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26 nonprofit key performance indicators to measure impact

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are the metrics that tell you how well your nonprofit organization is operating and whether you are hitting your goals. Knowing which nonprofit KPIs matter most and which your organization should be tracking can help you measure your organization’s progress more effectively.

Here we’ve highlighted 26 nonprofit key performance indicators that you should pay attention to, how you can track them, and what they mean to your organization. They’re separated into categories that match the departments present at most nonprofits, so you can share them with your team and focus on the ones that matter most to you.

You’ll find that many of these KPIs are tied into core fundraising activities because of their prominence in a nonprofit’s operations. However, the other indicators will give you good visibility into the activities that support your overall strategy like donor retention, social media networking, and email marketing.

What are nonprofit KPIs?

A key performance indicator (KPI) is a metric that measures a specific facet of your nonprofit. It is a point of data that can be used to compare against other points of data to determine how well your organization is performing over time.

There are unlimited KPIs that any nonprofit can track, and the ones you should pay attention to are ultimately determined by the goals you set for your organization. However, we’ve broken down 26 key performance indicators that are considered standard. The sooner you start tracking and reporting them, the sooner you can measure your performance internally and against peer organizations.

Why do nonprofit key performance indicators matter?

The ability to assess and distill data into actionable tasks is what successful nonprofits do well. These organizations know which metrics are important to them and how to translate that data into something their stakeholders can understand and absorb.

Nonprofit executives, board members, and funders want to understand how well your organization performs before they show their support. Using industry-standard formulas and metrics like the 26 nonprofit KPIs listed here will help them quickly assess your impact and measure it against other organizations they might be considering for potential funding.

To start, let’s take a look at the KPIs which will give you some insight into your fundraising program and how well it performs.

Fundraising KPIs for nonprofits

The fundraising metrics highlighted here include key performance indicators for nonprofits that directly demonstrate trends tied to actual donations or the act of donating. A comprehensive analysis of all nine fundraising KPIs will help you answer three main questions:

  1. How many donations did your organization receive this year?
  2. Through which channel(s) did those donations arrive?
  3. What does a standard or average nonprofit donation amount look like?

Answering these three questions will help you improve your nonprofit fundraising strategies and grow donations in a more sustainable fashion.

1. Gifts secured

This fundraising metric is fairly straightforward. It’s the number of gifts or donations your organization received over a set period of time. Not the total dollar amount given in those donations, rather the count. 

How to calculate gifts secured

Count the number of donations your organization received over a certain period of time.

Examples of this nonprofit KPI

For more granular insights, you can also split this metric up by gift type. For example, if you were trying to develop a major gift program, you could segment the number of gifts secured by the donation amount:

2. Donation growth

Donation growth is a nonprofit KPI that compares gifts secured over two different chronological time periods. It shows whether the number of donations you receive is increasing or decreasing over the time period observed.

How to calculate donation growth

Count the number of donations your organization received over a certain period of time. Then count the number of gifts your organization received over a similar period of time just before or after the original time period. Subtract the time period that comes first chronologically from the second time period observed.

Examples of this nonprofit KPI

Comparing the two shows a donation growth of five donations per month (25 – 20 = 5).

If, in October of that year, you receive only 10 donations, you might ask:

Donation growth is generally a short-term metric comparison tool, but it gives you the ability to quickly analyze a specific period of time if you see major changes in the numbers.

3. Average gift size

Donors don’t all give the same amount of money. Your average gift size is an important metric because it shows how much each donor represents to your organization. It tells you how much you can expect to raise overall by increasing your donor count by one person.

Understanding the average gift size can help for planning and forecasting purposes, and it’s a metric most funders and grantmakers will want to know. For example, if you need to raise $1 million this year to fund your organization and your average gift size is $95, you know you need to convince approximately 10,526 people to donate.

This is a great metric to look at regularly to understand whether you are meeting your goals or falling short. If your budgeted average gift size is $95 but your actual average gift size through the first quarter of the year is only $75, you might start to ask questions about the content of your appeals or the channels you are using to get the word out.

How to calculate average gift size

Divide the total amount of money raised by the total number of donations.

