Hello all,

Have you ever thought to yourself... How is my Annual Campaign doing year over year?  Are we generally stronger on donor retention or donor acquisition?  Are we doing enough cultivation to grow the constituent base we already have?  Are our efforts helping us fund more wishes?  How does my association compare to my peers?

These questions (among others) can be answered very easily by utilizing your RE data.  The answers come in the form of the Fundraising Effectiveness Plug-In.  In conjunction with AFP, you are able to find trends and stats within your own data, as well as being able to send that over to AFP to be benchmarked to your peers.  It's as easy as accessing "Plug Ins" within RE and choosing the option Fundraising Effectiveness Project Plug In.  I have attached a short document to assist you in reading and consuming this data.

So after you've analyzed this quick data, I ask you one question.  "Are you surprised by your findings?"  Please post something about your findings that you never knew or really surprised you.

“The real key to using the survey is to calculate your gain and loss ratios for each category, such as upgraded donors, and be able to compare your results to other organizations,” said Paulette V. Maehara, CFRE, CAE, president and CEO of AFP. “This information will be incredibly useful for planning and budgeting decision making and can show an organization in which areas it is doing well and where it needs additional emphasis and resources.”