Top KPIs and Data Your Nonprofit Should Be Tracking
As we begin a new year (and a new fiscal year for some organizations) it is a great time to look at your current strategies, assess them, and implement changes. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are essential for improving and growing your nonprofit. Often you may think that something is working until you actually sit down and examine the data and metrics. Numbers are also important because they don’t allow for subjective thinking, opinions or the age old “well this is how we have always done it”. If you make an effort to collect and track data you will be able to answer a wide variety of questions, show your impact, and begin to use data-driven decision making as a useful tool. This information is also essential for seeing if your program is growing, if new staff is needed, or if something needs to be cut from the organization.
This is NOT a full list of all of the KPIs you could be collecting or using but a great starting point if you are just starting to incorporate data into your overall strategy. The amount and type of data you collect will also depend greatly on your resources, such as time and technology. You might have a volunteer willing to do the data entry and use something as simple as a spreadsheet. That is much better than doing nothing and will help you find your data collection footing, see what works for your team, and learn about the types of data that you find most useful.
Please note that all of this in addition to the regular budgeting and reporting you should be doing anyway as a good steward of your nonprofit.
Fundraising
Donor retention (who gave again)
# of gifts received, average $ per donation
# of unique donors
# of new donors
Category of gifts (grant, corporate, individual, etc…)
Giving methods and channels (including how are they connected with us) (how do they donate: PayPal, check, stocks, phone call, annual appeal mailing)
When donations come in (can you correlate it directly to a specific post, email, or campaign)
Events
Actual cost of event (including promotion, labor, volunteer hours)
Income from event
Event attendance
Marketing and Communications
Email open rates
Website views and clicks (or time spent on site), bounce rate
Social media engagement (not just followers and likes but are people actually commenting and sharing your posts and care about what you are doing)
Conversion rates (the rate of people who actually take an action such as clicking on a link, signing up for an event, or making a donation)
Volunteer Management
# of volunteers, volunteer hours (and the average hours/volunteer)
Volunteer retention (volunteers who return each month, session, or year)
Average # of volunteer hours per week or month (for planning ahead)
Where did volunteers come from (news article, Facebook post, Volunteer Match, etc…)
Programming and Impact
How much $ goes directly to programming vs overhead
# of people served, retention of participants
Absenteeism
Participant retention
Where did participants come from (how did they become connected with your program)
Does your nonprofit regularly collect data? What KPIs do you use to determine success? What tools have you found useful?
