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Donor Stewardship Metrics and KPIs: Evaluating Effectiveness

Q: How to assess the impact on fundraising outcomes?

Track donation amounts and frequency Monitor changes in donor retention and acquisition rates Evaluate the success of specific fundraising campaigns Analyze the increase in major gifts or recurring donations Survey donors about their giving experience and motivations

Q: How to get visibility into donor stewardship content engagement?

To get full visibility into content engagement while also creating highly engaging interactive content Consider creating your content with story doc. Apart from helping you create content faster, cheaper, and better than ever Story.com with out-of-the-box Analytics. It covers everything from Reading time and shares, down to interactions with specific slides and even buttons.

What are donor stewardship metrics and KPIs? Learn what KPIs are, how to measure them, and how to use them to improve outcomes and ensure long-term success.

Jackie Plaza

6 minute read

Trusted by top companies:

Short answer

What are the most important donor stewardship KPIs?

Donor Retention Rate
Donor Acquisition Rate
Donor Lifetime Value (LTV)
Gift Growth
Donor Satisfaction Score
Donor Engagement Rate
Upgrade Rate
Downgrade Rate
Conversion Rate
Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Read the full guide on these KPIs ⤵

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KPIs make all the difference in building long-term donor satisfaction

Measuring and evaluating stewardship effectiveness helps you understand what worked, what didn't, and how you can improve for next time. It gives you a clear idea of what success looks like.

This could involve tracking donor retention rates, measuring donor satisfaction, or calculating the return on investment of your stewardship activities.

This post will lead you through the significance of donor stewardship metrics and KPIs, how to track and collect the data, and how to improve based on that data.

Let’s dive in!

The importance of measuring stewardship efforts & tracking donor data

Measuring stewardship efforts helps you ensure you're on the right track and alerts you if you need to make any adjustments.

Tracking donor data helps you understand what your donors are interested in and how you can better engage them.

Donor stewardship metrics and KPIs

Below are key performance indicators commonly used to evaluate the effectiveness of donor stewardship efforts:

1. Donor Retention Rate: This is the percentage of donors who continue to donate to your organization over a specific period. A high retention rate indicates successful stewardship efforts.

2. Donor Acquisition Rate: This measures the number of new donors your organization has gained within a certain period.

3. Donor Lifetime Value (LTV): This metric represents the total amount of money a donor gives to your organization throughout their lifetime of giving.

4. Gift Growth: This measures the increase in the size of donations over time. If your stewardship efforts are effective, donors may feel more inclined to give more generously.

5. Donor Satisfaction Score: This can be measured through surveys and feedback forms. A high satisfaction score can indicate successful stewardship.

6. Donor Engagement Rate: This can be measured by tracking interactions such as email opens, event attendance, website visits, report engagement, or social media engagement.

7. Upgrade Rate: This measures the number of donors who have increased their level of giving over a certain period.

8. Downgrade Rate: Conversely, this measures the number of donors who have decreased their level of giving.

9. Conversion Rate: This measures the number of potential donors (leads) who become actual donors.

10. Net Promoter Score (NPS): This measures how likely your donors are to recommend your organization to others. A high NPS is a good sign of donor satisfaction and loyalty.

Note: The specific metrics and KPIs you choose to track may vary depending on your organization's goals and the nature of your donor base. Choose metrics that align with your stewardship objectives and provide meaningful insights into your efforts.

NOTE: The specific metrics and KPIs you choose to track may vary depending on your organization's goals and the nature of your donor base. Choose metrics that align with your stewardship objectives and provide meaningful insights into your efforts.

More about Storydoc Analytics

Tracking donor retention and giving patterns

Tracking donor retention and giving patterns helps you understand where your resources are going and whether you're getting a good return on your investment.

This could involve using a donor management system to track donations, analyzing giving trends, or conducting donor surveys to understand their motivations.

Monitoring donor feedback and satisfaction

Monitoring donor feedback and satisfaction gives you valuable insights into their experience and how you can improve.

This could involve conducting donor satisfaction surveys, inviting feedback through your communications, or holding focus groups with donors.

Conducting donor satisfaction surveys

Conducting donor satisfaction surveys gives you a clear idea of their experience and what you can do to improve. it tells you what was memorable and what they'd like to see next time.

This could involve asking questions about their communication preferences, their satisfaction with your acknowledgment, or their interest in your projects.

Survey results can inform your stewardship strategies. They can help you understand what's working, what's not, and where there's room for improvement.

Collecting feedback on donor experiences

Collecting feedback on donor experiences gives you a first-hand account of their journey and provides valuable insights.

They provide a deeper understanding of your donors' experiences, their connection with your cause, and their relationship with your organization.

Feedback can enhance the donor journey. It can help you tailor your communication, improve your acknowledgment strategies, and create a more personalized and engaging experience for your donors.

This could involve inviting feedback through your communications, holding focus groups with donors, or simply asking them about their experience when you meet.

Assessing the impact on fundraising outcomes

Assessing the impact on fundraising helps you understand the concrete success of your stewardship efforts.

1. How to assess the impact on fundraising outcomes:

2. Track donation amounts and frequency

3. Monitor changes in donor retention and acquisition rates

4. Evaluate the success of specific fundraising campaigns

5. Analyze the increase in major gifts or recurring donations

6. Survey donors about their giving experience and motivations

Tracking donor stewardship content performance

Any content you create for your donors should be assessed to see if it was engaged with.

You want to measure, the reading time, the reading depth, and which parts they lingered and which they skipped.

Beyond engagement, you can gauge if the content resonated with your donors by keeping track of whether they shared the content with others

To measure webpage engagement you can set up third-party tracking tools like Google Analytics 4 or MixPanel. Consider that these require a high-level understanding of what you want to measure and a rigorous setup.

To track offline document documents like PowerPoints or PDFs you can use tools like PandaDocs. But these are daily limited and can only track things like downloads and shares.

To get full visibility into content engagement while also creating highly engaging interactive content Consider creating your content with StoryDoc.

Apart from helping you create content faster, cheaper, and better than ever, StoryDoc has out-of-the-box Analytics. We cover everything from reading time and shares, down to interactions with specific slides and even buttons.

How to measure donor stewardship success

Trackable donor stewardship report templates

Setting up tracking and engagement analytics for your donor stewardship reports can be a pain. It requires a lot of technical know-how, and involving your development team or an outside contractor to set up in effectively.

But that’s only the case if you use your website or offline documents like PDFs to create and deliver your reports.

There’s an easier and better way to create reports with out-of-the-box analytics by simply using Storydoc’s report maker to create beautiful interactive reports.

Each report comes with instant analytics that tells you everything you need to know about how donors are experiencing your decks. Good or bad.

Grab a template!

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Jackie Plaza

Hi, I’m Jackie, Creative Marketing Specialist at Storydoc, I write on everything business presentations. I love to research and bring to light critical information that helps marketing, sales, and design teams get better results with their collateral.

Table of contents

What are the most important donor stewardship KPIs? Why it’s important to establish donor stewardship metrics and KPIs The importance of measuring stewardship efforts The importance of measuring stewardship efforts & tracking donor data Donor stewardship metrics and KPIs Tracking donor retention and giving patterns Monitoring donor feedback and satisfaction Conducting donor satisfaction surveys Collecting feedback on donor experiences Assessing the impact on fundraising outcomes Tracking donor stewardship content performance

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