Are You Counting or Are You Measuring?

Continuing our coverage of the Association of Fundraising Professionals 47th International Conference held in Baltimore last month, Steve MacLaughlin, director of Internet solutions at Blackbaud, shares his presentation, "Everything You Need to Know About Measuring Online Results but Were Afraid to Ask."

Our everyday lives are full of numbers and metrics. The hours and minutes on the alarm clock. The temperature of the water that hits our face. The expiration date on the milk. The distance to our offices. The posted speed limit on the road. The number of e-mails waiting in the inbox. We live in a sea of things that can be counted and metrics that can be measured.

Metrics provide us with a time machine that gives us insights into things that happened in the past and can help predict the future. Nonprofit metrics exist in categories that range from operational to programmatic, financial, and communication and engagement channels used with constituents.

This is especially true of the online world where there is a very unique set of metrics — hits, clicks, tweets, opens, page views, followers, forwards, actions and conversions are just some of them. This is very different from other communication channels, like direct mail, where measuring exactly what people did can be difficult.

Go through a handful of online statistics and they can quickly pile up. You had 13,217 page views on your website last week. You have 6,353 followers on Twitter. That last e-mail message had a 34.7 percent clickthrough rate; 298 people made online gifts to your organization over the weekend. The pile always gets higher and higher.

But there is a fundamental question nonprofits need to ask themselves: Are you counting, or are you measuring? Counting doesn’t actually count for very much. As it turns out, when you count things you’re usually successful. That is not always true when you start measuring things.

A person who just counts things can only tell you that $537,891 was donated online to the organization last year. Yes, that’s a number, but there’s not much value in it. Not a lot of insight. It doesn’t pass the “so what and who cares?” test.

A person who measures things wants to know a lot more: What was it in the past? What is it today? Where do you want it to be in the future? What’s the value of the difference? These are questions that help measure metrics and give organizations answers.

The importance of measuring instead of just counting online metrics comes into focus when looking at benchmarks. Every year, several reports come out about trends in the nonprofit sector. These benchmarking reports are typically based on data from hundreds or thousands of nonprofit organizations.

The benefit of benchmark reports is that they can help you compare your organization’s performance to others'. But if you are counting and not measuring, then they are of absolutely no value. How others are doing doesn’t matter if you don’t have a firm grasp on your own performance.

Keep in mind that measuring something is more important than measuring everything. Start with the core metrics. Expand over time, and begin to test different scenarios, time frames and constituent groups. Share your results internally and with other nonprofit organizations. Focus on lessons learned and how to improve results by turning raw data into useful information.

Good metrics are based on a clear understanding of what is being measured and the ability to apply the findings to the decision-making process. It is never too early or too late to start an online metrics program in your organization. Remember that if you can't measure it, then you can't manage it. Metrics help remove the guessing about how things are going and the direction in which they are moving toward.

When we were very young, one of the first things we learned to do was count. It’s not until later in life that we learn to measure things. The Internet has matured and so have the ways that nonprofits are using it. The time is now for organizations to focus on measuring their online results.

Steve MacLaughlin, director of internet solutions at Blackbaud, is responsible for leading how the company provides online solutions for its clients. His new book, "Internet Management for Nonprofits," was recently published by Wiley.