Benchmarking Fundraising (Part 3 of a series)

Benchmarking Fundraising (Part 3 of a series)

By Tom Wilson Major Gifts Guru

In the first two articles of this series, I presented information that Gary Hubbell, one of this book's authors, had presented at a recent fundraising conference.

This book resulted from a three-year benchmakring study for AHP (Association of Healthcare Professionals) Here are some highlights from Lessons from Benchmarking: Fast Forwarding the Maturity of the Fundraising Operation (Gary Hubbell & Mary Reinders).

“Data shows successful programs have more staff and more overall time devoted to identifying, cultivating, and securing major gifts from all sources.”

“Benchmarking can be used as an accelerant to program growth. However . . . . heed this one caution: benchmarking is neither simple, nor a superficial solution in itself. Its power is not in the comparative data, but in your understanding and use of the information. . . .”

You can measure:

• Number of new donors
• Number of donors giving more than $10,000
• Renewal rate (of new donors and repeat donors)
• Total dollars raised
• Average gift size for everyone, board, employees
• Number of volunteers involved
• Length of giving
• Revenue and expense ratio (ROI)

This is a quick read. Jim Collins Good to Great and the Social Sectors is referenced often. Collins has great concepts that can help all of us. So I really enjoyed the references to his work. Chapter 6 is particularly helpful in terms of concrete examples that can get you thinking about your own program. Thanks to Gary and Mary for their work here.

This was part 3 of the series. See articles 1, 2, and 4 below:

• Benchmarking for Major Gifts (Part 1 of a series)
• Benchmarking for Major Gifts (Part 2 of a series)
• Benchmarking Fundraising (Part 4 of a series)

Permanent Link: Benchmarking Fundraising (Part 3 of a series)

http://majorgiftsguru.com/2009/02/benchmarking-fundraising-part-3-of.html