Year-End Reporting to Your Community & Board of Directors

As the year comes to a close, so do the year-end fundraising efforts for many nonprofit organizations. Hopefully, if you’ve taken Cogeo’s advice, you’ve been able to diligently track all the data that follows this influx of donations. Now, it’s time to report on the data you’ve collected and analyzed.

Learn more about data tracking and analytics here »

There are two groups that should be considered as your data analysis winds down -- your community members and your Board of Directors. Not only do both your community and your board deserve thanks for their donations and participation, but they should know the results and success of your nonprofit’s fundraising efforts.

The way that you deliver this data may differ -- your community should get a nicely designed mass marketing email, while your board will appreciate a report presented at their next board meeting -- but the information being delivered should be similar, if not the same. Below are the most important metrics that you should share with them.

Total Amount Raised

First and foremost, you should share how much was raised in total. This should be an easy metric to pull, especially if you’re using a crowdfunding platform, such as PayPal or GoFundMe.

You may want to also consider sharing this total as a percentage to your overall fundraising goal. For instance, if your goal was to raise $2,000 and you raised $1,800, it will send a powerful message to report that you raised 90% of your fundraising goal. 

Either way, this will be your leading metric. Many members of both your community and board will determine the success of your efforts based on this figure alone, so make absolutely sure it’s accurate and display it clearly.

Number of Donations

This data point will couple nicely with the total amount raised. Because this is an annual giving campaign, you’re more likely to have a large number of donors giving at a smaller dollar amount.

Showing how far your campaign efforts were able to reach and how many new and existing community members support your organization is a crucial piece of information.

Donors to Recognize

Hopefully, you have a long list of donors -- some new, some recurring, and some who made a significant contribution. 

When addressing your community, you may consider naming some significant donors. If doing so, be sure to request donors’ permission to publicize their names. Alternatively, you can simply offer a general thanks and recognition to all of those members who donated to your campaign.

When addressing your Board of Directors, you should share a list of donors who contributed a major gift (at Cogeo, a major gift is a donation that meets or exceeds .1% or 1/1000th or your nonprofit’s annual budget). Your Board Chairman, as well as any other board members who have a relationship with the donor, should send a personal email or letter thanking them for their generous contribution.

What should you do when you uncover a major gift donor? Find out here »

Average Donation Size

It’s important to know where your organization’s annual giving sweet spot is. Uncovering this number and sharing with your Board of Directors will help members understand the realities of year-end fundraising efforts and help set realistic goals for the coming years.

You may choose to share this number with your community in a more creative way. For instance, next year you may choose to make that number (perhaps slightly rounded up) available as an easily accessible button on your crowdfunding page next year.

Dollars to Projects

Now that you have a year-end fundraising total, you can create a spending plan. You likely have an overall goal of where you’d like the funding to go. You may have even incorporated that goal into the campaign marketing. But now -- you can determine how many dollars will go towards what parts of the project.

If you allowed your donors to select this themselves, then you’re ahead of the game. For many other organizations, you’ll need to create a clear, transparent plan for your project. 

This spending plan will need to be shared with your Board of Directors, and it should also be shared with your community. Your major gifts donors should know where their specific donation is going and all other donors will greatly appreciate knowing the details of your organization’s spending.