I think every organization wonders how their campaign is doing, and not just in a direct monetary sense, but also in terms of momentum. Are you gaining more new donors? Have things leveled off a bit? Are you progressing?
When the donations stop coming in for a long-term campaign, it’s easy to notice a stall. Running a Donation Report ordered by Date of Gift, will show you the cutoff point. Depending on how long ago that was, the report can help you guide your future strategy.
But what if donations don’t stop completely?
They just slow down substantially. How can you tell if you’re progressing then? That may be harder to track without reporting. After all, your volunteers are still entering donations or you’re seeing them come through the Donor Portal. So it’s not like things have stopped completely.
The first instinct is to check against your campaign’s goal, and this is important. Goals can tell you where you’re at with fundraising and how far you need to go. However, unless they’re checked regularly, it may be difficult to use them as a benchmark to gauge your organization’s momentum.
Reports such as the Donor Period Comparison report will show your donation change over a selected time period, and this report can be vital in a multi-year campaign.
For users of FundRaiser Professional, the Campaigns Module provides an excellent suite of reports to show not just some statistics including average gifts and pledges, but also income vs. expenses and return on investment. The use of these reports can help provide deeper insights into your campaigns to check progress and momentum.
The important thing is that you do multiple things to check your campaign’s progress to get a fully formed picture of how you’re doing. Make sure to stop and assess the situation periodically to stay on top of any potential lulls in momentum and fundraising. And most importantly, if you have questions about how FundRaiser Software can help you do this? Reach out! We’d be happy to help.
To learn more about how FundRaiser reports can help you track your campaign, register for a tour or if you are already a FundRaiser user, contact FundRaiser Technical Support at Support@FundRaiserSoftware.com or 800-543-4131.