Compare this year's year-end appeal to last year's to see how well you're growing and retaining your donor base. Start with a few baseline reports: how much you raised last year, the average gift amount, and what percentage of your donors responded. Add whatever other metrics your board wants to review. These same baseline reports work well for measuring any campaign.
Report on Last Year's Appeal Revenue
This report tells you how much money came in from last year's year-end appeal.
Create a transaction report.
In the Include section, click Add Filter.
Search for and select Date.
From the Operator list, select Between.
Enter the Start date, which is the date you sent out the appeal letter.
Enter the End date, which is a reasonable end date for when money stopped coming in for this appeal.
Click Apply.
Click And.
Search for and select Appeal.
From the Values list, select last year's year-end appeal.
Click Apply.
Click And.
Search for and select Type.
From the Values list, select Donation, Pledge Payment, and Recurring Donation Payment.
Click Apply. In your report, the Amount column shows the total revenue from last year's appeal.
Click More.
Click Details.
Enter a report name, such as "Last Year's Appeal Revenue."
Click Save.
Click Save again to save your report.
Calculate the Average Gift Amount
Growing gift amounts are a good sign that you're on the right track with your year-end appeal. Use the Last Year's Appeal Revenue report to calculate the average gift size:
The report shows how many individual gifts were made ("[x] transactions"). The first entry in the Amount column shows the gift total.
Divide the gift total by the number of individual gifts to calculate your average gift amount.
Tip: If you received many recurring donations, the average gift amount may skew down. Set a later end date for the report if you want to capture more of the recurring donation payments.
Report on Percentage of Donors Responded
Compare two reports to figure out your success rate: a report that shows how many people received your appeal pieces and the Last Year's Appeal Revenue report.
To find out how many people you contacted:
In the Include section, click Add Filter.
Search for and select Channel.
From the Values list, select the channel, such as Mail or Email.
Click Apply.
Search for and select Subject.
In the Value text box, enter the name of last year's year-end appeal. This is the name of the letter or the subject line of the email.
Click Apply.
If you sent multiple appeal pieces with different subjects, include each subject as another Or filter.
Click the Name column.
Click Group by This Column.
Select Collapse Group to One Row.
Click More.
Select Details.
Enter a Name for this report.
Click Save.
Click Save.
The total number of constituents who received something about your appeal last year is appears at the start of the report. Make a note of the total number.
Find out how many people responded to the year-end appeal:
Open the Last Year's Appeal Revenue report.
Click the Name column.
Click Group by This Column.
Select Collapse Group to One Row.
"X groups found" tells you how many individuals responded to the appeal. Divide this number by the number of individuals who received a year-end appeal to find your response percentage.
Compare to This Year
Export these reports and save them. Then modify them with this year's dates when this year's appeal wraps up early next year.