Examples of this nonprofit KPI

Your organization received 22,100 donations in the past year for a total of $1,300,000. Your average gift size is $1,300,000 / 22,100 = $58.52.

You may have received a few major gifts over $1,000 and lots of gifts below $25, but the average across all your donations shows that each donor is worth approximately $58.52.

4. Average gift size growth

Average gift size growth measures the percentage by which your average gift size has increased over a period of time.

One of the universal laws of fundraising is that it is easier and less expensive to generate another donation from an existing donor than it is to solicit the first donation from a new donor. Therefore, one of the best ways to increase your overall fundraising total is to increase the average size of your donations.

If your goal this year is to raise your fundraising total by 25%, one strategy might be to reach out to existing donors encouraging them to donate, increase their annual donation amount, or join your monthly giving program. 

How to calculate average gift size growth

  1. Calculate the average gift size for two consecutive time periods.
  2. Subtract the previous time period from the most recent time period. 
  3. Divide the result by the previous time period. 
  4. Multiply the final result by 100 to get a percentage.

Examples of this nonprofit KPI

If your most recent time period’s average gift size is $50 and the previous time period is $45, the steps will look like this:

The example shows that the average gift size grew 11.11% between the two time periods.

5. Pledge fulfillment percentage

A pledge is a promise to donate, rather than an actual donation. However, not everyone follows through on pledges, meaning that the actual amount of money received from a pledge fundraiser may be lower than what is pledged. 

This nonprofit KPI measures the percentage of your pledges that are being fulfilled and converted to actual donations.

While nonprofits don’t typically create their budgets solely on pledged monies alone, understanding the pledging patterns of your constituents over a historical period can help you forecast and prepare accordingly. 

How to calculate pledge fulfillment percentage

Divide the actual donations by the pledges and multiply the result by 100.

Examples of this nonprofit KPI

In January, your church receives 1,200 pledges from its members for a total of $500,000 promised. At the end of the year, you find that only 900 pledges were made but the total amount actually donated was $550,000.

Your pledge fulfillment percentage is:

While you only converted 75% of the pledges, you captured 110% of your expected donations. Looking at percentage fulfillment for count and amount helps add detail to your analysis and gives you the full picture.

6. Fundraising return on investment (ROI)

Return on investment is a measure of efficiency in your budget. It tells you whether the efforts of your program are returning the value you expect to see. This is an extremely important metric, especially for newer nonprofits on a limited budget with no longitudinal data to draw from.

Your fundraising ROI tells your organization whether or not you made a gain on the money invested in your fundraising efforts by calculating how much money you raised from each dollar you spent. ROI is a nonprofit KPI of opportunity cost, which you can compare to other potential investments. 

When calculating cost, don’t forget to add the cost of your donor management software into the calculation because it contributes to your overall fundraising ROI. 

How to calculate fundraising return on investment

Subtract the cost of your fundraising efforts from the total amount raised to get the net return. Then divide the net return by the cost of your fundraising efforts, and multiply the result by 100.

Examples of this nonprofit KPI

Say these are your fundraising costs:

The total cost of your fundraising efforts is $275,000.

If your total amount fundraised is $379,000, follow these steps to get your ROI:

  1. $379,000 – $275,000 = $104,000
  2. $104,000 / $275,000 = 0.3782
  3. 0.3782 x 100 = 37.82%

Fundraising ROI = 37.82%.

7. Cost per dollar raised (CPDR)

In situations where ROI can be difficult to visualize or understand, it helps to reduce your fundraising stats to the basics using the cost per dollar raised.

This KPI for nonprofits tells you how much it costs your organization to raise $1. Looking at the numbers in this way makes it easy to see whether your fundraising program is helping you grow or not.

How to calculate CPDR

Divide the total cost of your fundraising program by the total dollars raised. 

Examples of this nonprofit KPI

Let’s use the same numbers from the previous example:

CPDR = $275,000 / $379,000 = $0.73. That means it costs you 73 cents to raise $1. 

As long as your CPDR is below $1, your fundraising program is net positive. The lower this number gets, the better! If your cost per dollar raised goes above $1, it means your fundraising program is costing you more money than it brings in. You’d want to look at ways to raise the donations or cut costs to bring it back into balance.

