Measuring Your Success With Major Gifts

I’m often asked how to rate the effectiveness of a major gifts officer…other than the obvious measure: dollars in. While bringing in gifts is important, especially for a new major gifts officer, I don’t feel it is the only measure of effectiveness.

I recently found a helpful article by Richard K. Dupree: “Measuring Performance – A Station Manager’s Guide to Evaluating Major Gifts Officers.”

Although this article is based on staff in public broadcasting I believe the tool is incredibly helpful in measuring the effectiveness of any major gifts officer.

This is also a great tool to use to measure the first 90 days of employment as well as annually.

What I like the best about this tool is that it weights all four areas equally — creating an environment for both long and short-term effectiveness.

Recap of the article and the four areas to measure:
1. Dollar goal – while important, Dupree believes this is the least important of the four measures. I agree that even first-year major gifts officers should be presented with a defined dollar goal of cash/cash pledges and deferred gifts. And by equally weighting this area with the other four the system builds in long-term success as well as rewards for short-term wins.
2. Proposals/Asks – Set a goal for the minimum number of proposals or actual asks to be generated each year. To guard against a staffer sending out a large number of unfunded proposals or asking too early, the “hit rate” is measured in section four.
3. Contacts – This is a key area to measure. A pre-determined number of annual contacts should be established with the highest percentage of these being face-to-face.
4. Overall Quality of Work – There are five aspects to measure. Each is given the same weight and they build on the three previous measures.

• Hit rate: Simply measure the ratio of yeses to no in the proposals submitted or asks made.
• Prospecting: Pre-determine the number of prospecting visits at the beginning of the fiscal year. This is critical in keeping the pipeline filled and the acquisition rate growing.
• Cultivations: These are meetings with individuals who are not new to the organization and may be much closer to making or accepting a proposal for a major gift. These visits are also important in maintaining an appropriate retention rate with existing donors.
• Use of management/leadership: This is a great way to encourage and remind major gifts officers that management and board leadership can and should be involved in key solicitations.
• Budget management: Being responsible for their own costs associated with bringing in a major gift can be a great safeguard against incurring expenses that may not be necessary.

The system is based on 100 points and Dupree says a score of 80 or higher would illustrate above-standard performance.