ASI publishes first Global Benchmark Reports on Membership and Fundraising Performance
Howard Lake | 28 January 2015 | News
Advanced Solutions International (ASI) has published its first global analysis of how membership and fundraising staff are using technology and what are their key challenges, goals and priorities.
The Global Benchmark Reports on Membership and Fundraising Performance will become annual publications.
The first reports are based on survey results of 534 membership executives and 326 fundraising executives at association/membership and not-for-profit organisations across the US, Canada, Asia-Pacific and Europe. The surveys took place in the Summer and Autumn of 2014.
The 20-question surveys were sent via email to senior-level executives at organisations of various sizes and in different sectors. They addressed five areas:
• demographics
• performance
• technology
• website/mobile
• goals.
Membership performance
The biggest challenge faced by membership staff was an inability reliably to measure member engagement, a result of inadequate reporting tools.
Their top goals were
• increasing member engagement
• retention
• new member acquisition.
Their top priorities were
• improving member intelligence/reporting capabilities
• enhancing online/mobile self-service.
Challenges in mobile, retention and measurement
Other findings include:
• 40% of all survey participants say that they do not offer mobile options to their members
• 67% have seen declining or stagnant retention rates in the past year
• 32% do not know how their overall engagement rate has changed in the past year
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Fundraising performance
The top concerns amongst fundraising staff surveyed were:
• a lack of mobile and online fundraising capabilities
• their inability to measure donor engagement adequately.
Their principal goals were:
• increasing donations
• acquiring new donors
• expanding donor engagement.
Their top priorities were:
In addition ASI found that:
• 30% of fundraisers surveyed did not know their overall retention rate
• 45% have declining or stagnant retention rates. Oddly, improving donor retention is not an important priority.
• 40% acknowledge they offer no mobile options, yet another 29% report they generate up to half of all their donations online.
You can download the Global Benchmark Reports 2015 on Membership and Fundraising Performance from ASI. Free registration is required for each.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.