Comparing your fundraising results is essential to measure your progress, identify your strengths and weaknesses, and improve your strategy. But how do you compare your results in a meaningful and accurate way? In this article, we will explore some key concepts and methods to help you compare your fundraising results.
Before you can compare your results, you need to define what you want to achieve and how you will measure it. Your goals should be SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Your indicators should be KPIs: key performance indicators that reflect your goals and show how well you are doing. For example, if your goal is to increase your donor retention rate, your KPI could be the percentage of donors who gave more than once in a year.
My goal in this space is to enhance peoples understanding on safeguarding, promote safe programming and do no harm. Contribute to safe programming at design, implementation and phase out levels.
Regular monitoring is critical. The KPIs should not just be set and forgotten; they should be continuously monitored, and strategies should be tweaked as needed based on the data gathered. By carefully defining your goals and setting appropriate KPIs, you lay a solid foundation for your project or program. This ensures that you have clear direction and the means to measure success, ultimately leading to more effective and accountable social impact efforts.
When comparing your results, there are several methods to consider, such as baseline comparison, benchmark comparison, peer comparison, and target comparison. Each method has its pros and cons, so you should choose the one that best suits your purpose and context. For example, baseline comparison involves comparing your current results to a previous period or starting point; benchmark comparison involves comparing your results to an industry standard or best practice; peer comparison involves comparing your results to similar organizations or groups; and target comparison involves comparing your results to a specific goal or expectation.
I would focus on benchmark comparison where I would seek to benchmark with the best practices in the space and in line with international standards.
To effectively compare your results, you need to utilize the appropriate tools and techniques that can help you collect, analyze, and visualize your data. This includes surveys and feedback forms to acquire qualitative and quantitative data from donors, beneficiaries, and stakeholders, CRM software and databases to store and manage donor and donation data, dashboards and reports to display key metrics and trends, charts and graphs to illustrate and compare your data visually, as well as statistical tests and analysis to validate and interpret your data scientifically. It is important to use the tools that are suitable for your data type, size, and complexity.
I definitely seek to maximise feedback forms to acquire qualitative data from primary actors and stakeholders, this would enhance data and objective driven decision making
Comparing your results is not enough; you must also interpret and communicate them effectively. You should explain the meaning and importance of your results, highlighting both achievements and challenges. Additionally, provide insights and recommendations for improvement, using stories and examples to illustrate your impact. It is important to tailor your message and tone to your audience and channel, while also being honest and transparent about any limitations or assumptions. Acknowledging any gaps or errors in your data is essential for successful communication.
This is indeed quiete helpful. I would focus on realising my goal building on the tree of change. This of course would be guided by output, outcomes, goal and impact
The ultimate goal of comparing your results is to learn from them and improve your fundraising performance. It's important to celebrate successes, identify areas of improvement, test new ideas and strategies, seek feedback, collaborate with others, keep track of progress, and adjust plans as needed. Additionally, you should be open-minded and curious, and embrace challenges and opportunities for growth. Comparing your fundraising results is a continuous process that can help you reach your mission and vision. By following these steps, you can accurately compare your results and further optimize your fundraising strategy.
When fundraising, tracking all outcomes is critical to overall success. We learn as much from our negative outcomes as we do from our successes. Some times even more. Identifying your gaps is important to overcome obstacles. Is your gap your network? Your pitch? Your targeting? Your process? Your timing? Answer these questions and get clarity on your fundraising.
Too many times you might lose a large donor and you think you have to replace that donor. That is a tough task. Instead of replacing that one large donor, think about replacing them with a number of smaller donors and creating those smaller donors to be larger donors over time!