FEP and You November 27, 2006

Fundraisers have long been plagued by the silo effect when it came to understanding their fundraining effectiveness.  Sure, if you took the time, had the right data and the tools, you just might be able to look at what you had done overall or by appeal or campaign effort.  If you had longterm data, you could even compare this year's to previous year's efforts.

But comparing your results against anything but Giving USA's Annual Report on Charitable Giving was pretty much hopeless.  This general inability to see results in broader terms, both internally and externally, meant meaningful trend and planning information was mostly beyond reach. 

But the FEP is all about to change.  The Fundraising Effectiveness Project, led by Bill Lewis, is a joint venture of the Urban Institute's Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy, the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University and the National Committee on Planned Giving (NCPG). 

Their goal is to help nonprofits develop measures that help nonprofits better understand what is happening with their donor resource base.  Just as important, their plan is to make this information broadly available so that you will be able to compare your results against the results of nonprofits in general.  With thousands of nonprofits contributing to the information pool a more accurate and informative picture will emerge. 

Participating in the FEP will give you more information immediately about your resource base.  You'll be able to see if you are losing or gaining donors or dollars and just where it is happening.  Your ability to understand specific donor "segment" outcomes will be strengthened.  This will help you to discern where more effort/investment might be needed to shore up or improve your results. 

We at Mission Research are committed to helping our clients get the most out of FEP participation and findings.  They've extended the initil deadline for participation his first year to Dec. 15.  We encourage all of you to participate. 

As the new kid on the block, Mission Research came into this project very late.  But I have to hand to the Mission Research development team, led by Chris Walker, on this project.  They turned it around in a very short time to give our customers the simple GiftWorks interface and features you expect from us.  We're plugged in now so we will be able to get FEP development support to you even sooner.

You can learn more about the project at http://www.betanews.com/newswire/pr/Charities_and_Software_Firms_Partner_on_Groundbreaking_Charitable_Giving_Survey/32919

Best wishes for an informed future...