5 Metrics to Measure Your Nonprofit's Success

When gauging your nonprofit’s success, relying on gut instinct is foolish. It’s necessary to study metrics and see how they change over time. There are several especially worthy measurements that can tell you how your nonprofit stacks up.

1. Fundraising Cost Per Dollar Raised

Fundraising is a familiar activity to nonprofits, and there are a huge number of potential ways to get results from donors. However, it’s also easy to go overboard and end up with a costly fundraising campaign that didn’t generate the desired results.

There are many fundraising metrics you could look at, but one of the easiest ways to check your impact is to compare the amount of money raised with how much you spent to make the campaign happen. Figure that out by dividing the fundraising cost by the amount you raised.

After determining the results for one fundraiser, look at your organization’s performance historically and see if there are notable patterns. For example, you might notice that the most expensive fundraiser also generated the most money for your cause.