Reporting for Fundraising

Transcription

1 Strategies for Supporting Advancement and Development Reporting for Fundraising Metrics, Analytics and the Strategic Plan Relating your data warehouse design to your strategic plan. SupportingAdvancement.com SupportingAdvancement.com. All rights reserved. Permission to use this information granted, provided that the SupportingAdvancement.com copyright notice and permission appears in all copies and use of information is for informational and non-commercial or personal use only and that no modification of the information is made.

2 What s On! Metrics, Analytics and the Strategic Plan... 3 Metrics and Strategy Maps... 5 About the Author... 7 About SupportingAdvancement.Com

3 Metrics, Analytics and the Strategic Plan How should the data warehouse design be the basis for establishing organizational metrics and how should the design relate to the strategic plan? The first step in establishing how metrics should be designed is to consider how the strategic plan relates to the balanced scorecard. The balanced scorecard is an approach to looking at both the short term and long term tactics that lead to accomplishment of organizational strategy. Metrics should therefore balance the short term and long term approach. What is a balanced scorecard? The balanced scorecard is a strategic planning and management system used to align business activities to the vision and strategy of the organization, improve internal and external communications, and monitor organizational performance against strategic goals. (From the Balanced Scorecard Institute.) More on the balanced scorecard from Wikipedia: If the long term strategy is to raise more money, then a short to long term approach should measure leading and lagging indicators to ensure that the pipeline is filled to a level that supports ongoing sustainable fundraising goals which are both activity and financial based. In fact, most fundraising results from activities whether they be events, visits, the development of proposals, etc. All of these will ideally combine in a systematic fashion to keep the pipeline filled in a true metrics driven organization. The first step is to analyze what the metrics would be along the donor cycle and see which ones drive and measure activity from a leading or lagging perspective. The following table contains several samples illustrative of the need to begin thinking creatively about the relationships between metrics and strategy. Table Leading and Lagging Metrics # of Proposals Developed Leading Activity # of Visits Planned/Scheduled Leading Activity # of Visits Completed Lagging Accountability Total Dollars Raised Lagging Accountability # of New Prospects Identified by Leading Activity Research # of New Prospects Assigned Mixed Activity in terms of the act of assignment; i.e. the manager is proactively assigning and helping to manage Development Officer prospect pools. [There is also a lagging indicator implicit here which is the time from when a prospect was identified to when the prospect was assigned.] # of Actions Recorded Lagging Accountability 3

4 Table Leading and Lagging Metrics Total of Outstanding Pledges Lagging Accountability % of Overdue Pledges as a % of Total Pledges Lagging/ Leading Accountability and activity. Accountability for collection of major gift pledges where a contact with a donor is a key part of the business process for collections. Gift Receipting Times Lagging/ Leading Leading if we need to use this to improve receipting times. Web Site Traffic Lagging/ Leading Leading if we are using proactively to arrange content on the site so traffic increases or similarly if we are using the web site metrics to measure behavior and then providing custom content. Lagging if we are using traffic as a passive indicator to seeing how we are doing over time for metrics such as numbers of visitors or page loads. Monthly Financial Statements Lagging Accountability Fundraising Budget Projections Leading Although they are financial, targets ideally represent the quantifiable amount of the realization of the strategic plan. All of the above metrics help answer some of the key questions implicit in a strategy-based approach to managing an organization. The answers should ideally lead to constant adjustment to the strategy based on the relationships of facts to the balanced scorecard. Are our operations under control? Do we have the right metrics to measure the basics of whether we are under control? Are we executing our strategy? If we are not executing or do not know, what are the leading indicators that we will need to provide this information? Do we have the right strategy in place? There are additional metrics that can enhance the picture including budget and hours of effort expended on specific projects. Budget figures are relatively easy to obtain and many organizations look at ROI of specific programs; most organizations, however, do not collect hours worked on particular tasks and this is inferred from budget. 4

5 The key to totality in metrics is the incorporation of a sense of the effort required to collect and report on them vs. the benefits they provide to monitoring organizational performance. We would all like to be comprehensive, but there will be a point of diminishing returns. Nevertheless, a data warehouse can facilitate the amalgamation of these various sources of data into a comprehensive view of the business. Metrics and Strategy Maps In the following strategy map for metrics, both professional development and benchmarking lead an organization to increased comprehension of how to improve both comparative and internal metrics. As these help to drive business processes, the resulting financial reporting is the measure of the current success. If an organization is successful, all of the major activities that enable and measure strategy can be effectively employed to increase the amount of money raised. (For example, although it may not be obvious, a low cost of fundraising encourages donors to be comfortable in giving to the organization since most of their money will end up supporting the cause.) Donor Increased Giving Financial Endowment Unrestricted Cost of Fundraising Internal Processes Activity Reporting Financial Reporting Activity Reporting Stewardship Learning & Growth Professional Development & Training Peer Benchmarking 5

6 Though this is not an actual strategy map, it is illustrative of how a metrics approach to managing can be an effective method for increasing giving. If the chart were to be color-coded and placed in a dashboard, one could readily observe where needed improvements in metrics would be beneficial. 6

7 About the Author Brian Dowling has worked at a number of non-profit and higher education organizations in both the United States and Canada where he gained understanding, knowledge and perspectives of managing in small, medium and large shops. This experience included multiple system conversions, web site development, budgetary and financial responsibilities, operations management and more. He has consulted in the United States, Canada and Australia, written numerous articles and presents regularly at conferences. He invests his spare time in SupportingAdvancement.Com and is an amateur musician. About SupportingAdvancement.Com SupportingAdvancement.Com is a high traffic web property with the mission of providing free resources of interest to those working in the fundraising profession. Efficiency is crossing the bridge quickly. Effectiveness is deciding if you need to cross at all. Hopefully, you'll find some resources and ideas here to help you be more efficient and effective. Under the reporting and systems pages you ll find additional information on reporting, data warehouses, business intelligence and related links