​KPIs, or key performance indicators, represent quantifiable metrics that can assist nonprofit organizations in the process of evaluating their performance. Key performance indicators can evaluate performance in numerous areas throughout a nonprofit. Listed below are 5 different KPIs your nonprofit can use to start the process of tracking success.

Donor Retention Rate
Maintaining donor relationships is extremely important for all nonprofit organizations. For small businesses, finding new customers is more expensive than maintaining current customer relationships and the same goes for nonprofits: gaining new donors is more costly than retaining current donors. This is why understanding how well your nonprofit retains current donors is crucial to success and expansion. This process can be done by calculating your donor retention rate. Once you have calculated your nonprofit’s current donor retention rate, you can then begin taking the necessary steps to either maintain or improve retention.

Formula: Number of Repeat Donors This Year / Number of Donors Last Year

Donor Growth Rate
When setting the goal of establishing a fundraiser, the expected outcome is to expand the donor base for your organization. Analyzing the donor growth rate of your nonprofit can give you an idea of how effective your fundraising efforts have been. Additionally, donor growth rate is an important indicator of the overall health and performance of a nonprofit. Donor growth rate is typically a culmination of several factors relating to the performance of a nonprofit. After calculating the donor growth rate, it is key to identify areas of opportunity if the rate is negative, as this indicates a declining donor growth rate for your organization.

Formula: (Number of Donors in Year 2 – Number of Donors in Year 1) / Number of Donors in Year 1

​Fundraising ROI
Fundraising ROI (return on investment) is one of the most important metrics a nonprofit should be tracking in order to evaluate success. This essential metric can assist nonprofits in the understanding of various aspects within their organization, such as: 

• Evaluation of the target audience 
• Assessment of fundraising methods

Nonprofit organizations can evaluate changes in donations through calculating the fundraising ROI. 

Formula: [(Funds raised by the campaign – Total cost of the campaign) / Total Cost of Campaign] x 100

Donation Growth Rate
In addition to fundraising ROI, donation growth rate is one of the most valuable key performance indicators (KPIs) for nonprofits, as it demonstrates the ability of a nonprofit to collect revenue. To put things into perspective, a higher donation growth rate means that a nonprofit is effectively reaching and impacting their target audience. Nonprofit organization that demonstrate a steady growth rate of donations are able to further expand their reach and impact. 

Formula: [(Current average gift size - Previous average gift size divided) / Previous average gift size] x 100

Profit Margin
Profit margin is similar to both donation growth rate as well as fundraising ROI, as profit margin determines the margin between a nonprofit’s revenues and expenses. A nonprofit with a high profit margin means that the organization utilizes their expenses well in order to generate revenue. 

Formula: (Total revenues - Total expenses) / Total revenue x 100

One of the most important aspects of maintaining a small business or nonprofit organization is effective financial management. This concept of financial management is especially true in the current economic climate. In 2021, the inflation rate reached 7% (Bloomberg), which is the highest it has been in nearly 40 years. Due to this, it is more important than ever before to take an active approach of protecting your assets. Listed below are a few strategies to help improve your financial position as a small business or nonprofit.

Diversifying revenue streams involves leveraging various opportunities to bring money into an organization.  Typically, for nonprofit organizations, 88% of total money raised comes from 12% of donors (Bloomerang). This funding breakdown typically causes many organizations to become extremely dependent on a small subset of their target market. and thus, diversifying revenue streams allows an organization to become more flexible for unforeseen circumstances. For a nonprofit organization, a diversified channel of revenue could consist of a variety of individual donors, foundation grants, corporate partnerships, government funding, fundraisers, servicing fees, and more. As a starting point, having more than one stream of revenue is great, but the ideal position should be to have upwards of 5 revenue streams.

Accurate financial records allow an organization to better understand their previous financials, analyze trends and forecast their financial future. While it can be easy to push off maintaining accurate records due to time or money constraints, it is extremely important that these stay up to date. A few great ways to manage financial records are to consider hiring a freelance bookkeeper, who can provide service for a few hours a month or on a consulting basis. Proper records allow an organization to maintain confidence in decision making, as records provide organizations with concrete data of previous decisions that led to success.