8. Online gift percentage

Online donations are becoming more prevalent each year with the rise of mobile giving. Since your online fundraising program might require different tactics than raising money offline or at in-person events, it’s a smart idea to track the percentage of your overall fundraising that comes in from digital sources.

In most cases, the cost of acquiring donations online is much lower than through any other medium. Maintaining a healthy percentage of gifts received digitally is a good way to lower your CPDR and keep your overall fundraising program in the net positive area.

Nonprofit fundraising software can easily track all gifts made to your organization and segment which ones were made online versus offline.

How to calculate online gift percentage

Divide the number of gifts received online by the total number of gifts received, then multiply by 100.

Examples of this nonprofit KPI

Your organization received 900 donations last year, including 620 which were made through your online donation form. Your online gift percentage is 620 / 900 = 0.6888 x 100 = 68.88%.

9. Percentage of contributions matched through corporate philanthropy

Corporate philanthropy represents a major opportunity for most nonprofit organizations. Matching gift programs enable eligible donors to have their donations matched by their employers, effectively doubling the impact of their gift. Corporate sponsorships can provide additional opportunities for your fundraising efforts.

By tracking the percentage of contributions made to your organization that get matched through corporate philanthropy programs, you can begin to identify opportunities to boost revenue among specific donor segments. This metric can be tracked by count or amount.

How to calculate the percentage of contributions matched through corporate philanthropy

Divide the number of gifts matched through corporate philanthropy received this year by total number of gifts. Multiply by 100.

Examples of this nonprofit KPI

Assume that corporate matches resulted in $65,000 of your total fundraising amount of $379,000. Your percentage of contributions matched through corporate philanthropy = $65,000 / $379,000 = 0.1715 x 100 = 17.15%.

That means approximately 17% of your total fundraising is coming from corporate philanthropy. 

Bonus: Our top fundraising KPIs software

With all of these different fundraising metrics to keep track of, it can be tough to evaluate all of the data your nonprofit collects. Luckily, with the help of fundraising metrics software, it’s never been easier to collect data, evaluate your findings, and put into practice what you’ve learned over the course of your fundraising campaigns.

Check out some of our favorite fundraising KPI software solutions. Including:

Donor retention KPIs for nonprofits

Donor retention is crucial to a nonprofit’s success. The work you do all year to keep donors engaged, informed of your impact, and feeling like they made a difference should result in them becoming repeat or recurring donors.

Here are a few nonprofit key performance indicators you should consider when looking at your existing donors’ engagement.

10. Donor retention rate

Donor retention rate is the percentage of donors that give in any two consecutive periods, usually year to year. It is typically less expensive to generate a second donation from a donor than it is to solicit the first donation from a new donor, so donor retention rate is an important nonprofit KPI to consider. 

The average donor retention rate for nonprofits is about 46%. This means, from year to year, 46% of donors will donate to the same nonprofit as the year before, while the remaining 54% of donations to that nonprofit are made up of new, first-time donors. 

How to calculate donor retention rate

Divide the number of people who donated last year AND this year by the total number of people who donated last year, and multiply that result by 100.

Examples of this nonprofit KPI

  1. Donor list A = those who donated last year = 100 people.
  2. Donor list B = those who donated this year = 112 people.
  3. Donor list C = those who appear on both list 1 and list 2 = 53 people.
  4. Divide donor list C by donor list A = 53 / 100 = 0.53
  5. Multiple the result by 100 = 0.53 x 100 = 53%

This nonprofit has a donor retention rate of 53%. A smart engagement platform like Bonterra Fundraising will calculate metrics like donor retention for you, and provide dashboards and reports for quick review.

11. Donor growth (year-over-year)

Donor growth tracks the year-over-year growth in the number of people who make donations. 

This metric speaks more to acquisition than retention since it counts the overall number of donors, but it is still an indicator of how well your organization is engaging your audience and converting its visitors into supporters.

A negative number for donation growth means that an organization is losing donors over time. This metric alone cannot determine the health of your fundraising strategy, but a negative number here should warrant a closer look at all nonprofit key performance indicators.

How to calculate donor growth (year-over-year)

Subtract the total number of donors you had last year from the total number of donors you have in the most recent year.

