Because this has been such an odd calendar for year-end fundraising, with Giving Tuesday happening in December, you may be finding it tricky to measure your results. If your answer to “how’s the fundraising going?” is a big shrug or panicked stammering, I’ve got some tips to help you benchmark yourself.
A late Giving Tuesday has thrown all our fundraising estimates out of whack this year. November results will be low, December results will be extra high, and it’s tricky to compare apples to apples to see how you’re performing vs previous years. Plus, the crucial window between Giving Tuesday and 12/31 is shorter than ever. Here are a few useful ways to benchmark your results so far:
- Year-End Season to Date. Calculate your running total in donations since November 1, and compare it to the same date range from 2018. This should give you a good picture of how your overall fundraising is stacking up.
- Time Since Giving Tuesday. To evaluate individual days or weeks, try measuring them in days before/after Giving Tuesday, and compare it to the same relative period before/after Giving Tuesday last year.
- Percent to Goal. If your fundraising goal is significantly higher or lower than last year, look at how much you’ve raised as a percent of your goal. Compare this to last year’s percentage raised by the same calendar date, as well as for the same day relative to last year’s Giving Tuesday.
Bonus tip: Excel makes it easy to calculate running totals as well as days before/after a fixed date. You can do math on dates in Excel, subtracting dates or adding days to a given date, just like you would with numbers. (The difference between today and yesterday is 1.)
And as you’re reviewing your fundraising performance, remember that this is a good example of why it’s risky to put all your fundraising eggs in one basket – or two baskets, for Giving Tuesday and 12/31. A healthy fundraising program will take advantage of the year-end bump, but will focus more on sustainable revenue throughout the year.