the characters never learn their lesson. And boy did this spur a...
The Case for Fundraising Metrics That Actually Matter
Something that has been irritating me lately is that I’m hearing how non-profits, worried that 2023 was not as good financially, are going back to using old metrics to “manage” frontline fundraisers. It seems that we cannot learn from the past, so we have to continue...TOP RATED PODCAST
Twice monthly, Richard and Jeff address current topics and classic problems in major gift fundraising.