Examples of this nonprofit KPI

An organization with 500 donors last year and 575 donors this year has a donor growth of 75 donors.

An organization with 500 donors last year and 475 donors this year has a donor growth of -25 donors, or a loss of 25 donors year over year.

12. Recurring gift percentage

The recurring gift percentage is the portion of your total gifts that are donations which recur on a regular basis, such as monthly or quarterly.

A recurring donor is someone who believes in your organization and its purpose. If your goal is to increase overall donations, this is the place you would start. Create a program designed to incentivize recurring donations. Since they recur on a monthly basis, your work here will be a force multiplier.

Keep in mind that recurring donors who choose to halt their donations can also make a big impact on your bottom line. This is an important group to keep engaged and to make sure they continue to feel connected to the work you do and the impact you create.

How to calculate recurring gift percentage

Divide the number of gifts that recur by the total number of gifts received and multiply by 100.

Examples of this nonprofit KPI

An organization has 20 donors who make a recurring donation every month. That means 240 of its donations for the year are recurring. Overall, they had 500 donations. This organization’s recurring gift percentage is 240 / 500 = 0.48 x 100 = 48%.

13. Donor churn

Donor churn, also known as donor attrition, is the rate at which your donors stop making contributions over a specific period of time.

This nonprofit KPI tells you how well you are engaging your existing donors and whether or not you are encouraging them to continue supporting your purpose.

How to calculate donor churn

To calculate donor churn, you need to know how many donors you had over two consecutive time periods.

  1. Calculate the number of donors you had last year.
  2. Calculate the number of donors you had this year.
  3. Subtract the number of donors you had this year from the number of donors you had last year.
  4. Divide the result by the number of donors you had last year.
  5. Multiply the result by 100 to get a percentage.

Examples of this nonprofit KPI

If your nonprofit has 273 donors last year and 196 donors this year, the formula would look this this:

This example organization had a 28.21% donor churn rate from last year to this year. This means that 28.21% of the donors that gave last year did not make a gift this year.

14. Donor lifetime value (LTV)

Donor lifetime value is perhaps the most important nonprofit KPI to understand because it tells you the overall value of a single donor to your organization over the lifetime of that donor’s relationship with your organization.

This metric tells you how much money you can expect to receive over time by generating a single additional donor and how much your nonprofit would be willing to spend to acquire a new donor.

If it costs your organization $50 to acquire a new donor, your donor LTV should be at least that amount. Otherwise, your nonprofit would be losing money.

Donor lifetime value is easy to calculate with the help of a good fundraising CRM that records all the fundraising activities of your contacts and can quickly sum donations into an easy-to-read report.

How to calculate donor lifetime value

Add up the amount of all the donations made by an individual donor.

Examples of this nonprofit KPI

Donor Jim has made the following donations to your organization:

Jim’s lifetime value is $810.

An alternate way to calculate donor lifetime value

You can also calculate this nonprofit KPI if you know the average gift size and the length of time a donor remains active. 

For example, you know your average annual gift size is $250. You also know that your donors are generally active for a total of 5 years. Your average donor lifetime value could be calculated by multiplying the average donor lifespan by the average annual donation: $250 x 5 years = $1,250.

15. Giving capacity

If you really want to make the most out of the donors you already have, your organization should be measuring giving capacity. This nonprofit KPI is an informed estimate of how much money your donors are able to give.

The advantage of calculating giving capacity is threefold:

  1. Your organization can make more specific and relevant asks.
  2. You can better pinpoint potential major donors in your database.
  3. When coupled with other data sources such as giving history, you can forecast how much your organization might receive from donors over a given year to create a more accurate budget.

Asking a donor for $25 when they have the capacity to donate $500 leaves a lot of money on the table, whereas asking for $500 when they only have the capacity for $25 scares them away. Giving capacity lets you know just how much to ask for, increasing the chances that your donors will make a gift.

How to calculate giving capacity

In order to accurately determine the giving capacity of your constituents, you’ll need to collect relevant information like your supporters’ business affiliations, ages, income levels, and donations to other organizations. Most of this information can be collected using wealth screening software and then saved in your nonprofit CRM for segmentation and use in your fundraising campaign.

