Article

Performance Indicator Tools that Measure the Health of Your Development Program

Updated:

September 3, 2025

Fundraising

Leadership/Culture

Measure

Updated:

June 2, 2026

Fundraising

Leadership/Culture

Measure

Easily manage your Donor & Fundraising Needs in Bloomerang!

Schedule a Demo

As a nonprofit, you are always looking for new ways to improve your development efforts. Below are step-by-step suggestions, based on best practices, on how to leverage performance indicator tools to complete this analysis:

Step #1: Performance measurements

Campaign Participation (%)
Donor Upgrades (% or #)
Number of new donors acquired (#)
Board Participation (%)
Average Gift Size ($)
Growth in revenues ($)
Net Income ($)
Cost of Fundraising ($)
Rate of Return (%)

Step #2: Other units of measurement

Mailed Pieces (#)
Gifts Received (#)
Event Participants (#)
Gross Income Received ($)
Campaign or Activity Expenses ($)

Step #3: Advanced measurements

Donor Loyalty:

Donor Retention Rate (%)
Rate of Transition – First-time Donor to Repeat/Regular Donor (%)
Gift size ($)

Donor Acquisition:

Cost Per Donor ($)
Donor Value ($)
Lifetime Value ($)
Reactivation of Lapsed Donors (#)

Online gifts:

Online Gift Percentage (%)
Email Conversion Rate (%)
Social media conversions (%)

Step #4: Find benchmarks

After you’ve calculated the results of the above measurements, find some good industry benchmarks, such as Giving USA, to gauge your organization’s performance.

Step #5: Review results

Review the results and determine where there is a need for improvement.

Step #6: Next steps

Develop an individual and major gifts program.
Determine ways to engage new prospective donors.
Develop strategies to upgrade donor gifts.
Increase the number of gifts a donor makes each year.
Translate first-time donors into givers.
Boost donor retention through focused donor communication efforts.

How to Write a Fundraising Plan in 2 Steps.

Download the eBook

Robin Cabral

Robin L. Cabral, MA, CFRE is the one and only outsourced development professional providing value-added interim development staffing and consulting services with razor-sharp monthly result objectives and benchmarked deliverables. With her over 25 years of experience, she has raised millions of dollars for small to mid-sized organizations. Her hands-on results-driven approach to raising money comes directly from both her experience assisting worldwide, national and local organizations, and her cutting-edge Masters of Arts degree in Philanthropy and Fund Development from Saint Mary’sMary’s of Minnesota. Robin is also an AFP International Master Faculty Trainer and presents nationally and online. She works with nonprofits that want to position themselves to build capacity and generate MORE fundraising prospects, BETTER donor relationships, and BIGGER fundraising dollars. She is the leader in providing outsourced Nonprofit Fundraising Development Services, interim development services, and coaching and assisting smaller organizations in their first campaigns; annual, capital, and endowments.