If you lead a small fundraising team, you’re swimming in numbers. Website sessions. Impressions. Email opens. It’s a lot. The problem is that many of those numbers make you feel busy without helping you raise more. Today we’ll cut through the noise and pick 5 money-moving metrics you can manage week in and week out.
“If a metric can’t inform your next action, it belongs in a museum, not your Monday meeting.”
Before we jump in, a quick reality check on email. Open rates have been unreliable since Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection began inflating opens across huge chunks of your list. Smart teams are swapping opens for outcomes like revenue per 1,000 emails and page completion rate. In 2024, nonprofits raised $58 for every 1,000 fundraising emails and saw an average 0.48% click-through rate with 12% page completion. That’s the level of clarity you want when you decide what to send next. (M+R Benchmarks 2025).
The 5 metrics that move money
These five are simple to track, easy to coach, and proven to tie to revenue. We’ll mark which ones are leading (predictive) and which are lagging (results).
1) Meaningful 1:1 donor touches per week (leading)
Count only interactions that create genuine two-way connection with a current or prospective donor. Think calls, Zooms, personal emails with replies, hand-written notes that spark a response, or brief meetings at events. Blast emails don’t count.
Why it matters: Fundraising is relational. The more authentic conversations you have, the more opportunities you create for ongoing giving. Major-gift coaches call these meaningful connections and recommend tracking them over vanity activity counts. (Veritus Group).
How to work it each week:
- Give every fundraiser a target. For example, 10 meaningful touches.
- Use a simple nudge system so no donor falls through the cracks. DonorDock’s ActionBoard surfaces next-best actions and reminders so you can focus on what matters most.
- Review quickly every Monday. Who did we connect with last week, and who is next?
2) Qualified asks made and ask-to-gift conversion (leading + lagging)
An ask is qualified if it’s tailored to a donor’s capacity and interest, with a clear amount or range. Track both the number of asks and the conversion rate to gifts.
Why it matters: You can’t control when someone gives. You can control how consistently you ask the right people the right way. Getting disciplined here builds a healthy pipeline and gives you an early read on whether you’ll hit goal.
How to work it each week:
- Set a weekly ask target per portfolio size. Even 3 to 5 asks per week can change your quarter.
- Track ask-to-gift conversion by segment. Improve your approach where conversion is soft.
- Log every ask as an activity so your future self remembers what happened.
3) Donor retention rate (lagging)
This is your north-star metric. It tells you the percentage of last year’s donors who gave again this year. Why it matters: Retaining donors is cheaper than finding new ones, and it grows lifetime value. Right now, the sector is struggling. In Q1 2025, the Fundraising Effectiveness Project estimated overall retention at 18.1% year-to-date, with 7.1% retention for new donors and 25.4% for repeat donors. (FEP Quarterly Benchmark, Q1 2025).
How to work it each week:
- Watch your “at-risk” list: anyone who gave last year but not yet this year.
- Build simple rhythms — thank you calls, quick impact updates, or invitations to engage.
- Rotate stewardship each quarter so donors feel noticed, not forgotten.
4) Donation page completion rate (leading + lagging)
This is the percentage of visitors who finish a donation on your form. It is one of the simplest levers you can pull because small usability fixes create real lifts. M+R reports a 12% average donation page completion rate. (M+R Benchmarks 2025).
Good news is, experiments show how to improve it:
- Removing unnecessary fields increased donation rates by 18% in one test.
- Streamlining a form to only essential fields produced a 107% lift in another. (NextAfter experiments).
How to work it each week:
- Run one quick test: remove a field, clarify the ask, or simplify error messages.
- Check results by traffic source to see where people drop off.
- Follow up fast with personal acknowledgments — donors who feel seen are more likely to return.
5) Recurring donor share of revenue (leading + lagging)
Recurring programs are a stability machine. In 2024, monthly giving grew 5% year over year and accounted for 31% of all online revenue in M+R’s study. (M+R Benchmarks 2025).
How to work it each week:
- Add a gentle monthly upgrade ask to every confirmation page and receipt. DonorDock’s automatic receipts make it easy to include a clear upgrade link.
- Feature “Give monthly” as the default option on forms when appropriate.
- Nurture these donors. Our playbook for recurring donations has quick wins you can steal.
A simple weekly rhythm to keep the team focused
Here’s a 30-minute agenda you can run every Monday. It keeps the conversation on leading indicators without losing sight of results.
- Wins in 3 minutes. One quick story from last week that shows progress with a donor.
- Metrics in 10 minutes.
- Meaningful touches per person
- Asks made and conversion updates
- Retention watchlist progress
- Donation page completion snapshot
- Recurring share trend
- Decisions in 10 minutes. What we’re starting, stopping, or changing this week.
- Assignments in 7 minutes. Everyone leaves with clear targets and next actions.
“More focus, less frenzy” is a habit. Protect the 5 metrics above and you’ll feel the mental load ease.
“But what about opens?” Use outcomes instead.
When Apple Mail started pre-loading images and routing downloads through proxies, open tracking stopped behaving like a real engagement signal. That change makes it harder to run subject line tests or segment by “active” vs “inactive” based on opens alone. (M+R Lab) and (Wired explainer).
What to track instead:
- Revenue per 1,000 emails sent
- Click-through and page completion rate
- New recurring donors started from email
Those are actionable. They tell you exactly what to test next.
Bring it to life inside your CRM
You do not need a dozen dashboards. You need a short list that lives where you work. DonorDock was built for small & growing fundraisers, so the tooling matches the rhythm above:
- ActionBoard nudges your next meaningful touch and logs it in one click.
- Stewardship Journeys deliver well-timed gratitude and updates that lift retention.
- If you want a broader plan to design your week, our 5–8 Fundraising Plays article pairs nicely with the 5 metrics here.
Your next step
Pick one metric to put into practice this week. Set a simple target, add it to your Monday agenda, and give your team a tool or template to make it easy. Next week, layer in a second metric. Within a month, you’ll feel the difference in focus and in your numbers.
You don’t need dozens of dashboards to stay on track. What you need is a short list of metrics that live where you work. DonorDock is built for small teams, with tools that nudge your next touch, simplify your forms, and strengthen donor relationships.
👉 Ready to cut the noise and raise more with focus? Schedule a demo.
