In Katie Paine's Measure What Matters, she discusses measuring for nonprofits. I believe measuring in this area of PR is one of the most important because resources are so limited and competition is high. Nonprofits don't necessarily have the reputation to be competitive, but especially in this economy today, donations are harder to find; we compete for dollars, time and volunteers. Nonprofits do not want to waste their time and money on unsuccessful programs and they want to use what works best to help them raise funds and gain memberships, making measurement crucial.
This past summer at my internship at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland, I worked primarily in development with memberships. Because of this, I particularly liked Paine sharing how to measure membership with the data that is already available. She says to look at:
- Attendance figures
- Old awareness or attitude studies
- Number of new members or donors acquired
- Numbers of volunteers added
- Return from direct-mail campaigns, door-to-door solicitations, and fundraising events
- What a donor is worth over a lifetime
These are all things I personally saw MOCA track this past summer, and even I had a hand in measuring, such as attendance at events. These are all things that can be easily acquired and analyzed providing great information, a great place to start a measurement program for any nonprofit!
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