Vetting for Value

Many nonprofit fundraisers don’t have a solid understanding of how their decisions are helping or hindering the effectiveness of their fundraising. And that’s because they lack the factual information they need to make wise
decisions.

Net present value’s power
Every salesperson, no matter the industry, knows the importance of net present value. A car dealer knows exactly how much he can spend to get a customer to take a test drive because he knows the potential value, or NPV, of that customer. The insurance agent knows how much he can spend to acquire a new customer because he knows the NPV of a customer’s
premium payments. The same is true for fundraisers, because they should know the NPV of new donors.