16. Conversion rate

Conversion rate tells you how many supporters took an action when prompted to do so compared to those who didn’t.

You can gain additional insight looking at the conversion rate for calls to action other than fundraising appeals, since it’s important to engage donors no matter where they are in the ladder of engagement with your organization. It could be another request like a petition signature, email signup, or event registration.

Looking at conversion rates will:

How to calculate conversion rate

Divide the number of people who take action on a specific appeal by the number of people who see that appeal, multiplied by 100.

Examples of this nonprofit KPI

You have an online donation form that is visited by 1,000 people. If 190 of them convert and make donations, your conversion rate is 190 / 1,000 = 0.19 x 100 = 19%. 

Email marketing nonprofit KPIs

Email is responsible for nearly one-third of all nonprofit fundraising. In this section, we’ll discuss a few important nonprofit KPIs to help you make the most of email marketing. You can also view The Global Email Marketing Benchmarks report which shows key email statistics by industry and day. 

Ultimately, your goal is to determine when your readers are most likely to open your emails and what content they like to read most. Understanding those two things will improve your email metrics, increase your engagement, and raise your fundraising numbers.

17. Open rate

This nonprofit KPI tells you the percentage of the people who opened an email you sent them. Simply put, your open rate needs to be as close to 100% as you can get.

If you find that your open rate is lower than the average, try experimenting with your subject line. This is the first thing people see and often determines whether they open the email to read it or ignore the message. Nonprofit email marketing software allows you to A/B test your emails and change things like subject lines to test which ones are most effective and drive the highest open rates.

How to calculate open rate

Divide the number of people who open your email by the number of emails delivered, then multiply by 100 to get a percentage.

Examples of this nonprofit KPI

A nonprofit sends a fundraising email to 1,000 subscribers which is opened and read by 350 people. The email open rate is 350 / 1,000 = 0.35 = 35%.

Keep in mind that you likely need to calculate this by hand — your email marketing software will calculate this for you and report it on your email dashboard.

*A note about Apple Mail open rates: since iOS 15 was released in September 2021, Apple Mail handles privacy, IP address reporting, and open rates differently. Email senders often see inflated open rates from Apple Mail users, which is why we recommend focusing on the other email KPIs that follow.

18. Click through rate (CTR)

Click through rate (CTR) measures the percentage of email recipients who clicked a link in your email, telling you how many people find your message interesting enough to take action.

Knowing your click-through rate helps you understand how many people you can expect to engage with any particular message. For example, if you need 100 people to show up at an event and your email click-through rate is normally 10%, your email list of 500 people isn’t going to get the job done. You know you’ll need to do additional marketing.

The average click-through rate is 2.7% for nonprofits. If your click-through rate is lower than average, you’ll want to experiment with your content. Change the template design to make it more appealing, add images, and make sure the content is relevant to your audience. Like open rate, increasing your CTR will improve other email statistics and your overall marketing metrics.

How to calculate click through rate

Divide the number of link clicks by the number of emails delivered, then multiply by 100.

Examples of this nonprofit KPI

You send 1,000 emails and get 125 clicks. Your click through rate is 125 / 1,000 = 0.125 = 12.5%.

19. Email conversion rate

We’ve already touched on conversion rate, which is the percentage of people who take action on an appeal. Email conversion rate is the number of people who take action on an appeal that arrived through email.

Since nonprofits rely heavily on email as a direct marketing channel, this type of conversion rate is a critical KPI for nonprofits to track and compare against other marketing mediums like direct mail, social media, or in-person events.

If you segment emails to your supporters based on interest topics or other demographics, email conversion rate can tell you which content you emphasize to keep your audience engaged. 

If you find that your conversion rate is lower than the average, experiment with subject lines and email content. In particular, take a look at the language you use to frame your appeal. Is it clear and compelling? Does it elicit emotion and demand action?

How to calculate email conversion rate

Divide the number of people who completed an action after reading an email about that action by the total number of people who received the email, then multiply by 100.

