Frequently Asked Questions
I’ve heard about other benchmarking products, what is different about yours?
There have been, and continue to be several offerings in the ‘benchmarking’ space. Each of these products focusses on key elements that suit different fundraisng programs. Fundraising Insights goal is to provide opinionated measures, for fundraisers who are looking for strategic outcomes. There are many measures with which to assess our individual giving programs, but often the reasons of importance are missed, the opportunities for application are overlooked. Fundraising Insights aims to provide comparable measures for charities while providing value insight on what a metric means for a specific organisation. The goal is for key actionable insights for program improvements.
Why don’t you offer a free version?
This is a program that we believe is important to the sector and delivers value back to the sector. We’ve seen programs that provide free versions, but that limited the ability to discuss freely the implications of metrics, because it may become obvious who a participant was to those who weren’t allowed to know. By not offering a free version, it means everyone has invested in the program and it allows members to discuss more freely. It also means everyone gets appropriate value rather than some members subsidising the participation of others.
Do I have to have a minimum number of donors or transactions?
Our goal is to provide accessible insights to organisations of all sizes. We want to be more inclusive than exclusive. This is part of the reason we don’t offer a free version too. If participation levels exceed expectations we may need to adapt how we reflect some of the insights, particularly for smaller organisations, however any personalised reporting would provide insights specific to your organisation.
Why do I have to supply data twice a year?
We understand that not all budgets operate on the same cycle. We want to make sure you’ve got the most up to date information and trends as they relate to you as you work through your future plans. This means if you choose to participate at a level that provides a personal report you can choose whether you receive it in the first half of the year or the second half of the year.
What data do I need to provide, and is there any support in providing it?
We’re still fine tuning the final data requirements, but will publish them here soon. In order to keep the program as affordable as possible the pricing reflects a charity providing data per the specification. If charities need additional support we can customise an offering to assist with data provision.
I’m nervous about sharing personal information, do I have to?
Given that we’re looking at macro trends and broad program performance, we don’t believe it’s necessary to request personally identifiable information. Yes, we’ll ask for some basic information that will be helpful at a donor level like, ID, DOB, suburb and state, but we don’t need to know your donors names, phone numbers, emails or their specific address. We don’t want to match your donors to another organisations donors.