Inspiration or Perspiration?

The data landscape is getting larger and infinitely more confusing. Not only do you have data in your trusty database, but you have data about how people behave on your website, data about your constituents within the social-media sites, and data in your e-mail system about how many people open and click in those e-mails you send out. But certain fundraising metrics still serve as a great basis for making sound decisions when dealing with a mass market of individual constituents. Here they are:

• ROI — what, in measurable terms, was the return from the investment on the campaign(s)?
• Lifetime value — what is the likely value of a donor, by various acquisition methods?
• Retention — what percentage of donors who gave last year have given this year?

And major-gift fundraising is much more about relationships, chemistry and inspiration. Even so it's good to measure the value of your pipeline. And if you're a major-gift fundraiser with a successful formula, why not share it here?

Robin Fisk is global fundraising product manager at ASI Europe.