How can nonprofits evaluate their fundraising productivity?

Summary:

An expert in nonprofit accountability and evaluation shares his insights on how to interpret fundraising costs in a collection of essays called the Fundraising Productivity Series.

Answer:

Bill Levis has almost 40 years of experience in nonprofit financial reporting. His Fundraising Productivity Series is available on the website of the National Center for Charitable Statistics at the Urban Institute at http://nccsdataweb.urban.org/PubApps/levis/fps.html.

Levis' Fundraising Productivity Series addresses such subjects as:

• Average gift size as a measure of fundraising productivity
  
• Funding fundraising capacity by investing in HR and known techniques
  
• Increased giving through greater investments in fundraising
  
• Questions donors ask and how to answer them using financial statements
  
• Realities of fundraising costs and accountability
  
• ROI analysis

For more background on Bill Levis and the Fundraising Productivity Series, please see http://nccsdataweb.urban.org/PubApps/levis/levis.html.

Cliff Landesman has published Notes summarizing Levis' articles at http://nccsdataweb.urban.org/PubApps/levis/notes.html.

Links to the individual articles are below:
Average Gift Size
http://nccsdataweb.urban.org/PubApps/levis/gift.html
Funding Fund Raising Report
http://nccsdataweb.urban.org/PubApps/levis/funding.html
Increased Giving by Investing More Money in Fund Raising Wisely
http://nccsdataweb.urban.org/PubApps/levis/increased.html
Questions Donors Ask
http://nccsdataweb.urban.org/PubApps/levis/questions.html
Realities of Fund-Raising Costs and Accountability
http://nccsdataweb.urban.org/PubApps/levis/realities.html
Return on Investment (ROI) Analysis
http://nccsdataweb.urban.org/PubApps/levis/roi.html

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Posted at the Internet Nonprofit Center by Cliff Landesman in the 1990s; moved to the Urban Institute's website in July 2005

Updated 02/19/09 -- YBL