The Charity CFO

There are around 1 million nonprofits in the United States. Many of them struggle creating value-driving metrics.

The vast number of nonprofits shows how difficult it may be to find funding if you are considering a nonprofit. You may realize that in order to succeed as a nonprofit, you need to find resources and people who are interested in contributing to your cause.

Another study stated that around 30% of nonprofits failed after 10 years. With such a high risk of failure, it’s important for nonprofits to figure out how to be successful.

Part of nonprofit success is dependent on reporting metrics. Value-driven metrics are what current and potential funders might be interested in when looking to fund your nonprofit.

Here are some key reporting metrics you need to keep an eye out for if you want to attract funders. Ultimately, this is how you create value-driven reporting metrics.

Return on Investment: Creating Value-Driven Metrics

One of the most critical reporting metrics is the return on investments. This is your ROI and how much you are making from your nonprofit.

It’s one of the metrics you can look at and decide how successful it is and if it’s getting the funding it needs to make a difference.

This is where you compare the cost of raising the event and paying for catering and a place to host the event and then compare it to how much was actually raised. You may have broken even, made a profit, or had a loss.

If you want to calculate your ROI for a nonprofit, you would want to divide total costs by total funds raised. This gives you an idea of how much is making from your nonprofit.

It can also give your investors or funders an idea if your nonprofit is successful and attracting interest.

Average Gift Price: Creating Value-Driven Metrics

Another metric to look at is how much a gift is when someone donates to a nonprofit. You want to see how much each gift on average is worth, which gives you an idea of how much people are giving to your nonprofit.

Metrics are important to help guide your nonprofit and your bookkeeping.

You can also see how many gifts in a specific time frame. You may know the average price per gift, but you still need to know how often you are receiving these gifts.

You can also see how many gifts you are receiving from specific donors. This allows you to segment your donors and see what donors in a specific market donate to your nonprofit.

Conversion Rate: Creating Value-Driven Metrics

The conversion rate is how many people actually gave your cause based on how many you asked.

You want to see how many of your target markets is giving to your nonprofit if you asked them over email or set up a link online.

Another way to look at the conversion rate is to see how many people are giving based on your outreach. You want to see how many people are donating on social media, email, websites, referrals, and more.

You can see how many people actually clicked on your link and committed to donating to your cause. You can then measure your conversion rate and compare it to other nonprofit organizations.

Another valuable way to look at the conversion rate is to see what channels provide you the most donors. If you discover that some channels provide more contributors to your nonprofit, it may be best to focus more on your content and marketing on fewer channels that are more successful.

Website Visits: Creating Value-Driven Metrics

If your nonprofit has a website where people can choose to visit and donate, you need to make sure you have Google Analytics are some other measuring tool to see what’s happening on your website.

Funders who are evaluating your nonprofit may look at website visits and see how many people you are attracting to your nonprofit. They will want to see how many clicks you are generating and how many pageviews there are.

These metrics are important because you want to see if people are engaged with your mission and what you are trying to do in your nonprofit. The better your website is designed and the easier it is to use, the more likely people will hang around longer on your website.

You’ll also want to see if people are specifically clicking on your call to action. Also, you will want to see if they are donating to your cause. This will provide insight on if you need to change the call to action or there’s a general lack of interest in your nonprofit.

Email Marketing Metrics

The final value-driven metric you need in your nonprofit that can give you insight on how to improve any part of your nonprofit is email metrics.

If you have an email list and send emails asking people to donate to your nonprofit, you need to look at the open rate, the click-through rate, and how much you are earning per email.

You want to see if your subscribers are donating based on the emails you are sending. These metrics can give you insight into if you need to make any changes with your emails regarding a subject line or body content.

Now You Know Everything About Reporting Metrics for Nonprofits

Value-driven reporting metrics are a great way to analyze the success of your nonprofit. It can help you determine what changes need to be done. This way, you can attract more investors.

While these metrics can be overwhelming, learning can help you increase funding. You will be able to optimize ways to ensure the success of your nonprofit.

If you want help with your nonprofit, you can contact us here.

Are you looking for new ways to keep up with the hustle and bustle of your nonprofit organization? Have you noticed that the bookkeeping is starting to slip by the wayside? If so, then you need to create a nonprofit operating budget and learn how to manage it effectively.

