Seasonal merriment aside, festive fundraising is critical for charities, especially given the sector's increased cost pressures. So, ensuring your key campaigns and events perform well should be on your agenda right now.
Without wanting to tell Paul Hollywood how to bake flapjacks, reviewing past performances is advisable to learn what went well and what caused a soggy bottom.
The trouble is, other than the top-level numbers offered by your CRM, it can be challenging to truly quantify the critical metrics that affect overall performance.
Luckily for you, the Fundraising Fitness Test (hashtag, only costs £100 per month) enables charities to measure and compare the performance of seasonal events, such as LUAL, Christmas Tree Collections, etc.
Easy peasy key performance indicators
Using the FFTs ‘partial report’ feature, curious fundraising professionals can upload donor transaction data (a simple CSV file) assigned to your events and then review key statistics:
- The number of new first-time supporters your event was able to attract
- How many previous attendees were you able to draw back
- Initial income received and the residual income delivered
- Giving trends, gift sizes, and average values
- Compare current performances against previous years
The FFT system also allows you to compare the performance of specific events against previous years. This is especially important as it helps you to measure the improvements your strategy changes have delivered and steer future planning.
Light up a life example
In this example, we're analysing a hospice's keynote annual Light up a Life event and comparing previous years to the current performance. Here is an example of the main KPI dashboard presented by the FFT system.
The dashboard shows that this hospice attracted 470 new or recaptured supporters (acquisition rate) for the event this year, which is 12% more than the previous year.
This indicates that their promotion of the event and the ease with which people registered have improved this year.
We can also see that the hospice drew back 785 previous LUAL supporters (retention rate) -12% down on the last year. This suggests that their communications with existing LUAL supporters have been less effective than previously.
Unfortunately, the hospice failed to return 576 previous LUAL supporters to this year's event. On a more positive note, the FFT dashboard shows that the average event donation/registration fee increased by +4%.
Diving deeper into LUAL data
For those more curious, the FFT system enables an even deeper analysis of each main KPI presented on the dashboard.
In this example, we're able to examine their acquisition performance of the LUAL event in a little more detail. What we can now see is that the hospice attracted 245 new first-time supporters to the event, contributing £9,438 to the total event income.
We can also see that they were able to 'recapture' the patronage of 225 supporters who had previously supported the LUAL but failed to attend last year. This brought in a further £8,622 toward the event's total income.
Both KPIs suggest that the hospice has improved its outreach marketing to the local community and has effectively promoted the event and its existing donor database.
Residual income example
In this example, a particular hospice wanted to assess the residual income that a specific event was responsible for in the following five years.
To put this into context, the event initially attracted 2,297 new supporters, who contributed £37,938 toward its total income (an average income of £16 per new supporter).
The results showed that in the following five years, the income from supporters who were first introduced to the hospice after the event totalled a further £48,762.
In addition, the FFT system also highlighted subsequent retention rates from the event and the number of donors who further upgraded to regular monthly giving agreements.
Based on this report's findings, the hospice elected to continue implementing this specific event into its annual schedule, with increased confidence in its positive long-term effect on retained income.
What gets measured gets managed
The FFT platform has been designed to provide time-poor fundraising professionals with an accessible and easy-to-understand solution to complex KPI tracking. It is a crucial tool for any charity seeking to implement data-driven decision-making into its strategic planning.
Using simple traffic light notifications, the FFT system automatically highlights improvement opportunities and allows users to forecast expected income growth. This is especially valuable when presenting business cases to SMTs and Boards of Trustees.
If you would like to learn more about the Fundraising Fitness Test and schedule a demonstration, contact us today.
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