In mid-level, with a caseload of 500-700, it’s not realistic to set goals for individual donors as we do in major gifts. Instead, mid-level donors are organized into three tiers, and fundraisers work their plan by sending strategic touch points for each of those tiers. So, without setting goals per donor, how do you know if your mid-level program is on track?

We track progress for mid-level by looking at three key indicators and whether those numbers are trending upward, year over year. These metrics include: 1) average revenue per donor, 2) value / donor value retention rates, and 3) how many donors are moving into major gifts from mid-level each year. The goal for mid-level is to move the needle on each of those metrics.

In this Question of the Month video, Richard and Jeff discuss how to track the success of your mid-level program using these key indicators. Watch it here:

If you’d like to learn more about our system and structure for mid-level programs, be sure to check out our Certification Course in Mid-Level Fundraising.

Read the full transcript below:

Richard Perry 

Hi, and welcome to this month’s Question of the Month. When we’re talking about mid-level programs with non-profit leaders, we often get questions around the economics and financial aspects of the program. And, today, we’ll be addressing one of those questions: How do you set goals in mid-level?

Jeff Schreifels 

That’s a really good question, Richard. The short answer is, we don’t. Major gifts, yes. Mid-level, we don’t set goals. We ask the mid-level officer to really work their plan by tier, not by individual donors as major gifts, but working their plan. That’s the first thing we say, work your plan. But there are some indicators that we’re trying to move the needle on. The first is revenue per donor. So, take a baseline before we start the program. What is the revenue per donor? That means average gift times frequency of gifts? Right? So, that’s your revenue per donor. What’s the baseline? And from there, we’re trying to move that up. The other is your value and donor value retention rates. What are they? We’re trying to get a baseline of that, and then also move those indicators up.

Richard Perry 

Over the course of the year, there’s both revenue acquisition and donor retention.

Jeff Schreifels 

That’s right. And then finally, we’re looking at what percent of donors are we moving from mid to major? That’s a great indicator. If we can get some of that information prior, which is kind of hard to do, we do that. But what we want to achieve is somewhere between three and three and a half percent of the donors in mid-level moving into major gifts every year. So, while there isn’t goal setting per se, those are the indicators we really look at to try to move the needle on.

Richard Perry 

Thank you, Jeff. We hope that this has helped you gain clarity on how to approach goal setting when you’re launching and managing a mid-level program. If you’re ready to learn more about goal setting, and the rest of our system and structure for mid-level fundraising, be sure to check out our Certification Course in Mid-Level Fundraising. This is a comprehensive training that will give you our best practices, tools, and resources to help you create a thriving mid-level program and connect you more strategically with your donors. You can learn more about this course by visiting our website or by emailing us at academy@veritusgroup.com. Thank you and take care.