Nonprofits who use fundraising tactics need to measure outcomes just as for-profits do in order to ensure that their marketing efforts achieved their goals. But what should you measure?
Taking a cue from our for-profit friends, we know that specific metrics around marketing campaigns are important: open rates on emails, click-through rates, and so on. Fundraising is no different. We want to measure how many people received fundraising messages, read them, and responded to them.
Here’s an outline of basic metrics to collect, track and review after your fundraising campaigns have ended. How many of these does your nonprofit track? How many should you add to your next campaign?
The Numbers You Need to Know: Fundraising Metrics
Most nonprofits are using email marketing to reach potential donors during fundraising campaigns. Email marketing offers a measurable marketing method that’s relatively easy for newcomers to the world of marketing math and metrics to understand.
Why bother tracking email marketing metrics? When you know your numbers, you know what’s working and what’s not. You can test different elements of the email, like the subject line or the pictures you use, to see which one spurs the most people to open it and donate. You can learn from your campaigns rather than send them out with fingers crossed.
Let’s take a look at three important email metrics, what they mean, and how to track them.
First, a word about email marketing metrics: your metrics are probably sitting somewhere in the system you use to send emails out. This may be a CRM system, or an email provider like MailChimp, Constant Contact, or another company that helps you automate your emails. If you don’t have reports available, the formulas to calculate each rate are included below. They’re easy and can be done using just a calculator—no complicated math.
- Open rate: The open rate for an email marketing campaign means how many people clicked and opened the email. This tells you that your emails are interesting enough to read, and that they are getting a reaction from people. The open rate = (emails opened/emails sent out).
- Click rate: The click rate for a fundraising email campaign tells you how many people were interested enough to click the link in the email to visit your website. If you’ve asked them to click and donate, you can also compare the number of clicks to the number of donations and see how many people finished by donating to your cause or how many changed their minds after clicking the link and left before donating. The click rate = (emails clicked/emails sent).
- Donor retention: Retention means you are keeping donors. It’s important to your organization because it means you’re continuing to both do the good work you intend to do and that you’re keeping your donors engaged and informed. It’s easier to solicit donations from existing donors than to find new ones, so the higher your donor retention rate, the better. You can calculate this number on your own (your email metrics probably won’t include this figure) by using the following formula: Donor retention = (repeat donors)/(previous donors).
Improving Fundraising Campaigns for Success: Register for Our Webinar
At Beck & Company, we want your fundraising campaigns to be successful. We’re offering a free informational webinar on Outcomes Measurement for your nonprofit. It’s more information on measuring outcomes. All outcomes, such as these marketing metrics, are important. Learn which operational outcomes and other metrics you should be tracking and how to harness data to improve your work. Visit our webinar page for more information.
Beck & Company provides consulting and accounting services to nonprofits. Contact us today or call 703-834-0776 ext. 8001 for more information on the services we provide to help your nonprofit thrive.