Transcript Strengthening Relationships: Travel and Cultivation

A Fresh Look at
Development Metrics
by
Bob Woods
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Metrics, Motivation and Leadership
 How to Motivate Development Staff?
 Build from Strength; Not as a Penalty?
 What Happens When Leadership Doesn’t Lead?
 Do Metrics Improve the Profession?
 Do Metrics Inform the Art of Development?
 Data vs. the Water Cooler?
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What Are Metrics?
 What Others are Saying
 Key Data Aggregated from a Development Database
 Measurements that Board and Staff Agree Upon
 Indicators of a Program’s Health
 Annual Fund – Capital Campaign – Annual Campaign
 Can be a Snapshot in Time or Measure over Periods
 Accountability vs. Inquiry
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What Others are Saying
 Funding and Forecasting Formulas
 Who Cares?
 Measuring Impact on Mission
 Measuring Progress in Fundraising
 Grant Thornton Advice
 Data Mining
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Mathematics of Funding and Forecasting
 Funding = Grant $ + (# of Funders Asked x Success
Rate x Average $ Given)
-- Ted Chan, MIT Sloan School of Management
 Discounting: Cash Quality Report
 Others?
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Who Cares?
 Most donors are not all that interested in performance measurements
(metrics) for charitable organizations and do not take them into
account when they give, according to an article in the Summer 2004
issue of the Stanford Social Innovation Review.
 Despite the lack of interest and, in a few cases, opposition to
performance measurements, the report concludes that the use of
metrics can be beneficial for both donors and charities.
-- Katie Cunningham and Marc Ricks, 2004
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Advice from Grant Thornton
The following best practices, found in Grant Thornton LLP’s ForwardThinking newsletter can be used
to ensure that all board members receive the right amount of information by which to govern the
organization:
 Brainstorm with the board to determine what type of information members want to
receive.
 Develop a one to two page “dashboard” of key financial and operational metrics that
provides information on the most relevant indicators.
 Identify key metrics to assess the organization’s performance against its mission
statement and strategic plan.
 Inform the board on budget versus actual revenues and expenses as well as budget versus
actual capital expenditures and debt payments.
 Provide the board with adequate financial information to support decisions; examples
include: adding or expanding programs, acquiring property and equipment.
 Provide monitoring information so that the board can provide adequate oversight.
 Provide the board with information on programs and activities to ensure that members
have an adequate knowledge of the organization’s current financial state and its expected
future financial state.
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Data Mining
 Voluntary Support of Education Survey
 Benchmarking (Target Group)
 Predictive Modeling (Johns Hopkins – SPSS Inc.)
 Identify Key Prospects
 Eliminating Long-Time Non-Performing Prospects
 Other Forms of Modeling
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Key Data Aggregated from a Database
 Tied to a Prospect Tracking System
 Values of Prospects at Every Solicitation Stage

# and $ Amount of Solicitations
 Value of the Prospect Pipeline
 Tied to a Contact Tracking System
 Key Indicator: # of Visits!
 Key Issues: Stewardship and Cultivation Touches
 Prospect Ratings, Research and Donor Retention
 Development Receipts: New Gifts and Pledges
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Development Dashboard
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Personal Dashboard
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Why Use Metrics?
 Metrics, Schmetrics!
 Greater Insight
 Increases Fundraising Performance
 Acceptance by Fundraisers
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Metrics, Schmetrics!
 Old School vs. New Day
 Time Intensive, Bureaucratic, Distraction from
Fundraising?
 Art vs. Science
 Data Analysis Improves the Art of Fundraising
 Keep an Open Mind to What Data are Telling Us
 Can Justify Actions, Investments and Instill Pride
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Greater Insight
 Can See Strengths and Challenges
 Identifies Bottlenecks Immediately
 Helps Target and Track Training and Investments
 Suggest Actions that Increase Funding
 TPL Volunteer Giving Example
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Development Dashboard: $370K in 6 Days!
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Increases Performance
 People Perform when Measured
 Evaluation and Motivation
 Metrics and Shoe Leather
 TPL Experience with Visits
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Effectiveness of Visits: TPL 2002-06
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Dollars and Visits: TPL 2000-06
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$10K Gifts by Job Classification
FY 2006
$ Raised > $10K
Program
AF
OTT
SDDs
MGOs
Corporations
Foundations
Unknown
Total
# of Gifts
2
12
68
118
36
122
28
386
$ Raised
$
20,000
$
411,224
$ 3,261,170
$ 7,730,259
$ 1,063,333
$ 15,816,180
$ 1,223,499
$ 29,525,665
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Are Metrics Helpful?
 Development Dashboard
 Top Fundraiser Report
 Visits Report
 Effectiveness
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TPL 2002-06: Visits Tracking Begins
90
80
70
Meetings
60
50
Number of …
40
30
20
10
0
$0
$1,000,000
$2,000,000
$3,000,000
$4,000,000
$5,000,000
$6,000,000
$7,000,000
$ Raised
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TPL 2008: Effect of Tracking Visits – Growth
120
100
# of Visits
80
60
40
20
0
$0.00
$1,000,000.00
$2,000,000.00
$3,000,000.00
Funds Raised
$4,000,000.00
$5,000,000.00
$6,000,000.00
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TPL 2009: Effect of Tracking Visits
140
120
100
80
Total Visits
60
40
20
0
$0.00
$5,000,000.00
$10,000,000.00
$15,000,000.00
$20,000,000.00
$25,000,000.00
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Acceptance of Metrics by Fundraisers
 Leads to Excellence
 Improved Professional Skills
 Provides Information Helpful to Solicitations
 Compensation
 Time and Comfort
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How to Interpret Metrics
 Read into Them What You Want?
 Data Quality?
 News vs. Emotion
 Build from Strengths
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Stewart Woods Aspirational Metrics (SWAM)
System
 Development Dashboard
 Development Skills Matrix
 Campaign Planning
 Development Scorecard
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Development Matrix: Executive Director & Development Director
100%
80%
 Ideas
60%
40%
20%
0%
Development
Management
Commitment to
Development
Building the Case
for Support Best
Creating a
Constituency
Better
Good
Strategic Planning Being Donor Centric
Poor
Volunteer
Development
Development
Management
Commitment to
Development
Building the Case
for Support Best
Creating a
Constituency
Better
Good
Strategic Planning Being Donor Centric
Volunteer
Development
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
Poor
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Metrics and Motivation
 Inspiration
 Recognition
 Affection
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Questions?
 Your Experience with Metrics?
 Is Your Database Capable?
 Scalability?
 Concerns about Evaluation?
 What is the Relationship between Aspirations and
Activity?
 Can Metrics Motivate Activity to Meet Aspirations?
 Are Metrics a Useful Tool for Leaders?
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Go Raise Money!
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