Insights: Setting Fundraising Metrics – KPIs for Your Nonprofit

In this installment of Insights, Nonprofit Net Board member Laura Cook considers what metrics to track to support sustainable fundraising, and the importance of key performance indicators for both processes and outcomes.

How does your organization know that its fundraising efforts are successful? Revenue raised is a readily quantifiable metric. But if it's the only one your nonprofit considers, it may find itself in a cycle of chasing year-end donations, losing more donors than it retains, and facing high development staff turnover.

Dollars raised is not necessarily an indicator of a sustainable fundraising program. One important reason is that when this metric is off track, it represents a problem earlier in the fundraising process, such as donor qualification, engagement, or stewardship. It can also mask serious risks, such as a shrinking donor base, even when fundraising targets are met.

Metrics for Sustainable Fundraising Processes & Outcomes

The key performance indicators (or KPIs) for fundraising should focus on both the processes your organization follows and the outcomes it achieves. The former are leading indicators that help you course correct. They track stewardship efforts and the ongoing work of cultivating donors. Ultimately, these efforts contribute to future desired outcomes, such as increased numbers of donors or average gift size – lagging indicators that demonstrate the results of your fundraising processes. 

Maintain a mix of metrics that track both processes and outcomes to ensure a sustainable fundraising capacity. Let's discuss a few key examples in each category.

Metrics for Tracking Your Fundraising Processes

• Donor Pipeline Metrics track the number and value of donors in each stage of your development process, such as identified, qualified, cultivated, solicited, and stewarded. Quantifying these stages offers insight over time into what’s needed in each to reach your targets, and helps you see where donors “fall out” of the pipeline – and therefore where you may need to adjust your approach.

  
  

• Stewardship Touchpoints measure the volume of activities that reinforce donor engagement, such as thank you calls, updates, and check-ins. This metric highlights the importance of continuing to cultivate donor relationships over time. The only time they hear from your organization shouldn't be when you ask for money.

  
  

• Development Staff Tenure is the number of months development staff remain with the organization. Tenure impacts future fundraising health because high turnover leads to dropped donor relationships, resulting in falling revenue 12-18 months down the road.

  
  

Metrics Indicating the Results of Your Efforts

• First Gift Conversion Rate indicates the percentage of first-time donors that made a second gift. Bloomerang cites the average conversion rate among nonprofit organizations at only 23%. Most first-time givers won’t make a second gift unless your organization actively engages and stewards them.

  
  

• Donor Retention Rate measures the percentage of all donors who gave last year that also gave this year. Bloomerang research indicates the average is 46%, meaning nonprofits lose more donors annually than they retain. But once a donor gives a second time, the rate increases to 60%. So efforts to cultivate first-time donors strengthen your fundraising base over time. 

Source: The State of Donor Retention in One Image, by Diana Otero. September 17, 2025, Bloomerang.

• Average Gift Growth Rate is the percentage change in the size of individual donations over time. Many nonprofits are seeing higher growth rates in major gifts and declines in smaller gifts. Blackbaud Institute reports gifts of over $1,000 grew an average of 4.7% from 2024 to 2025, while those under $1,000 declined 1.1%. Calculating the gift growth rate for different donor segments can help your organization determine which types of donors it has been engaging effectively – and which it has not.

  
  

Playing the Long Game

Sustainable fundraising depends not just on dollars raised today, but on systems and relationships that drive future giving. Track both process and outcome metrics to help your nonprofit move beyond reactive fundraising to create a stronger, more resilient fundraising program to support yourmission.

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Related Resources

The Nonprofit KPIs That Actually Predict Fundraising Success, by Christina Martin Kenny. May 28, 2026, Guava Tree Strategies.

The State of Donor Retention in One Image, by Diana Otero. September 17, 2025, Bloomerang.

2025 Trends in Giving, by Blackbaud Institute. March 18, 2026.

Nonprofit Fundraising Metrics: 2026 Strategy & 35+ KPIs, by Sarah TeDesco. Mar 11, 2026, DonorSearch.net.

The State of the Nonprofit Sector (2026): 150+ Nonprofit & Fundraising Statistics for U.S. Organizations, by Erin Booker. February 13, 2026, FunRaise.

About the Author

Nonprofit Net Board member Laura Cook has served in a variety of management roles in the software and services industries. She enjoys lending her skills to organizations doing good work in her local community. In addition to serving as a board member of Nonprofit Net, Laura does pro bono consulting for nonprofits through Empower Success Corps, volunteers with ArCS Cluster to support local refugees, and serves as a commissioner with the Arlington Commission for Arts and Culture.