In line with maintaining proper financial records, organizations should ensure to separate business and personal accounts. According to a survey conducted by Clutch, over 25% of small businesses owners do not separate business and personal bank accounts. This lack of separation can become challenging when it comes time to determine cash flows. Separation of business and personal bank accounts means allows lenders to better understand your organization and makes taxes less of a headache.

Mentorship is a very important piece when it comes to the development of an organization. Finding a mentor with prior experience and industry knowledge can help you guide your organization into the right direction. A mentor can work with you to stay accountable on goals and provide additional tips for managing the finances of your nonprofit or small business.  Another way to discover a mentor is in the form of a consultant. For example, Flyer Consulting provides guidance and mentorship for nonprofit organizations and small businesses to help them achieve financial stability.

While the concept of planning may seem simple, it is not something that should be skipped out on. Planning for the future of your organization will in turn bring about better financial management. Planning allows for flexibility when the unknown arrives, such as a pandemic that can bring about sudden changes and high costs for organizations. Take a look at the historical trends of your nonprofit or small business and use these trends to plan. Do donations or expenses fluctuate during different seasons or holidays? Do specific donor groups tend to be more active in various points throughout the year? What events and tactics correlate with higher success, or led to inefficient funding? Asking yourself these questions about your organization and extrapolating the answers to the future can be pivotal for structuring the growth of your organization. Different tools can assist in the process of answering these questions, such as Tableau (data analytic software that donates software to qualifying nonprofits upon request).

Overall, for nonprofits and small businesses, new information isn’t necessarily the most important tool for financial success, it is the historical data that really matters. It is vital to maintain an active approach in applying strategies to maintain and better the finances to secure organizational-wide financial health.

While it’s imperative for nonprofit organizations and small businesses to set reasonable financial goals, it’s also important for individuals to remain in good financial health.  Flyer Consulting recommends setting financial goals to maintain this financial health.  Upon reading the 5 tips below, individuals will know how to set a good financial goal and how to make progress toward that goal.
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​1. ​Categorize your financial goals as short, mid, and long term. Different financial goals will have different time frames, so it is important to allow for flexible periods to meet these goals. A helpful guide is to categorize short-term financial goals as those to be met within six months to five years. Mid-term financial goals are those that can be met in five to ten years. Long-term financial goals are those that are longer than ten years, and are commonly associated with life goals such as building a retirement account.

2. Prioritize your financial goals in categories of critical, need, or want. Everyone will have basic critical life and money goals, such as buying a car, building a savings account, paying down debt, and buying a home. By prioritizing your goals and physically separating them on paper or on a spreadsheet, it can be easier to visualize what goals need to be met first. Other financial goals may include financially planning to raise a family, paying college expenses, and possibly leaving an inheritance. 

3. Examine your situation. As you begin to set your goals, take a step back and look at what kind of goals you can set that will realistically be achievable. Assess your financial position by looking at your current income, tax situation, and net worth. From here, you can begin to set up goals like creating a budget, building an emergency fund, paying off debt, and saving for retirement. 

4. Make sure your goals are SMART; specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound. Whether you set one goal or many goals, it is important to make them realistic and achievable. You want to be able to map out how long your goals will take and pinpoint how close you are to completing them.

​5. Treat yourself. It should not feel like a chore as you are working towards your financial goals. Make sure to reward yourself as you continue to make progress reaching your goals. After completing a goal, whether it was a long or short-term goal, reward yourself by briefly shifting your focus to more exciting goals, like saving up to buy a want like a new laptop or car.

