Nonprofit events represent more than just a fun opportunity to bring community members together. They have the unique ability to generate engagement and excitement among their communities while raising a lot of money for worthy causes.
As a nonprofit fundraising professional or event planner, you can learn a great deal about where your organization stands with supporters from your events. They allow you to gather data on supporter engagement and fundraising strategies, analyze your results, and adjust your future event planning approach accordingly.
The best way to assess the success of your nonprofit events is to track key performance indicators (KPIs) before, during, and after the experiences.
For nonprofit event organizers looking for easy event planning tips, keep these five key fundraising KPIs in mind:
- Fundraising ROI
- Cost per dollar raised
- Gifts secured
- Pledge fulfillment percentage
- Fundraising participation rate
Events are likely a significant aspect of your organization’s overall fundraising strategy, and by tracking event outcomes, you can craft better strategies for future fundraising efforts.
And remember that fundraising KPIs aren’t just useful to track during events. You should track these fundraising metrics for each campaign or fundraising push you conduct to better understand your overall fundraising progress. Let’s dive in!
1. Fundraising ROI
Your fundraising return on investment (ROI) tells you how much money you raised during your event vs. how much money you spent on producing the event. ROI fundraising metric is determined by dividing net income by expenses x 100.
For example, ((10,000 in revenue – $1,000 of expenses)/1,000 of expenses) X 100 = 900%
Your expenses include costs such as your venue rental, catering, production staff, equipment, security, administrative costs, and any other associated costs that come up before, during, and after the event. Your staff’s wages are also included in this tally and don’t forget to factor in invitation design and mailing costs, as well as the price of any thank-you gifts and the gift size.
Your revenue is determined by how much you were able to raise throughout the event from repeat donors, new donors, or any other additional resources. This could include gifts received during the event and those sent in the days or weeks leading up to the event.
The fundraising ROI metric conveys important information about the success of your fundraising effort and event, such as letting you know if you sold enough tickets or not. Plus, if you were able to gain a new donor or if there was a donor growth. If your fundraising ROI is lower than expected, you can focus on improving your fundraising efforts during future events. For example, perhaps you need to market your event better to sell more tickets, generate donation conversion, remind attendees to give more frequently during the event, or develop new revenue streams like add-on purchases and merchandise.
2. Cost per dollar raised
Cost per dollar raised (CDPR) is the opposite of fundraising ROI. Instead of dividing net income by expenses, you divide your expenses by net revenue. CDPR lets you know if your event raised money, lost money, or broke even—your fundraising efficiency as opposed to your event’s overall fundraising effort effectiveness.
For example (1,000 in expenses/10,000 in net revenue) = .10 or 10% or 10 cents per dollar raised.
If reducing your event expenses is a priority for your nonprofit organization, you might want to spend some time analyzing your CDPR and investigating areas where you can cut costs. For instance, perhaps you can find a better discount on an event space, or ask a local restaurant to donate food rather than paying to cater the event.
3. Gifts secured
Gifts secured are the number of donations your organization received throughout the event. You can separate donor metrics by the type of gifts received — for example, major gifts, mid-level gifts, and small gifts. You can also determine the average gift amount, as well as the most popular gift amount.
Your Gifts Secured KPI lets you know the type of donors that your event attracted. You’ll be able to note the audience that your event reached, as well as who was left out. Then, you can create a more targeted outreach strategy moving forward to reach a wider or more targeted audience.
Let’s say you find that your last event saw a wide disparity of many larger gifts and small gifts, but not as many of those critical mid-tier donations. You can alter your outreach strategy to target more mid-level prospective donors with your event marketing materials.
4. Pledge fulfillment percentage
Pledges are promises that supporters make to contribute a certain amount to your event. Perhaps you’re hosting a walk-a-thon. Walk-a-thon participants gather pledges before event day from donors who promise to contribute a certain donation amount based on the distance walked. If participants complete the specified mileage, your nonprofit organization gathers the pledged donations at the end of the event.
To track pledge fulfillment, divide the total pledges fulfilled by the total pledges promised and multiply by 100.
For example, assume your charity organization had a gala fundraising event at which participants were urged to make donations to a specific cause. Attendees promised a total of $50,000 to be contributed to the charity during the event. Your team follows up with participants in the days after the event to collect committed funds. You were able to recover $40,000 from the promised money after a month. To compute the pledge fulfillment %, do the following:
(Actual Pledges Fulfilled / Total Pledges Promised) x 100 = Pledge Fulfillment Percentage
Pledge Fulfillment Percentage = ($40,000 / $50,000) multiplied by 100 equals 80%.
The pledge fulfillment percentage in this case is 80%, which means that 80% of the total pledged amount was fulfilled. The remaining 20% ($10,000) comprises pledged but uncollected commitments. Consider employing better follow-up techniques to encourage pledgers to complete their obligations to boost pledge completion.
If you’re finding more pledges were promised than fulfilled, you can reevaluate your pledge fulfillment strategy and increase your outreach efforts to ensure pledgers follow through with their gifts.
5. Fundraising participation rate
The fundraising participation rate is an effective KPI to track if your event was a peer-to-peer fundraising event or any type of “a-thon” style event. Participation rate KPI tells you how many people attended or donated to your fundraising vs. how many people were actually fundraisers themselves. To calculate the fundraising participation rate metric, divide the total number of attendees or donors vs. the total number of donors or attendees who participated in fundraising.