Examples of this nonprofit KPI

Your organization sends an email to 1,000 subscribers asking them to sign a petition. If 350 people open that email, 125 people click on a link and arrive at your petition landing page, and 95 people sign the petition, your email conversion rate is 95 / 1,000 = 0.095 = 9.5%.

Calculating email conversion rate is a two-part process because you need to track the number of people who took the ultimate action and you need to separate out those people who took action specifically because of an email they received. Having an analytics package in place to analyze your email marketing and web traffic will give you some level of detail on the place from which your viewers come.

20. Opt-out rate

Although it’s always better to focus on the positive, looking at the areas where you’re losing ground can also be helpful. 

The opt-out rate, also known as the unsubscribe rate, is the rate at which your subscribers opt out of receiving your email marketing messages. Email out-opt rate can be measured on a single email and across your entire email program.

You want your opt-out rate to be as low as possible. The average opt-out or unsubscribe rate for nonprofits is 0.2%. That means you will lose 2 subscribers for every 1,000 messages you send.

A high email opt-out rate could indicate that your:

If you find the unsubscribe rate to be particularly high for a specific email, such as 0.5% or more, further investigation might be required to make sure you know what to avoid for future emails.

How to calculate opt-out rate

Divide the number of people who opt-out by the number of email messages delivered and multiply by 100 to get a percentage.

Examples of this nonprofit KPI

You send an email to 1,000 subscribers and 2 people opt out from receiving future emails. Your opt-out rate is 2 / 1,000 = 0.002 = 0.2%.

21. Outreach rate

While not exclusively an email marketing KPI for nonprofits, understanding the outreach rate of your email compared to other marketing mediums can be an effective way to confirm you are spending the correct amount of resources on the most effective marketing mediums.

Simply put, outreach rate measures how often you’re getting in touch with your donors.

Some supporters require more frequent contact to stay engaged, while others require fewer touchpoints. The trick is understanding what supporters prefer, and that knowledge comes from engaging with them. Make sure you record their communication preferences in your nonprofit CRM, so you can segment those supporters and reach out to them with the frequency they prefer.

How to calculate outreach rate

Count the number of times you contact supporters through a specific channel over a certain period of time.

Examples of this nonprofit KPI

Nonprofit KPIs for social media

With limited resources, nonprofits are smart to take advantage of free tools like social media, where a single message can quickly go viral and drive enormous engagement with your organization.

When it comes to social media, however, nonprofits have to be careful not to put too much focus on KPIs like number of followers that mean very little on their own. What matters are metrics that drive actual engagement, such as clicks to your petitions, email signups, and, of course, donation conversions.

To improve your efforts on these fronts, track your performance using the social media metrics listed below. 

22. Amplification rate

Amplification rate is the ratio of shares per post to the number of overall followers. It’s a measure of the rate at which your followers share your content.

Amplifications are a basic way of assessing your social network’s interest in your posts. Seeing what gains popularity and what fades into the background can guide your future activity and help you understand the topics in which your audience is most interested. This information should make its way back to your website, your email messaging, and even your phone conversations and event preparations.

How to calculate amplification rate

Divide the number of times a post was shared during a specific period of time by the total number of followers on that network, then multiply that result by 100.

Examples of this nonprofit KPI

Your social network following looks like this:

You create a post on all your social networks about a petition for which you want followers to sign. Your audience shares it in the following way:

Your amplification rate for these networks is:

23. Applause rate

Applause rate is an analysis of approval or sentiment of your posts. It is the number of approval actions a post receives compared to the total number of followers on the network where that post was shared.

Again, understanding the applause rate of a specific topic can help you understand what resonates with your audience and help you create content for other mediums.

How to calculate applause rate

Divide the total number of approval actions on a post during a specific period of time by the total number of followers on that network and multiply that result by 100.

Examples of this nonprofit KPI

Continuing with the example from the previous section, you create a post on your networks that generates the following likes:

Your applause rate for these networks is:

24. Social media conversion rate

Social media conversion rate counts the number of people who take action on a post after clicking on a social media link, compared to the total number of people who took the final action. A high conversion rate here means that your offer resonated with your audience on social media.

As with email, it helps to have an analytics package in place to track attribution from your social sources. You can also use link shorteners like Bit.ly to make links shared in your social posts trackable through to conversion. Many nonprofit marketing automation platforms and fundraising CRMs have this functionality built in. 

