Check out our enablement packages available to the nonprofit sector today:
Organization Impact
Collect, manage, and visualize your organization’s data across teams and programs to drive learning, impact, and action.
Board Empowerment
Build alignment and empower your board with qualitative and quantitative data to better communicate your impact.
Fundraising Insights
Analyze your development data to gain a clearer understanding of your donors’ interests, behaviors, and giving trends.
Special Initiative
Dive deep into a specific program or initiative by collecting, analyzing, and sharing relevant quantitative and qualitative data.
Stakeholder Feedback
Gather data from stakeholders to drive learnings and strengthen your impact. Provide deeper context via qualitative stories.
Community Indexing
Leverage community-level education, economic, health, and demographic data for deeper insights into community assets and needs.
Sarah Lorenzi
President and CEO, CAAEL |
“These dashboards are so great for us and will help push us forward with our work. We are able to see our data with a fresh perspective and engage donors in ways we haven’t considered. We are really happy to be able to partner with UpMetrics to get these new insights.” |
What is Impact Measurement for Nonprofits?
How do you know if your nonprofit is making an impact?
Measuring nonprofit impact is notoriously difficult to quantify for stakeholders. Nonprofit impact measurement is essential not only for backing up the purpose of your nonprofit but for defining future goals and allocation of resources.
Using data analytics for nonprofits allows you to demonstrate how much of an impact your initiatives have.
A nonprofit impact report measures more than just how the direct beneficiaries of your programs are benefitting but also how your organization is improving the wider community.
UpMetrics makes it easy for you to collect data across sources, track progress toward goals, and answer questions from stakeholders quickly through easy-to-use dashboards. Our impact analytics platform provides several nonprofit evaluation tools that enable you to ultimately communicate your impact through a narrative that inspires action.
Measuring nonprofit impact is notoriously difficult to quantify for stakeholders. Nonprofit impact measurement is essential not only for backing up the purpose of your nonprofit but for defining future goals and allocation of resources.
Using data analytics for nonprofits allows you to demonstrate how much of an impact your initiatives have.
A nonprofit impact report measures more than just how the direct beneficiaries of your programs are benefitting but also how your organization is improving the wider community.
UpMetrics makes it easy for you to collect data across sources, track progress toward goals, and answer questions from stakeholders quickly through easy-to-use dashboards. Our impact analytics platform provides several nonprofit evaluation tools that enable you to ultimately communicate your impact through a narrative that inspires action.
Why Should You Measure Your Impact?
Often nonprofit organizations are not equipped with the capacity to perform an in-depth nonprofit analysis. That may mean a lack of time, resources, knowledge or training - all of the above signals a historical gap in the investment in capacity building for nonprofits.
We believe that the average nonprofit goes about nonprofit analytics in the wrong way. We provide you with an easy way of measuring nonprofit impact on an ongoing basis through our platform.
Our phased approach enables you to see the impact you’re making by combining quantitative and qualitative data, informing a data-driven story that uses meaningful data to inspire action.
Here are just some of the reasons why outcome measurement for non profit organizations can make a big difference:
We believe that the average nonprofit goes about nonprofit analytics in the wrong way. We provide you with an easy way of measuring nonprofit impact on an ongoing basis through our platform.
Our phased approach enables you to see the impact you’re making by combining quantitative and qualitative data, informing a data-driven story that uses meaningful data to inspire action.
Here are just some of the reasons why outcome measurement for non profit organizations can make a big difference:
- See the Difference – A nonprofit analysis illustrates exactly how much of a difference you’re making. Your organization can adjust to serve the needs of your community better.
- Attract Outside Investment – Get more funding for your nonprofit by showing your results to potential investors through UpMetrics’ impact analytics platform. Dashboards on the platform are ready to be shared externally, and update with real-time data.
- Show Credibility – Show exactly how your resources are making a difference as whole, beyond simple reporting requirements. This will help fuel collaboration and trust-based conversations.
- Create Awareness – Positive results increase awareness. A donor impact report can help you reach a whole new audience that may want to help you achieve your mission. Embed your impact data on your website or share on social channels.
