What Are the Right Metrics to Measure Major Gift Officer Performance?
Donor pyramids have become increasingly narrow over the past 15 years, raising the stakes for big-gift fundraising. One or two lost gifts at the top could undermine the entire division’s performance. Advancement leaders need their major gift officers to operate at maximum efficiency—but they aren’t able to adequately evaluate whether their fundraisers are performing to expectations without a data-informed system in place .
You can’t discuss major gift officer (MGO) performance management without first talking about metrics. Institutions that have successfully addressed the major gift officer performance dilemma have incorporated metrics into their performance management systems in two key ways:
| Problem without metrics | Example |
|---|---|
| No job definition | New MGOs uncertain of job expectation |
| No rank for prioritizing time | MGO unfocused, does not know best activity to perform |
| No guidance for reaching goal | Large financial target paralyzing without next steps |
| No timely success measure | Outcomes revealed long after efforts made |
| No basis for evaluation | Multiple MGO's performance difficult to judge fairly |
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