THE VERITUS REPORT
Jeff Schreifels • Senior Partner • March 2022
One of the key metrics that we track for front-line fundraisers (outside of revenue) that we feel is both strategic and effective in measuring is “meaningful connections.”
What we have found in most non-profits where we do our free donor assessment is that this metric is rarely tracked. Instead, non-profit leaders and managers are tracking the number of face-to-face meetings, number of phone calls, etc. – whether they are meaningful or not.
What happens over time is that what you measure (and value), elicits the behavior of the fundraiser. I’ve had so many conversations with fundraisers who say they scramble at the end of the month to meet the metric, instead of trying to create deeper relationships with donors.
I won’t go into the craziness of some of these stories, but if you have 10 meetings to book in the last week of the month, you can imagine what fundraisers end up doing just to check off a box so their manager is happy and they don’t get dinged.
Instead, as a leader or manager, you should be nurturing your front-line fundraiser in a way that helps them develop long-term, trusting relationships with donors. To do that, you have to let go of metrics that are designed to “manage” without actually managing your fundraiser.
What do I mean? The reason for the crazy metrics that many non-profit leaders and managers are using is that they don’t actually have the time to manage the fundraiser themselves, and so instead, they use these metrics as a crutch for their lack of management.
It’s really messed up.
If you were really managing your front-line fundraiser well, you would have a goal for every donor that is cash-flowed, and you would be tracking how well your fundraiser is doing to those monthly goals. Additionally, you would be tracking meaningful connections. And you would be meeting with that fundraiser every week to see how they were doing against those goals.
If you were doing that, you wouldn’t have to rely on all these insane metrics that really have no meaning. Because we all know that front-line fundraisers have ways to check off that box. So, those metrics are meaningless. They aren’t reliable indicators of progress; they just make the manager (and the MGO who is evaluated on them) feel good.
Good managers provide their fundraisers with frequent feedback, strategy input, encouragement, accountability, and focus on a consistent basis. This is the key to a front-line fundraiser’s success.
Not these meaningless metrics.
Major gift fundraising is about building relationships with donors. That takes time. It takes persistence and patience. As a manager, that’s what you must prioritize and make space for with your team.
And, when you’re feeling the pressure from leaders to “get the money now,” you are their advocate by educating those leaders on why major gifts is a long game, and what you are doing to assure them of the success of the program.
It’s not about metrics that don’t matter. It’s about setting up strong management practices that use meaningful metrics to build strong relationships with donors.
Jeff
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