By Karen Kegg
Development officers have so much to accomplish! The expectations that are placed on fundraisers and their departments are high in this very competitive market, and knowing what to focus on can be challenging when being pulled in so many directions. However, setting performance standards for individuals can assist the department in reaching the organization’s goals when a defined process with attainable outcomes is established.
Performance metrics measure an organization’s activities and performance. Metrics create tangible steps that set clear, reachable goals within a finite period of time and track the results in a suitable system. Think about metrics as goals being broken into manageable units. Those units should be based on the organization you serve and its particular culture. Some universal nonprofit examples include:
- How much money has your nonprofit raised?
- What’s your percentage growth of constituent-based giving (annual fund)?
- How many new donors have you acquired?
- How many donors have renewed their gift?
- How many donors have upgraded their support?
Now comes the science part: Utilizing the quantitative metrics, or the work to be done, to reach your organization’s unit goals.
Building strong relationships with constituents requires activities to move the donors closer to the organization. These activities include thoughtful interactions and personal visits to qualify, cultivate, solicit and steward prospects and donors. Establishing the number of activities for each donor prospect in a portfolio creates a strategy. Performance metrics also hold the development officers accountable for their actions. These strategies are laid out at the beginning of each fiscal year and should be reviewed every three to six months.
It’s important to be specific and realistic when setting performance metrics. The metrics should be based on the development officer’s experience level and the giving capacity of the portfolio. Some examples of metrics include:
- Number of face-to-face visits per month for qualification and cultivation. The standard number of face-to-face visits is 7 to 10 per month.
- Number of proposals and solicitations per year. One third of the portfolio should be ready for solicitation.
- Number of annual fund renewals
- Amount of money raised in a fiscal year
Analyzing outcomes
An important aspect of performance metrics is strategy effectiveness. Have activities in the last three to six months reaped the benefits? The pipeline should be continuously moving donors closer to the organization and bringing in new friends for support. One helpful metric to analyze is how much time a prospect spends in cultivation. All too often development officers have prospects in their portfolio in “perpetual cultivation” but they never solicit those prospects for a major gift. This should serve as a red flag to managers who can coach the development officer to be more proactive to move a prospect through discovery, cultivation and solicitation. Sometimes those prospects may need to be reevaluated or reassigned.
If you have not already, I encourage you to evaluate your department’s effectiveness and begin to set departmental and individual goals for your organization. Begin by analyzing the donor database and evaluate the capacity of the top 10 percent of donor prospects. Start small and ramp up the metrics each year. If you work smart and focus on what will bring in the best results, your development efforts will continue to be successful!