Many nonprofit leaders wonder how their fundraising programs compare to those of their peer organizations and what they can do to imitate the highest performing organizations in their sector.

To help nonprofits measure their performance against their highest-performing peers, American Philanthropic is pleased to announce that the launch of the 2019 Fundraising Performance Survey on June 17th 2019.

This survey—the fifth of its kind—was born out of frustration. We were frustrated at not being able to tell our nonprofit clients how their fundraising results compared with industry benchmarks, since such benchmarks often didn’t seem to exist. And we were frustrated at not being able to inform clients how their results compared to those obtained by their peers.

Decision-making suffered in the absence of such information. Nonprofit executives had to lean on intuition, anecdote, and conventional wisdom to guide fundraising strategies, with little or no hard data to confirm or disprove their gut instincts. These executives themselves often lamented this situation as much as we did. Given the proliferation of data made possible by recent advances in information technology—which other industries have used to their benefit—it’s to be expected that those in the nonprofit sector will feel like they’re missing out on a crucial edge.

The Fundraising Performance Survey fills this gap, accumulating and assembling fundraising data and allowing nonprofit groups to see how their organization performs on various key development metrics such as:

Used well, these findings are powerful. They can be used to show skeptical board members or donors how investment in fundraising personnel, direct-mail prospecting, or an active planned-giving program—to give just three examples— might pay off. More acutely, they can be used to help you identify areas in which you should invest, areas of growth you should pursue, and what you should be shooting for.

At American Philanthropic, our consulting practice combines empirical data with practical wisdom, giving our clients insights in a plainspoken, no-nonsense way that drives action—and results. If your organization could benefit from that approach, we invite you to participate in this year’s survey. Benefits include:

If your nonprofit would like to participate and receive these benefits, all you have to do is register for free by emailing us at survey@americanphilanthropic.com.

In addition to these benefits, the most valuable thing you can gain is access to the data itself.

The abundance of data in today’s world is a great equalizer. It allows organizations to do more with less and deploy resources where they will have the greatest impact, empowering plucky upstarts to outcompete deeply entrenched incumbents. Indeed, American Philanthropic’s clients invest significant sums to gain access to this kind of information so they can improve their performance.  But thanks to the survey, access to this powerful information is available to all comers.