Pareto Fundraising’s work with the National Heart Foundation
How the Heart Foundation measures its success
Background:
Measuring your fundraising performance against that of other charities is a brilliant way to identify your strengths and weaknesses and where you should be focusing your attention in order to raise more money for your beneficiaries.
It was in recognition of this that the National Heart Foundation of Australia decided to participate in Pareto Fundraising's innovative Benchmarking Cooperative. By pooling its key fundraising data with that of other leading charities, Pareto Fundraising was able to provide the Heart Foundation with valuable information about the areas in which it was underperforming and where it was meeting or exceeding industry standards.
Why is benchmarking so useful?
Pareto Fundraising's data expertise ensures that a large amount of genuinely useful statistical information is generated by, and accessible to, the Australian Benchmarking Cooperative not just for the Heart Foundation, but for all of the charities who are members.
Pareto Fundraising's unique segmentation and scoring system enabled the Heart Foundation to usefully compare its performance with other charities, including those with very different beneficiaries and aims to their own.
Key to the success of the benchmarking cooperative is the enthusiasm with which the participants openly share fundraising data with one another. The exercise continues to prove to all those who take part that cooperation is vital if the charity sector is to serve the best interests of its beneficiaries.
What impact did this appeal have on the Heart Foundation's work?
By taking part in Pareto Fundraising's Benchmarking Cooperative, the Heart Foundation was able to determine which areas of their fundraising programme were performing strongly and which could do even better. As a result, they were able to focus their resources on areas that most needed strengthening, without wasting precious funds on those which were already performing brilliantly.
Several areas of the Heart Foundation's fundraising programme have been strengthened as a direct consequence of participating in the Benchmarking Cooperative. This has helped to generate extra funds for the Heart Foundation to invest in its cardiovascular research and support programmes.
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About the National Heart Foundation of Australia:
The Heart Foundation is dedicated to reducing the dreadful effects of the number of people living with, or dying from heart, stroke and blood vessel disease.
Since 1959, the charity has funded world-class cardiovascular research, supported health professionals in their practice, developed health promotion activities, informed and educated the public, and assisted people with cardiovascular disease. Today, the life expectancy of Australians is about ten years longer for men and nine years longer for women.
Testimonial
"We're using some of the measurements to feed into the business' score card and it's been great reporting back to boards. When we got the first round of information, Jennifer Doubell [former National Fundraising Director] used them to prove her argument for investment in regular giving, especially face to face. The trials were successful (and we can compare them to others) and we're now on the street recruiting.
Having such a large cash base we've looked at ways to get donors to give more times (turning cash givers into more regular cash givers) and we could look at the data to give us a really well informed idea about how much would be a reasonable investment in this area. Also, we noticed our second gift rate was not as good as we thought so we're developing a specific communication piece for first time cash givers in an effort to secure that second cash gift.
Being able to see how others perform has helped us to develop staff performance plans and KPIs one angle that Pareto didn't spot as being of great use. To be honest, the benchmarking data is great it is used in many ways, as well as using it a lot to inform (and justify) certain activity proposals. It is also now part of our induction documentation for new staff especially fundraisers, but also other key staff in our organisation - national and in the States.
It gives a great overview of industry standards, what have been successful strategies for growth in the sector.
Presented by Pareto Fundraising, who have a fantastic knowledge of fundraising techniques along with the fact that the project is led by fundraisers the reports get right to what is important in fundraising. In my role, it is the real detail that is useful, especially on regular givers and bequests."
Sarah Lawson, former National Donor Relations Manager, has experienced first-hand how useful Pareto Fundraising Benchmarking has been for the National Heart Foundation of Australia:
