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Run the Campaign Performance Report

Goal: Quantify the success of a closed campaign — gross raised, net of expenses, donor breakdown, ROI — and turn that into decisions about whether to repeat, refine, or retire.

What the report covers​

For any campaign in the system:

  • Gross raised — total of all gifts attributed
  • Number of gifts
  • Number of donors
  • Average gift size
  • Median gift size
  • New vs. returning donor breakdown
  • Channel breakdown (email, social, embedded form, peer-to-peer, etc.)
  • Daily / weekly progress chart
  • Linked expenses (when expenses have been tied to the campaign)
  • Net raised (gross minus expenses)
  • Cost-to-raise ratio

When to run it​

  • Immediately after the campaign closes for the post-mortem meeting
  • Quarterly to compare campaigns running across the year
  • Annually as part of the development team's strategic planning

Running the report​

From the Reports section, choose Campaign Performance. Pick the campaign(s) — single campaign for a focused report, multiple for comparison.

The report renders interactively. Use the segmentation drilldowns:

  • By donor type
  • By gift size bracket
  • By channel of origin
  • By time period within the campaign

Each drilldown answers a different question.

Reading the report​

Headline numbers:

  • Did we hit goal? Yes/no, percentage achieved
  • Cost-to-raise ratio — direct mail benchmarks at $0.20–$0.30; major-gift work much lower; events often $0.50+
  • New donor share — high share is good for acquisition; low share is good for stewardship reliability

Patterns to watch:

  • A spike at launch then a long flat tail — typical for direct response campaigns
  • A "double hump" — launch + final-push — typical for well-managed campaigns with strong final-push communication
  • Steady climb without spikes — campaigns built around peer-to-peer or sustained social media

Comparing campaigns​

Run the report for two campaigns side-by-side:

  • This year's annual appeal vs. last year's
  • Two parallel campaigns (e.g., monthly partner drive vs. capital match)
  • A direct response campaign vs. a peer-to-peer campaign

Comparison reveals which strategies are working. Don't just compare absolute dollars — compare cost-to-raise, new-donor acquisition, and stewardship outcomes (did the campaign acquire donors who renewed?).

Channel attribution​

The report shows donations attributed by channel. Channels include:

  • Embedded forms on your website
  • Public donate page
  • Direct mail (when entered manually with channel marked)
  • Email click-through (via UTM parameters)
  • Social media (via UTM parameters)
  • Peer-to-peer pages
  • In-person card-present (event terminals)

Attribution depends on accurate source tagging. If your team enters all manual donations without setting a channel, attribution will be incomplete. Spend the 30 seconds to set the channel on every manual entry.

ROI conversation​

The cost-to-raise number is the start of the ROI conversation, not the end. Also consider:

  • New donors acquired — these donors will give again, so the lifetime value matters more than the first-year cost
  • Donor upgrade — did existing donors give more this campaign than they did before?
  • Mission impact — did the campaign tell your story effectively?

A campaign with a "high" cost-to-raise can still be worth repeating if it acquires lifetime donors. A campaign with a "low" cost-to-raise can be worth retiring if it's just collecting from the same shrinking pool.

Documenting decisions​

After running the report, capture in the campaign notes:

  • The final numbers
  • The decision (repeat / refine / retire)
  • Specific changes for next time

Then, when you stand up next year's version, you have a head start.

Multi-campaign rollup​

For affiliates with many campaigns in a year, an annual rollup view shows:

  • All campaigns by gross
  • All campaigns by net
  • All campaigns by cost-to-raise
  • Year total

Use this for annual strategy reviews — which campaigns deserve more investment, which deserve less.