Metrics That Matter: Your Development Dashboard
Five numbers that predict your year, one dashboard your board will read, and the discipline to ignore the rest.
Through the Arts & Culture lens
Retention here tracks the subscription renewal cycle more than the calendar year, and a donor's frequency often includes several distinct moments in one season: membership renewal, the annual appeal, and the gala. Average gift climbing over time is the clearest sign the patron ladder is working, since it means subscribers are actually becoming donors and donors are actually becoming patrons.
Continuing education
1.25 points · non-fundraising
Leadership and Management · Current and Prospective Donor Research
Learning objectives
- State the five numbers that predict a development year, donor retention rate, active donors, average gift, gifts per donor per year, and one forward-looking pipeline or net-revenue-per-donor figure, and explain why total raised is the wrong headline.
- Build a one-page dashboard in a spreadsheet that shows each of the five with year-to-date, same point last year, and a trend arrow, and update it in thirty minutes on the same day each month.
- Report to a board by leading with the plain-language read, naming a bad month in the first sentence, and attaching a correction with an owner and a date.
- Forecast next year's revenue by projecting the retained base from retention and average gift, banding each addition as conservative, likely, and optimistic, and stress-testing retention two points in either direction.
Designed for CFRE continuing education. Not yet accepted; no CFRE points can be claimed.
Lessons
- 19 minStart →
Video lesson
The five numbers that predict your year
II See · Current and Prospective Donor Research
- 20 minStart →
Template· XLSX
Development dashboard template
II See · Leadership and Management
- 16 minStart →
Field guide· PDF
Reporting to the board without spin
VII Multiply · Leadership and Management
- 22 minStart →
Worksheet· XLSX
Forecasting for small shops
III Discern · Leadership and Management
Each lesson opens on its own page. Complete written lessons are available now. Downloadable editions open as each one clears review, and video editions follow.
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