Doing so can help ensure that you’re staying on task. you’ll find yourself with more financial peace of mind after knowing that there’s a specific purpose for every dollar you raise.

See below for an in-depth guide on how to create a nonprofit operating budget to get yourself back on track. Be sure to consider everything that’s listed.

1. Set Aside Time with Your Team to Manage your Budget.

Perhaps this is the first time that your organization will be addressing the budgetary needs that you have. Maybe it’s been so long since you kept a budget that you need to reassess where you are currently.

No matter the case, it’s important that you set aside time to hash out a new budget with your team. Find a time period where at least one person from each department can offer their input.

For example, if you have an in-house marketing coordinator, be sure to clue them in on your new budget to ensure your marketing needs are being met.

You’ll find that a great deal of this meeting will be compromised. Don’t get discouraged if it feels like you can’t get anywhere at first. It’s all about compromise. Every department will feel like their side of the operations deserves a higher portion of the budget.

If you need assistance with building your budget, then you can also decide to outsource it to a nonprofit accounting and bookkeeping service. If you need help creating a nonprofit operating budget, The Charity CFO is an expert accountant for charities.

2. Gather Data

You might be wondering to yourself “where am I supposed to come up with the numbers? How would I know how much to budget for marketing, events, fundraising, and so on?”. By looking at the previous data.

They say business is all about learning from the past; building a nonprofit operations budget is no exception.

Gather up all your bank statements from the checking account you use for your nonprofit’s finances. This might be overwhelming at first, but take a deep breath and give yourself a few weeks/months to comprise all the data (if necessary).

Decide which expenses fall under the umbrella of the different departments of your business, then add them up on a month by month basis. Did you spend more than you raised in previous months? Are you overspending in one area of your organization?

If need be, sit down with each department chair individually to assess the money you spent and the areas in which you could cut costs. This will give you a better idea of the amount you can set for that department’s monthly budget.

Be sure to get input from your board. This budget is a collaborative effort. Accounting for nonprofit organizations can be tricky, so we encourage you to utilize the resources and information we offer!

3. Plan Your Activities

Nonprofits are all about the activities and events that you both attend and organize for your faithful following. It can lead to some tremendous fundraising opportunities.

However, too many nonprofits design their budget without considering those activities first and foremost. They’re then thrown out of whack when they can’t find the financial room to either attend the event or put on an activity that represents their brand in the right light.

Start by scheduling your activities as far out as possible (preferably a year out). How much money needs to be allocated to those activities? Which ones take priority?

As much as it might hurt, this is a great opportunity to cleanse your schedule of any activities that you aren’t seeing great returns from.

4. Properly Estimate Income

Planning income and expenses for a nonprofit can be challenging, but it isn’t impossible.

First, be sure to list your estimated income if different tiers of risk. This should be prioritized from “least trustworthy” to “most risky”.

For example, say you organize 4 groups for your income sources: group 1, group 2, group 3, and group 4. You might decide that people listed in group 1 are “most trustworthy”, meaning they’re most likely to donate generously and often.

Let the data guide you while you estimate this part of the budget. Put your most frequent sources of funding into group 1, the least frequent in group 4, and so on.

5. Put a Job to Every Dollar

Disclaimer: the job of your budget isn’t to primarily track the money that you spend. It’s to assign a job to every dollar that you raise for your cause.

For example, (for the sake of simple math), say that you budget to receive $1,000 in funds for this upcoming month.

You might consider putting $200 towards donations, $500 towards operations for the month, $200 towards activities and events, then have $100 leftover. This is the wrong way to do it.

You need to budget for all $1,000 in funds that you receive, down to the very last penny. If things change (which they often do), then your budget can be adjusted. Your ability to create a nonprofit operating budget also involves some critical thinking!

What You Can Do Today

Now that you have seen several effective steps that you need to take when building a nonprofit operating budget, it’s time for you to do so the right way.

Be sure to read this article to learn more about how to raise money with virtual events for your nonprofit organization.

And for more inquiries on our ability to be an expert accountant for nonprofits, be sure to reach out by requesting a meeting and we will be happy to discuss our bookkeeping services.

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