In Use:
Fundraising Report Card is a free tool that is meant to be simple yet impactful. When it comes to digesting data – visualization is important. When faced with thousands of numbers on an excel sheet it’s hard to make sense of the big picture. Visualization enables a company to tell a story that will come in handy when making decisions or sharing findings to key stakeholders.
As long as a nonprofit has a donor ID number, the date in which the donation occurred, and the amount of the donation – they can upload their information straight to the site. The most common method is using a csv file format but Fundraising Report Card also integrates with CRMs such as Kindful and Little Green Light.
One of the most interesting things about the Fundraising Report Card is their live benchmarks that gives a nonprofit real time data about the nonprofit community. As of January 15, 2020 Fundraising Report Card has analyzed 64 billion donations. Other interesting statistics show how donations are changing year over year, donor retention rate, and the average donation amount.
Ease of Use:
The platform located on the cloud is easy to use. A nonprofit can start uploading data instantly. I will say that there is a learning curve. When I tried to upload sample data I kept getting the same error message, “oh man! We ran into some issues” after I tried uploading a second set of data. If an error message does occur there is a help center located on the website as well a short form a user can fill out that will connect them with a community consultant.
Technology Used:
The software is located on the cloud – and therefore a charity only needs an email address to get started.
Recap:
Fundraising Report Card is a free cloud-based platform created by Market Smart for nonprofit organizations. The tool enables charities to visualize their donor data. Visualizations that Fundraising Report Card offers include campaign effectiveness and donor retention rate.
Advantages:
- The platform is free to use
- Fundraising Report Card analyzed donor data to create benchmarks for the nonprofit community
- All donor activity is anonymous within the platform
Disadvantages:
- For the time being Market Smart has no plans to enhance or modify the platform
My Opinion:
Fundraising Report Card is a great platform for nonprofits to analyze their donor data. Reports include donor retention rates and average donor size. While the reports available don’t necessarily dig deep- they are a great indication of who a nonprofit’s donor base is which can help them secure more donations.
