Are We Focused on the Wrong Metrics for the Long Run?

Do you have a report monster? It's OK, you can admit it. Let's face it — in an effort to be better fundraisers and marketers, we may have created our own monster. And yes, it's the report monster. As the nonprofit industry has embraced large-scale databases and enterprise-wide systems, we have gotten better and better at collecting information.

And where there is information, there is reporting. Trust me, I've been there. It's a slippery slope, and before you know it you have spreadsheets and PDFs that have 45 columns and 100 rows.

The great news? We've made significant progress in the capture of information on our donors and other constituents. So, we need to reward ourselves for progress in our ability to understand more about what our donors are actually doing with our brands.

Our data evolution is real and can be seen across every type of nonprofit. But, yes, we now have the report monster. In fact, many nonprofits used the management approach of "what gets measured gets entered," which even further promoted the creation of all those reports that fill up our inboxes and land on our desks.

So, as with every evolutionary process, it's time to go to the next stage — moving from focusing on all the data to focusing on the right data. That's where the confusion comes in — what exactly is the right data to measure?

Fundraisers are the kings of data — especially the direct marketers. Their whole focus is based on measuring money, donors, retention, response rates, average gifts, etc. But, as organizations have become more and more focused on keeping their donors engaged more and for longer periods of time — focused on the "relationships" — just measuring elements of the "transaction" is not enough. Before you dive in to your piles of reports and start talking to the IT team about all the data fields in the system, let's step back and ask some questions.