How to calculate social media conversion rate

Divide the number of conversions on your appeal from social media sources by the total number of visits to that appeal, then multiply by 100.

Examples of this nonprofit KPI

You create a post promoting your donation page along with a story of your nonprofit’s impact, and then share that post across your social media networks using a link that can be tracked.

From your analytics package, you can see that 5,600 people landed on your fundraising page, and 2,200 converted by making a donation. Of those 2,200, you can tell that 1,800 people came from your social networks. 

Your social media conversion rate is 1,800 / 5,600 = 0.3214 x 100 = 32.14%.

25. Landing page conversion rate

The end goal of social media effort is to increase engagement with your nonprofit and to serve your organization’s purpose. It could be more petition signatures, more fundraising dollars, or heightened awareness of your cause. Whatever your goals may be, you can determine their effectiveness by understanding the overall conversion rate for a specific campaign or program. 

Create a single landing page for each individual marketing effort and then measure the landing page conversion rate, or the rate at which people take action on that page.

Using a tracking tool like Google Analytics can help you determine a number of important factors, including:

Comparing conversion rates is particularly important because it helps you understand where to spend your resources. You want to spend more money on the pages that convert with higher rates and less money on pages or initiatives that don’t convert well.

How to calculate landing page conversion rate

Divide the total number of conversions by the total number of visitors to a specific page over a specific time period, and then multiply by 100.

Examples of this nonprofit KPI

Your fundraising page gets 8,000 visitors over the course of a month, and 500 of those visitors make a donation. 

Your conversation rate for this fundraising page is 500 / 8,000 = 0.0625 x 100 = 6.25%. That means you convert 6.25% of the visitors who see this page into donors.

Let’s say you also have a second fundraising page that gets 4,000 visitors over the course of a month, but 375 of them become donors. The conversion rate for that page is 375 / 4,000 = 0.0937 x 100 = 9.37%. The total traffic and the total number of donors is smaller than the first donation page, but the conversion rate is higher. 

A nonprofit in this situation might consider making the second donation page their main donation page and try sending more traffic to it. An alternative might be to edit the content or call to action on that first donation page to make its conversion rate fall more in line with the second page.

26. Fundraiser participation rate

If your organization is running a peer-to-peer fundraising (P2P) campaign, this nonprofit key performance indicator is for you! Fundraiser participation rate tracks how many of your fundraisers are working to secure donations on your behalf and what actions they’re taking.

This metric is two-fold. In order to get the best insights into your fundraisers you should look at:

  1. How much money they’ve raised for your organization throughout the campaign.
  2. Where and how often fundraisers took actions to participate in your campaign. 

By viewing the two in conjunction, you can determine the success of individual fundraisers and encourage other fundraisers to replicate that success by adopting similar tactics.

If your overall fundraiser participation is low, it’s probably a sign that your organization needs to adjust your peer-to-peer fundraising campaign in some way. This could be changing your content, editing calls to action, creating a more seamless signup experience, or providing better scripts and education your fundraisers can use. 

How to calculate fundraiser participation rate

Divide the number of fundraisers or fundraising teams who have raised money by the total number of participating fundraisers or teams. Multiply that number by 100 to get a percentage.

Examples of this nonprofit KPI

Your nonprofit P2P campaign results in 240 people signing up to create individual fundraising teams. Those fundraisers go out and generate another 400 individual fundraisers under those teams. In total, you generated 640 fundraisers. Of the 640 fundraisers, 412 of them generate at least one donation.

Your fundraiser participation rate is 412 / 640 = 0.64375 x 100 = 64.37%. That means 64.37% of your fundraisers are engaged and participating in your P2P campaign. 

The bottom line about using nonprofit KPIs

Each of these nonprofit key performance indicators can give you valuable insights into your organization’s fundraising strategies and help you determine if you’re staying on track to reach your goals.

When used separately, these metrics can help you improve specific fundraising efforts. When used together, they can be excellent indicators of the overall success of your organization. No matter how you use them, calculating your nonprofit’s KPIs on a regular basis is sure to help you see better fundraising results.

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