april 2008donor.com community conference Getting Started with the Donor Performance Index diane kuehl donor.com 2008 community conference

april 2008donor.com community conference What the DPI IS The Donor Performance Index is designed to provide management information on the overall effectiveness of an organization's donor acquisition, retention, and upgrading programs. The Index analyzes the donor base, placing donors in categories based on past giving history. The Index then calculates management information for each category, enabling you to spot trends, forecast future performance and make better strategic decisions.

april 2008donor.com community conference What the DPI is NOT It is NOT a measure of performance of any single fund raising strategy or campaign It is NOT something you need to run every week or even every month It is NOT overwhelming if you focus on a few key factors

april 2008donor.com community conference Donor Categories The DPI classifies donors into 5 basic categories: New Donors Regained Donors First-Year Continuing Donors (aka 2-year donors or transitional donors) Multi-Year Continuing Donors (3+ -year donors or core donors) Lapsed Donors

april 2008donor.com community conference Key statistics Number of donors in each category Total dollars Average number of gifts per donor Average total giving per donor per year Percentage moving “up” to more consistent giving levels  New to First-Year Continuing Donors  First-Year to Multi-Year Continuing Donors

april 2008donor.com community conference Sample Here’s where I hand out a sample DPI Report

april 2008donor.com community conference Where do I start? Key Areas to Review  Renewals  Average Gift  Gift Frequency  New Donor Acquisition Look at your own trends  What’s happening over the years?  Run for past years to get even more info

april 2008donor.com community conference Where do I start (cont’d) Analyze various key donor groups independently  Individuals vs Organizations  Monthly Sponsors and Pledge Partners  Major Donors  Staff donors vs organization donors What kind of numbers SHOULD I have?  Compare with like organizations  Engage the expertise of a fund-raising consultant  Tap into the donor.com community

april 2008donor.com community conference What if? What if we improved our new donor acquisition numbers? What if we did a better job of keeping those new donors from one year to the next? What if we raised average gift levels? What if we increased the frequency of giving? What if ….?

april 2008donor.com community conference Let me show you what if Here’s where I bring up a spreadsheet we can tinker with.

april 2008donor.com community conference Some configurable options Use a fiscal or calendar year Exclude gifts to a specified range of designations (e.g. exclude staff/missionary gifts from the stats) How adjustments fit in (date of original gift or date adjustment was made) Isolate donors who give very large gifts so that they don’t skew the averages Treat split gifts as one (ie same date, same motivation, different designations) Run on a selected set of names only

april 2008donor.com community conference Q&A

april 2008donor.com community conference For more information Visit our on-line manuals at: diane kuehl education and business consultant