Donor Metrics Every Nonprofit Should Track

Posted on March 8, 2022

Donor Metrics are statistics used to measure fundraising, marketing, and donor management. Many CRMs and donor management systems regularly update this data, giving nonprofits up-to-date information. Monitoring metrics is second-best to having personal conversations with donors, a cumbersome and unrealistic task.

Attention to performance metrics lets you know where your nonprofit stands concerning your goals. Your organization can plan your fundraising roadmap and adjust the data changes by monitoring a few statistics.

Leverage the data from your donor metrics to gauge your fundraising performance, identify victories and plan needed improvements. iConnectX is here to help you plan and manage your fundraising efforts at every level, so let’s get started on essential donor metrics to monitor.

1. Impact

Your nonprofit’s impact is one of the top metrics you should measure. A nonprofit should evaluate its investments in data and research that verify if its programs are making a difference and addressing issues – this evaluation will justify its existence. A nonprofit’s mission and programs must be measurable. Goals need to be specific to honestly measure performance every month.

2. Donor Retention Rate

The donor retention rate is the number of donors who gave last year and this year, divided by your total number of donors.

A donor’s first gift is a nonprofit’s most costly and difficult donation; the second gift is probably the most important. According to fundraising consultants at the Ostara Group, three out of four donors do not donate a second time. However, 60% of second-tine donors will continue to contribute.

The objective is to reach the highest retention rate possible – this means that your organization is doing a great job of getting donors and engaging them in your mission. It’s also much less expensive to maintain existing donor relationships than make new ones.

3. Donor Satisfaction 

Donors are the essence of the mission. They are the fuel and the most critical promotions team you have at your disposal. If your donors are unhappy and feel disconnected, they probably won’t promote your organization. It’s simple to find out if your donors are happy through phone and email surveys.

4. Donor Acquisition Cost

The donor acquisition cost is the amount of money spent on attracting new donors is divided by the number of supporters acquired.

Attracting new donors is critical to fundraising, and it is an ongoing process. As mentioned above, it costs more to bring in new donors than retain current ones. Therefore, you must know what it costs your organization to bring in each donor. Knowing your donor acquisition cost helps you distribute resources and identify where you need improvement.

Here is an example: a social media campaign costs $1,000. It brings in 500 new donors; your donor acquisition cost is $2 per donor. If the average donation is $10 per donor, that is a high return on your investment. The overall goal is to make sure each new donor becomes a loyal supporter and a recurring donor.

5. Donor Lifetime Value

The donor lifetime value is the average donation amount multiplied by the average of years the donor stays involved with your nonprofit. Once you know the financial value of each donor, your organization can find ways to increase that value and adjust decision-making when it comes to allocating resources.

6. Event Conversion Rate

Your event conversion rate is the percentage of people who become new donors or increase their support after attending one of your events.

While data like the cost per dollar raised or ROI are valuable, the event conversion rate shows how your fundraising team performs on engagement and follow-up activities. In addition to performance, your conversion rate shows how well you are taking advantage of interactions at an event and making those interactions a genuine relationship. People want to invest their time and money in an organization that makes them feel valued.

7. The Number of Donors Who Increased Their Giving

What you’re measuring: when a donor gives more in the current year than in the previous year. This number lets you know you’re engaging your donors successfully; they trust you, and they approve of the work you’re doing.

8. Monthly & Yearly Donor Development

It is critical to keep track of your organization’s donor growth, both monthly and annually. Tracking donor growth helps you understand where you are in terms of your fundraising goals, and it demonstrates your year-over-year growth.

Consider the following questions as you track donor growth:

• The number of new donors
• The number of new donors compared to last year
• The amount of money raised and how that amount compares to this time last year

9. Recurring Gift Percentage

Tracking this metric is valuable information – it’s data that reflects recurring donations from your supporters. It’s a helpful statistic to have when you want to predict how much of your current revenue your organization will receive going forward.

Tracking the percentage of your donations that are recurring gifts from supporters who give throughout the year is very helpful. This statistic can help you predict how much of your current revenue you can confidently expect to receive going forward.

Many nonprofits also leverage this information to help them create targeted campaigns to increase those gift amounts or the frequency of giving. Other nonprofits use this metric to help them improve the number of recurring donors overall.

10. New Contact & Donor Acquisition by Source

If you look at the donor lifecycle, consider the importance of gathering new contacts in addition to new donors. In an ideal situation, new connections become donors. Collecting contact information offers you several opportunities to nurture them into recurring donors.

New contacts come from events, social media, or email subscribers. Place these contacts into a nurturing funnel where they can learn about your organization, like receiving newsletters and appeals.

So, what about measurement? Calculating the acquisition of new contact information and donors by source offers insight into what mediums your audience engages with. A “source” can be website traffic, social media engagement, event registrations, product purchases, or peer-to-peer campaigns.

Conclusion

Using data to track your fundraising performance is essential to success; think of it as watching the odometer when you’re driving down the highway. When you measure donor metrics, you gauge the success of your marketing efforts and gain insight into donor segmentation.

The metrics we mentioned here are not the only ones you can track; here are a few more you may want to add:

• Donor growth
• Gifts received
• Conversion rates by channel
• Number of upgraded donors
• Days until the first gift from initial contact

Whichever metrics you measure, keep track of them throughout the year; it’s key to understanding your donor base.

How iConnectX can help:

iConnectX is the ultimate technology platform for auctions, nonprofit event ticketing and fundraising. It offers donor and fundraising metrics, it’s easy to use, and offers social media integration for easy donor tracking. Reach out to us to learn how we can help you reach your fundraising goals!