Benchmarking tool launches to support sector’s Covid recovery
Melanie May | 23 September 2020 | News
A quarterly benchmarking tool is launching to track the impact of Covid-19 and the sector’s recovery, and provide guidance on how to respond and rebuild.
Put together by Open and Freestyle Marketing, who are also behind Charity Benchmarks, the Covid-19 Impact Monitor will give leaders insights into the effect of Covid-19 on fundraising and how to rebuild fundraising activity.
They said:
“Fundraisers are being asked to reforecast or even restructure when none of us have lived or experienced a time like this before.
“With the Covid-19 Impact Monitor we want to help decision making by delivering concise, focused reports giving clear comparisons between fundraising programmes as well as a view on the expectations for the future – on a quarterly basis.”
The Covid-19 Impact Monitor will compare KPIs for each quarter of 2020 and beyond with the corresponding quarter of the previous year, allowing organisers to see the impact of Covid-19 and track the sector’s recovery. Participants will receive detailed, fully illustrated reports for quarters 1-3 in November 2020, and then an additional report for quarter 4 in January 2021.
As well as tracking performance on a quarterly basis, organisers will talk to fundraising leaders and practitioners at all levels across the sector to understand how they see both the immediate challenges and the longer-term implications of the current situation. These findings will be published alongside the data to prompt discussion, share knowledge and add a further dimension to the report as well as further support for the charity sector.
Looking across a range of fundraising types – from cash giving and retail to corporate and statutory funding – the report will focus on the key metrics leaders need to understand performance, including:
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- Revenues
- Fundraising costs
- Supporter volumes
- Recruitment performance and CPA
- Retention rates
- Staffing levels and resource
It will also collate and analyse more qualitative data including:
- Fundraising plans and priorities
- Targets and confidence levels
- Fears for the future
- Innovation and diversification
- Team function, culture and morale
- Ideas and attitudes at exec and trustee level
Participation in the Covid-19 Impact Monitor costs £5,000 (exc. VAT). Chartered Institute of Fundraising members can access a discounted rate of £3,450 (exc. VAT). To take part in the survey, a charity representative with oversight of all fundraising activity (typically head or director of fundraising) should contact ma*********@op*********.com or al***@fr****************.uk before 30 September. Surveys should be completed by mid-October with the first reports returned to participants in December.
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.