Using Facebook to promote your business has a variety of benefits including being a low-cost marketing strategy, and sharing information about your organization. Facebook is also a great way to engage with both existing and potential customers. According to Hootsuite, over 2.8 billion users use Facebook each month. The most popular age demographic of Facebook users are those between the ages of 25-34 based on research conducted by Statista as of December 2021.The second most popular age demographic for Facebook users is ages 35-44. If you are looking to target consumers in these age groups, Facebook could be especially important for your business. ​

According to Hootsuite, “LinkedIn is the world’s premier business network with 722 million users as of January 2022. 25% of all American adults use LinkedIn, and 22% of those use it every single day”  LinkedIn is popular with 45-55 year olds with millennials growing their presence and is currently in a period of growth. This shows just how important it is to have a LinkedIn presence for your organization in 2022.  LinkedIn has the power to increase your brand awareness and community engagement through its search and networking capabilities. Here are 5 reasons why your company should consider utilizing LinkedIn:
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• Search Engine Optimization and Visibility

LinkedIn is the 4th highest ranking website for Google search, meaning that when someone searches for an organization, the organization’s LinkedIn will more than likely show up on the first page of the Google search results. This is vital for visibility and brand awareness.

• Highlighting Your Brand

LinkedIn allows your brand to post updates and show users a behind-the-scenes look at your organization before gaining a more personal connection with your brand. It’s great for people looking to learn more about your organization and your mission, so it’s important that the about section on your LinkedIn profile is presented well. You can find tips to modify your LinkedIn profile for success here.

• Connecting with Industry Peers

On LinkedIn, your organization is able to connect with other organizations within your location, industry, target audiences, etc. Through these connections, your organization can stay updated on industry trends, what competitors are doing, and new innovations. Your organization is also able to post these updates to stay relevant in the social media noise.

• Thought Leadership

Unlike some of the other social media platforms, LinkedIn allows long-form content, which sets organizations apart within the B2B (business to business marketing) industry. Whether your industry is within environmental education, combating the food desert, urban development, combating poverty, or something completely different, there is always something new to be shared on the topic, and soon users will come to your page to learn more on these topics.

• Finding Employees

LinkedIn is one of the top platforms for job searching with an extensive search tool and the ability to network with candidates. LinkedIn also allows organizations to make job postings which will help spread awareness about an open role.

LinkedIn is truly a one-of-a-kind platform that has the potential to take your organization to the next level. Flyer Consulting recommends highly considering joining LinkedIn for your organization in 2022 if you haven’t already. Stay tuned for more tips on how to optimize your LinkedIn profile in a later post!

If your organization sells products, then the Instagram Shopping feature may be beneficial for your organization. The Instagram Shopping feature can allow your organization to promote products and sell them directly through instagram or link it to your website. It is the best way to convert followers to shoppers. Your organization can tag products directly in post and bring followers or viewers directly to your shopping page. It is the best way to create a seamless shopping experience for your customers and allow for a quick and easy checkout. 

If your organization is not selling products but selling services the best way to bring followers to your website is to have it linked in your bio. Instagram allows anyone to provide links in their bios that can take them directly to certain pages. This is another effortless way to bring followers or viewers to your website and create an awareness of your services. Flyer Consulting encourages all organizations to link their websites in their bio because it is such a good way to bring people to your website. 

Instagram stories is a tool used to create “stories” about content that is open for viewing for 24 hours. Posting stories of your organization allows viewers to have real time news. This is in hopes to attract followers, gain donors, and bring awareness to your organization. Another feature that is similar to Instagram Live but allows followers to view content any time of the day and not only when a Live is going on. Instagram Stories can also help to retain information by using features such as Poll Stickers, Slide Stickers, Question Stickers, and Quiz Stickers. ​

Introducing our first blog series… social media for beginners! In this series, we will give an overview of the features offered by each platform and which platforms may be best for your organization.

In this series, we will be providing an overview of the following platforms: LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook. According to this research, ⅔ of B2C marketers (businesses marketing to customers) share that Facebook is their most effective platform, with LinkedIn being very popular for B2B marketers (businesses marketing to businesses) and Instagram slowly growing its role within marketing strategies.
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Through this series, we hope to make your decisions easier when choosing the right platform for your organization. Following this series, later blog posts will also include best practices for each platform to help your organization best utilize each platform for growth. In the meantime, check out our social media microsolution to learn about all the different platforms offered.