By Abby Jarvis, Head of Research at Neon One

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Very, very few people actually get excited about tracking key performance indicators (KPIs). A lot of nonprofit professionals—especially people who focus on fundraising—actually dread it.

And that’s totally understandable!

Tracking the wrong fundraising metrics—or even using the right metrics in the wrong way—can be intensely stressful. But tracking the right things can actually help you simplify your job while getting better results. 

Here are some tips for how to do that.

Is Tracking Fundraising KPIs Actually Worth the Effort?

Short answer: yes. And here’s why. 

When you measure the right things, you can identify potential problems before they become huge issues. You can communicate more effectively with your supporters, and you can make better decisions about how to spend your time and energy. Instead of your fundraising KPIs just being a “report card” that shows how well you’ve performed in the past, they become tools that will make you better at your job.

That shift is a really important one, especially if you dread looking back at your performance. 

But how can you actually make that shift happen?

1) Choose a Handful of Fundraising KPIs to Measure

The fastest way to stress yourself is to measure everything. There are two reasons for that, and they’re both related to each other.

Have you ever heard the expression “What gets measured gets managed?” If you measure a handful of KPIs that will help you reach your goals, you’ll be able to focus your energy on the work that gets you closer to those goals. But if you track dozens of unrelated metrics, it’s much easier to get wrapped up in work that doesn’t actually serve you very well.

Here’s an example:

Say your primary fundraising goal is to expand your donor base by reaching new supporters and retaining the ones you already have. Measuring your donor acquisition and retention rates will be most important, as will keeping an eye on which channels and communication tactics work best for you. But if you start keeping a really close eye on donation form conversion rate, you could end up putting a ton of time and effort into iterating on your donation forms over and over again when that energy would be better spent on getting people to your form in the first place.

That’s related to the second reason that measuring everything will stress you out.

When everything feels important, nothing really is. Take that example above. Your primary goal is to grow the number of active supporters in your donor base, not to perfect your donation form. If you’re acquiring and retaining donors, you’re doing well! If you notice the number of donations dropping, then you may want to check out your donation form conversion rates and see what’s happening. A drop may mean that something’s broken. But that metric should be secondary to your primary KPIs.

2) Be Thoughtful With Your Fundraising KPIs

Tracking important fundraising KPIs can help you focus on what’s important. But you should approach those numbers thoughtfully. Measuring even the most common fundraising KPIs can throw you off if you’re not careful about how you use them.

Here’s an example. Tracking your average donation amount can be genuinely useful. It can help you do things like spot which campaigns inspire larger gifts, which gives you insight into the kinds of work or programs that inspire your donors. It can also inform your suggested giving array on donation forms—if you notice that most people give $35 gifts even though your suggested donation amounts start at $10, you may want to increase those suggestions.

See? It can be really helpful.

But if you spend too much time trying to increase your average donation amount, there’s the risk that you’ll end up over-emphasizing major donors while neglecting relationships with everyday donors. That will end with you relying on a small group of supporters for a big part of your revenue, and that’s not a great position to be in. 

Or let’s go back to measuring conversion rates on your donation page. Monitoring conversion rates can absolutely help you catch problems (like the broken form scenario from earlier) or understand what messaging your supporters find compelling. But overemphasizing it can have drawbacks. You may end up removing fields that collect important donor contact information; your conversion rate might go up, but you won’t have the information you need to connect with your supporters after they give. Or you could spend a ton of time and resources making tiny tweaks that barely move the needle.

The lesson here is to be really thoughtful about how you use the fundraising KPIs you track. A metric can guide your work or be a distraction; it all depends on how you approach it.

3) Don’t Get Hung Up On Fundraising Benchmarks

One extremely common stressor for nonprofit fundraisers is comparing their own performance to industry benchmarks.

Sure, industry benchmarks can be useful. They’re especially handy when you start tracking something you’ve never tracked before. Understanding how you’re performing relative to others in the sector can help you orient yourself and identify where you should focus. If you notice that your donor retention rate is well above the industry standard, for example, you may choose not to adjust your current retention strategy and focus your energy on something else, instead. That’s helpful.

But benchmarks can also be unhelpful, especially if they cause complacency or unnecessary stress.

Donor retention rates for first-time givers hovers around 19%. If your own retention rate for first-time donors is also 19%, you may be tempted not to focus on your own retention rate. You are, after all, hitting that industry benchmark. Right?

No! You’re still only retaining one in five new donors. That’s not sustainable, even if it is in line with sector performance. 

Or say your first-time donor retention rate is 12%. You might despair because you’re not hitting that benchmark. Instead of panicking, treat it as an opportunity. You’ve identified that this is an area that demands attention. What can you do to start changing that trend? Measure your results, celebrate incremental progress, and keep iterating until you’re beating the industry trends.

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Snag this worksheet and start learning which metrics to track, how to calculate them, and where to get your data. Get the Worksheet!

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Tips for Making Fundraising KPIs Feel Less Overwhelming

Even if you know that measuring fundraising KPIs is important and can be really constructive, doing it can be really overwhelming. That’s especially true if you’ve never done it before.

Here are three tips for making it easier.

1) Choose a handful of things to measure

Seriously, choose only a few. Start with the two or three metrics that are most closely tied to your most important goals. If you notice something is off, then you can dig into additional data to diagnose the issue. But start small.

2) Measure the same things every week

Or every month—whatever makes sense for your work. Whatever you choose, make sure you measure consistently. This is important for a few reasons.

When you track your metrics regularly, you’ll be able to catch and address potential problems before they get out of control. You’ll also develop an intuition for what’s normal and what’s not, and that can be really reassuring. You’ll also get better at reporting! Repetition is one of the best antidotes to reporting anxiety.

3) Write it all down

This is incredibly useful. Write down where you pull each data point, how you calculate each metric, and a step-by-step process for tracking your fundraising KPIs. You will thank yourself the next time you are running reports after an exhausting day or when you need someone else to cover while you are on vacation.

Get Curious About Your Fundraising KPIs

If you hate measuring your fundraising KPIs, you’re not alone. But the best way to overcome that dread is to approach your metrics with curiosity.

When your response rates dip, when your retention rate slips, or when a campaign doesn’t perform the way you hoped, try to approach it with curiosity instead of anxiety. Sure, missing a goal or seeing a negative trend is discouraging. But it’s also an opportunity, and you can use your performance to identify how to improve.

A dip in a metric isn’t always a verdict. Sometimes it’s a question! What did you do differently that could have caused that outcome? What can you learn from it? How can you adjust your approach next time?

Approach your fundraising KPIs with curiosity. They’re a way to learn what inspires your community, what moves them, and how to connect with them better. Sometimes you’ll have huge wins. Sometimes you’ll miss your goals. But, whatever happens, you’ll have learned how to be a better fundraiser. That’s what’s important.