Use KPIs to Evaluate Your Nonprofit Organization’s Success

If a non-profit organization is to make a substantial impact, it must be meeting its goals. Do you know if you are currently meeting or exceeding targets? If not, what can you do differently? Do you even have key targets you are pursuing?

The best way to evaluate your non-profit organization’s impact is by using Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). You can use the KPIs to determine if your non-profit executive search is successful. Here are six KPIs to evaluate your success.

1) Donor growth

The number of new donors a non-profit attracts each year is known as donor growth. This KPI is important because it allows organizations to attract donors and recruit even more in future years. 

In addition, donor growth gives non-profits a way to quantify their outreach efforts. If you want your organization to grow its donor base, you need straightforward ways to measure success (or failure). How does the number of your donors grow over time? 

2) Donor retention rate

Donor retention rate is a key metric you should consider when evaluating your organization’s success. Simply put, if someone donates and continues to donate throughout their lifetime, it means your organization is doing an excellent job of retaining its donors. 

The donor retention rate shows the number of donors who gave money in one year and continued for more than one year.

3) Email open rate

If you are looking for a straightforward metric that does not require you to guesstimate and track results manually, measuring your open email rate is an excellent place to start. This metric tells you the number of people who received your email and read it or part of it.

More importantly, it lets you know whether they want more information from you or not. For example, if you notice most of your emails are not being opened, there may be a problem with their subject line or your content.

4) Volunteer growth

Another important KPI is volunteering. Through a comprehensive non-profit executive search, a great number of volunteers join organizations and support with delivering various programs. In addition, the volunteer growth performance indicator shows how much change has occurred in a non-profit’s number of volunteers. For example, if a non-profit saw its volunteer base increase by 10 percent over the past year, it would have a positive volunteer growth KPI. 

Volunteer-focused non-profits often measure their success in terms of volunteer growth because it is an indication that their organization is actively engaged with and welcomed by its community members.

5) Number of clients served

To keep your organization growing, you will need to constantly assess your current client base and see how much demand is for your products or services. If there are a limited number of clients in a specific market, you must recruit new ones who want what you offer.

6) Organizational reputation 

Funders, volunteers, and donors want to know they contribute their money and time to a reputable organization. Researching an organization can involve looking at various online sources, such as Yelp or Google reviews. 

Still, it can also mean reviewing articles written about them or contacting former employees or volunteers for an insider perspective. Finally, be sure your business has a solid organizational reputation before recruiting new clients. 

Conclusion

While there is no one way for an organization to measure its success, all organizations should clearly understand what these key performance indicators represent and how they relate to their mission. These indicators provide essential information on their performance against their short-term and long-term goals. But, even more importantly, it allows organizations to see whether they are making progress towards those goals over time and if adjustments need to be made to reach them.