Major Gift Officer Month & Yearly $ Tracking

3rd in a Series

In the last article we talked about productivity by year end. This is the measure the administration and donors should hold us major gift fundraisers accountable.

If you're managing major gift officers, yearly measures are not enough. You need to be monitoring monthly how much each development officer is raising based upon the yearly goal you have set for them. For a first year major gift officer making $50,000 (and thus a $100,000 total cost of fundraising, see last article), the monthly target should be $8,500 a month. Knowing that the first months may be low, a first year fundraiser is better measured quarterly — $25,500 is more realistic and all of that may have been raised in the last month or two.

For someone in year two, three, and beyond you should look at what they raised a year ago this month, and then this month and cumulative a year ago and cumulative this year. Don't worry about the month to month so much as the cumulative year to date compared to last year cumulative to date. There's always timing issues and of course it's the donor's money. We can't control when they give. Even the monthly isn't as critical as the quarterly this year cumulative compared to last year's quarterly cumulative.

Use these numbers not to scare your staff, but rather to hold them accountable and to use the data as coaching opportunities. Have you tried this? How can I help you be successful this year?

More to come