Common Metrics for Measuring Nonprofit Impact
Nonprofit impact measurement is notoriously difficult because there is no single way of doing it. UpMetrics’ impact analytics platform gives you all the tools needed to create specific solutions for your impact organization.
Figuring out the right nonprofit metrics to measure is a major element of setting up your organization to understand, evaluate and share your impact through vehicles like a donor impact report.
Volunteer Metrics
Most nonprofits have minimal budgets for volunteers, and therefore must maximize every dollar to accomplish the greatest good. Here are the main volunteer metrics to focus on:
Fundraising Metrics
Did you know that on average, it takes 1,000 messages to raise just $17?
Measuring fundraising metrics enables you to improve your average donation size and consistently grow donor numbers.
Mission Attainment Metrics
Mission attainment metrics compare the figures from the previous section and judge whether you are making sufficient progress towards your mission. How much money is going to waste, and are you reaching the right people in the first place?
We suggest measuring the following key mission attainment metrics:
Figuring out the right nonprofit metrics to measure is a major element of setting up your organization to understand, evaluate and share your impact through vehicles like a donor impact report.
Volunteer Metrics
Most nonprofits have minimal budgets for volunteers, and therefore must maximize every dollar to accomplish the greatest good. Here are the main volunteer metrics to focus on:
- Volunteer Retention – How many volunteers are new, and how many are returning volunteers? This should be measured on an ongoing basis. If you have a low number of returning volunteers, how can you do things differently?
- Volunteer to Donor Rates – Studies have shown 85% of volunteers are more likely to donate financially to nonprofits. How many of your nonprofits become financial donors?
- Attendance Rates – How many of your volunteers attend events consistently? Why is a proportion of volunteers not attending? Are you doing enough to promote attendance?
Fundraising Metrics
Did you know that on average, it takes 1,000 messages to raise just $17?
Measuring fundraising metrics enables you to improve your average donation size and consistently grow donor numbers.
- Donor Retention Rates – Are your campaigns encouraging donors to give over and over again?
- Donor Growth – Are you consistently growing your donor base or relying on the same donors to keep on giving?
- Fundraising ROI – How much money is your organization spending to get donations? ROI is one of the most crucial nonprofit impact measurement metrics.
Mission Attainment Metrics
Mission attainment metrics compare the figures from the previous section and judge whether you are making sufficient progress towards your mission. How much money is going to waste, and are you reaching the right people in the first place?
We suggest measuring the following key mission attainment metrics:
- People Served – Recording data related to people served, and measuring growth, shows how many people you’re directly serving. Examples could include beds given, meals served, or families helped.
- Awareness – Many nonprofits fail to measure awareness growth. Are you achieving recognition year after year? Measure social growth and recruitment to figure out awareness.
- Future Goals – What are your program’s goals, and are you on course to achieve your goals? Figure out what’s working and what isn’t working right now.
UpMetrics Solution
All of this sounds complicated. However, UpMetrics’ impact analytics platform and its data tools make it easy to gather relevant data from multiple sources and display it on easy-to-use dashboards.
We also make it easy to collect and present the stories of your nonprofit’s impact. Whether it’s articles, anecdotes, photos, or videos, our platform supports you in highlighting the faces behind the numbers.
We also make it easy to collect and present the stories of your nonprofit’s impact. Whether it’s articles, anecdotes, photos, or videos, our platform supports you in highlighting the faces behind the numbers.
Additional Resources
Learn more about how UpMetrics can help your nonprofit tell stories that drive impact.
4 Step Approach to Become a Data-driven Organization
From program design, to resource allocation, to storytelling for fundraising, data is changing how operators and funders drive impact. This guide will help you define goals and track progress, build and implement a strategy around data, and learn how to use your data internally and externally. |
Empower Your Nonprofit Board to Be an Extension of Your Fundraising Team
The UpMetrics data visualization platform and impact analytics tool was designed to allow for seamless communication and alignment between nonprofit stakeholders. Here are 3 ways that UpMetrics can support board members to fundraise on behalf of their nonprofits. |
5 Steps to Create a Data-driven Culture at Your Impact Organization
The time is now to adjust your organization's culture to more intentionally support your data needs. Here are 5 steps you can take to build a data-driven culture at your organization. |