Organizations don’t fundraise just to raise funds – they fundraise in order to implement programming that meets their mission. In the case of Main Street organizations, this includes having a measurable, positive and visible impact on their community and their district. This is why measuring the efficiency and effectiveness of fundraising efforts is so important.

BoardSource, along with their colleagues at the Association of Fundraising Professionals, BBB Wise Giving Alliance and GuideStar, developed a new framework for evaluating fundraising effectiveness — one that provides a balanced approach that emphasizes how important it is to invest in strong and sustainable fundraising programs.  It is grounded in the following principles:

• A belief in the work of nonprofit organizations and the awareness that the most important measure of their effectiveness is the impact that it is having in communities and society as whole.
• The knowledge that charitable support from donors and funders are what makes impact possible, which means fundraising is absolutely mission critical.
• The expectation that it is reasonable for nonprofits to care about efficiency and return on investment in their fundraising efforts, but that it is not the only way of measuring fundraising effectiveness.

The organizations with the most strategic and sophisticated fundraising strategies work to build a robust program that balances the risks and rewards of different fundraising tactics through a blended portfolio or strategy. They acknowledge that different fundraising tactics have different strengths and work to build a cohesive strategy that matures and grows over time.

Find an overview of this new framework here, along with a free toolkit for boards and leadership teams to help calculate fundraising effectiveness.