Is Your Nonprofit Addicted to the Wrong Metrics?

Each chapter of my new book, Measuring the Networked Nonprofit," co-authored with KD Paine features a cartoon by Rob Cottingham that communicates a best practice in measurement.  

This one is my favorite.  So many nonprofit boards seem to be addicated to views or traffic, when they should be focusing on measuring how social media and networks move forward the organization's mission.

One of the messages in the book is “Collect less data, think more about it.”     The sense-making part is so important!      And, one of the questions that keeps coming up is “How do we get our board or senior staff off their addiction to the wrong metrics, like views?”      You have to show the connection between the metric and what matters!

During the discussion, one of the partners asked about how they track whether engaging with their audience on Facebook or other social channel  might lead to donations.   You, of course, need a formal ladder of engagement or conversion funnel and need to be tracking conversions against what your ultimate definition of success is.  

Is your nonprofit measuring the right metrics to figure out success?