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In the world that we live in today, every decision we make relies on data in one form or another.
Data’s powerful.
- It can help you forecast your recurring revenue so you can better plan ahead.
- It can tell you what giving campaigns are working best, and what needs to be fixed.
- It can help you reduce donor churn and increase your donor retention.
But in order to properly leverage your data, it must first be properly managed. In this post, we’re going to look at the KPIs you should be tracking.
You may also be interested in the article: common donor data mistakes nonprofits make.
Is my nonprofit tracking the right KPIs?
If you highlight every page of a book, the highlights, while they may look pretty, are completely useless. the same goes for data collection - It doesn’t matter how many metrics you track and how clean your data is if you’re not tracking the right things or if you’re overwhelmed by too much; it's messy data.
Our recommendation?
Track what’s necessary for your organization.
Now, that would be a cop-out if we left it at that and, while the exact KPIs you chose do, ultimately, depend on how your nonprofit operates and measures their benchmarks.
Here are a few useful metrics to track asap.
- Churn and retention. Churn measures the percentage of donors that leave and retention measures the percentage of those who stick around.
- Monthly and Annual Recurring Revenue. This will give you a sense of your base monthly donations and what you can expect to receive each month, or year. This is particularly helpful when budgeting or planning ahead.
- Donor Acquisition Cost (DAC). This tells you how much you spent to acquire a new donor. The lower your DAC, the greater your donor’s lifetime value. It’s also great to help you assess which campaigns are the most successful.
- DAC Payback Period. This tells you how long you need to keep a donor around to offset their DAC.
- Donor Lifetime Value (DLTV). This will tell you what the expected lifetime value of any donor will be.
- DLTV: DAC Ratio. This shows you how much of a return you are making on each acquired donor.
Final words...
Want to learn more about how to turn donor data into a secret weapon?
Watch our workshop On-Demand, conveniently called How to Turn Donor Data into a Secret Weapon for Nonprofits. In it we explore:
- more common mistakes that nonprofits make with donor data,
- how to find excess fundraising capacity in your donor database,
- how to use knowledge of your current donors to find and acquire new donors,
- and three things you can start doing TODAY to transform your fundraising data.