For example, suppose your organization launched a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign in which supporters were encouraged to develop fundraising sites and collect donations from their networks. You had a total of 100 registered participants who actively generated funds during the campaign. To calculate the fundraising involvement rate, do the following:
(Number of Fundraisers / Total Number of Participants) x 100 = Fundraising Participation Rate
Participation Rate in Fundraising = (100 / 150) x 100 = 66.67%
The fundraising involvement percentage in this situation is roughly 66.67%. This implies that 66.67% of those who took part actively participated in fundraising by creating fundraising sites and soliciting donations. The remaining 33.33% were not actively involved in fundraising. To improve fundraising engagement, you might offer incentives and assistance to encourage more people to become fundraisers and advocates for your cause.
Fundraising participation KPI provides an effective look at how many people you were able to engage with your fundraising pursuits. Since becoming a peer-to-peer fundraiser requires more participation than simply donating, the participation rate metric lets you know how many enthusiastic existing donor and advocates you have in your corner.
Calculating your fundraising participation rate can help with your prospect research as well because you can determine the demographics and characteristics of the supporters who decided to participate in fundraising. Then, you can determine which prospective audience members align with these characteristics and develop a targeted outreach strategy to connect with them.
These nonprofit KPIs will help put your organization on the right track to developing more engaging and successful nonprofit events. Remember, if you don’t already have an event planning system in place, explore your options for a nonprofit event management platform to help you gather and track event metrics.
But before you start your fundraiser strategic planning, let’s explore first what are the best practices for tracking nonprofit KPIs.
Best Practices for Tracking Nonprofit KPIs and Making Informed Decisions
Establish Clear Goals
Before organizing any nonprofit event, define specific and measurable goals. Whether it’s raising a certain amount of funds, increasing donor acquisition, or improving donor retention, having clear objectives will help you select the most relevant KPIs to monitor.
Use Technology and Software
Invest in a nonprofit event management platform or fundraising software that can streamline the process of tracking and analyzing KPIs. These tools can automate data collection, generate reports, and provide real-time insights, making it easier for your team to evaluate event performance.
Segment Your Data
Categorize your donors and supporters into various groups based on their engagement levels or giving history. Segmenting the data will allow you to identify trends and patterns, enabling you to tailor your future event strategies and marketing efforts for different supporter segments.
Regularly Monitor KPIs
Tracking KPIs isn’t a one-time activity; it requires continuous monitoring before, during, and after each event or campaign. Regularly reviewing the data will help you identify areas of improvement, understand your organization’s performance, and make data-driven decisions for future initiatives.
Benchmark Your Results
Compare the KPIs from your current efforts with previous events or industry benchmarks. Benchmarking helps you assess your nonprofit’s progress over time and provides insights into whether you are meeting expectations or lagging behind.
Encourage Feedback
Collect feedback from donors, attendees, and volunteers about their experience with your nonprofit organization or event. Feedback can provide valuable qualitative data that complements your KPI analysis and can highlight areas for improvement.
Engage and Thank Your Supporters
Building strong relationships with donors is crucial. Express your gratitude and appreciation to all supporters, whether they contributed large or small amounts. Engaged supporters are more likely to stay loyal and contribute in the future.
Embrace a Culture of Continuous Improvement
Treat each event or campaign as a learning opportunity. Encourage your team to collaborate, share insights, and brainstorm ideas for innovation. Embracing a culture of continuous improvement will help your nonprofit evolve and grow its fundraising efforts over time.
Use Marketing KPIs
Key performance indicators related to the effectiveness of marketing and promotional efforts can provide valuable insights into the success of your outreach strategies and audience engagement.
Measure Donation Growth Rate
Tracking the percentage increase in total donations compared to previous periods helps you assess your organization’s fundraising momentum and identify opportunities for growth.
Focus on Donor Retention
Retaining existing donors is often more cost-effective than acquiring new ones. Monitor your donor retention rate and implement strategies to improve donor loyalty and engagement.
Leverage Digital Marketing
Utilize digital marketing channels to reach potential donors and increase online gift percentage. Online fundraising can expand your donor base and improve overall fundraising efforts.
Track Recurring Donors
Encourage recurring gifts and monitor the recurring gift percentage. Recurring donors provide stable and predictable funding for your organization.
Manage Expenses
Keep a close eye on total expenses and fundraising expenses to ensure financial sustainability and efficiency in your operations.
Make Informed Decisions
Use data from your KPI tracking to make informed decisions for your nonprofit about fundraising strategies, event planning, and resource allocation. Avoid making assumptions and rely on evidence-based insights.
Your nonprofit organization can effectively track and leverage KPIs by incorporating these tips and best practices to make data-driven decisions, enhance fundraising efforts, and achieve greater impact for the causes you serve.
Conclusion
Nonprofit events play a vital role in not only bringing communities together but also raising much-needed funds for worthy causes. As a nonprofit fundraising professional or event planner, tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) before, during, and after events is essential for understanding supporter engagement, evaluating fundraising strategies, and making informed decisions for future planning.
By monitoring five key fundraising KPIs, namely fundraising ROI, cost per dollar raised, gifts secured, pledge fulfillment percentage, and fundraising participation rate, organizations can gain valuable insights into the success of their events. Understanding the impact of these KPIs can help improve fundraising efforts, identify areas for growth, and enhance donor engagement.
To ensure your nonprofit events are even more successful, consider implementing the best practices for KPI tracking. By following the best practices and tracking KPIs effectively, your nonprofit organization can pave the way for more engaging and successful events, ultimately making a greater impact on the causes you support.
For a comprehensive and user-friendly event management platform, explore EventSmart. With Event Smart, you can streamline your event planning process, automate data collection, and gain valuable insights to optimize your fundraising strategies. Take the next step towards hosting impactful nonprofit events by starting your free trial today!
Leave a Reply