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Reporting to your board

Board reporting is where clean records pay you back. The numbers are already there, so the job becomes presenting them rather than assembling them.

What Relae produces

Section titled “What Relae produces”

Development progress. The whole fundraising year on one page: raised against goal across every campaign, with the conservative and stretch forecasts.

Campaign reports. One campaign in detail, for a committee working a specific appeal.

Finance reports. Gifts by fund and designation, for your bookkeeper or auditor.

Lapsed donor reports. Who gave last year and has not given this year, largest lifetime first.

Share a live view rather than a PDF

Section titled “Share a live view rather than a PDF”

A read-only campaign view can be shared with your board. They see progress against goal, updating as gifts land, without an account and without access to donor records.

This tends to be better than a monthly PDF for a development committee. It also ends the “what is the number now” email.

Presenting the forecast

Section titled “Presenting the forecast”

Show all three bands, and name which is which.

Three forecast bands against a goalA goal of $300,000. Raised, the money already in hand, is$182,000. Expected, which adds gifts you have projected, is$268,000. If every ask lands, which adds every outstanding ask, is $341,000. The goal line sits between expected and if every ask lands, so the year is on track only if the outstanding asks come in. The gap between expected and the goal is $32,000.GOAL $300,000Raisedmoney in hand$182,000Expectedplus projected gifts$268,000If every ask landsplus asks outstanding$341,000$32,000 to findThe goal sits between expected and if every ask lands, so the year turns on the asks outstanding.

Boards remember the largest number they hear. If you present only the ceiling in September, you have set an expectation that the year has to meet.

Numbers worth reporting beyond the total

Section titled “Numbers worth reporting beyond the total”

The total raised is lagging: it tells you about work already done. A few leading numbers tell your board where the year is going.

  • Donor retention. What share of last year’s donors gave again. Retention moves total revenue more than acquisition does, and it costs far less.
  • New donors, and second gifts. Acquisition without the second gift is a leaky bucket.
  • Asks outstanding. How much is in front of donors right now.
  • Meetings held. Activity that precedes revenue by months.

The scorecard carries five metrics against benchmarked targets, weighted into a score out of 100, with activity and outcome read separately. The four above are the kind of thing it measures; open it to see which five your plan uses.

What your board can and cannot see

Section titled “What your board can and cannot see”

Board members given a read-only role see the organization’s records. Board members given a shared campaign view see progress and no donor records at all.

For most boards the second is right. A development committee working named prospects is the case for the first, and that is a decision to make deliberately rather than by default. See who can see what.

Before the meeting

Section titled “Before the meeting”
  1. Reconcile. A gift in the review queue is a gift missing from your total.
  2. Check the goal is current. Goals get revised and reports quietly do not.
  3. Read the lapsed report. Somebody will ask about a name they know.

Next

Section titled “Next”