How do you measure the impact of communication efforts on fundraising success?
Question submitted by: Sophia Msuya, African Child Projects, Tanzania
An organisation posts something on Facebook, receives 5 000 views and 300 likes, and concludes, “Our communication is working.”
Maybe. More importantly, did anyone donate? Did a potential donor contact you? Did an INGO invite you into a consortium? Did someone request your concept note?
These questions are more useful for understanding the relationship between communication and fundraising success.
Connect communication to the fundraising pipeline, not just social-media statistics. For example, suppose an NGO in Uganda publishes a story about its work with young entrepreneurs. The post receives only 1 000 views, but two corporate foundations contact the organisation afterwards. One requests an organisational profile, and another invites the Executive Director to a meeting.
That may be more valuable than 50 000 views that generate nothing beyond likes.
The same applies in Liberia or Ghana. Track what happens after people see your communication.
Use these four indicators:
- First: Reach. How many relevant people saw it?
- Second: Engagement. Did they click, respond, subscribe, attend an event, download something or ask for more information?
- Third: Fundraising movement. Did the communication generate a donor lead, introduction, meeting, partnership conversation or funding opportunity?
- Fourth: Financial result. Did it eventually contribute to a donation, grant, sponsorship, unrestricted income or recurring support?
If a Sierra Leone NGO sends a newsletter to 200 supporters and five ask for a meeting, that matters, even without an immediate donation.
There is a French expression: « Rome ne s’est pas faite en un jour » – Rome was not built in a day. A post today may lead to a conversation next month, a partnership later and funding much later.
Also, record where opportunities come from.
Put a simple question on your enquiry form: “How did you hear about us?” Use campaign links or codes where practical, and record communication-generated leads in your fundraising tracker.
But don’t claim communication alone resulted in a grant. Donor decisions also depend on relationships, programme quality, organisational credibility, proposal quality and timing.
The real question is not, “How many people saw our story?”
It is:
“What did our communication cause people to do next?”
That is where communication moves from being a visibility activity to becoming a genuine fundraising asset.
(This answer was provided by Julius Gamy, a Liberian NGO fundraising strategist and proposal development specialist)
