Turning Your Metrics Into a Nonprofit Website Measurement Plan

I rarely talk to nonprofit organizations that have a solid plan for measuring their website's performance. Some don’t do any measurement; have a list of metrics but lack any process for making decisions with them. That's a shame. Organizations can waste a lot of time and energy in this way. A well-thought-out measurement plan pinpoints exactly which metrics matter for your goals, how much time makes sense to gather them, and how you'll use them to decide what to change.

A measurement plan doesn't need to be complicated. A brief document addressing a few critical questions can be really helpful. Answering just seven questions will take a little bit of time in the short term, but it will then save you time whenever you want to use your metrics or make a data-based decision.

1. What are your goals?

A collection of metrics isn’t particularly useful unless you know what you want to improve on your website. Do you want more visitors? More donations? More event registrations? Limit yourself to 1-5 key goals to keep yourself on track. These goals should  matter to your organization  and be something you can track. For a deeper dive into setting effective goals, consider the SMARTIE goal framework (The Nonprofit Learning Lab has a good overview of SMART goals; The Management Center explains how to add considerations of Equity and Inclusion to create a SMARTIE goal)

2. What tactics will you use to hit those goals?

 Identifying your goals is the first step. Next, decide how you'll reach them. If you're aiming for more website traffic, you might post more content, run Google ads, or boost engagement on LinkedIn. For increasing event registrations, you could improve event descriptions, invite more speakers, or optimize the graphic design of your registration page. If you start to feel overwhelmed, begin with only one or two goals and tactics.

3. Which metrics will track your progress?

Choose specific metrics that align with each tactic. Some tactics are straightforward to measure, like the number of articles posted or whether you updated your graphic design. Others might be more complex—for instance, if you're trying to engage more people on LinkedIn, you might measure both how many times you posted and how many comments each post received. And ensure you define how you'll measure success towards your goal itself. For instance, if you want to increase donations, will you measure the number of donations? Total raised? Both?

If your goals involve tracking the success of articles to inform, educate or inspire, check out Part 2 of this article series, Seven Metrics to Measure Your Articles.

4. How often will you adjust?

 A measurement plan is only useful if you intend to refine your tactics or your site based on what the metrics tell you. Decide on a reasonable pace for making changes—perhaps monthly or quarterly? This will inform how often you need to collect data, as per the next section.

5. How often will you collect the data?

You'll likely need to gather data from various platforms. Determine how frequently you'll do this. Obviously, you'll need to collect it as often as you plan to use it to adjust tactics, but collecting it two to three times more frequently can be useful for spotting trends over time in more detail. It may well make sense to create a central spreadsheet to accumulate all your data over time.

6. What process will you use to make decisions?

Once you have raw metrics, how will you use them to make decisions? If you're part of a team, setting up regular meetings can be an excellent way to discuss metrics and plan your next moves. Consider assigning one team member to analyze the metrics and present recommendations, so not everyone needs to absorb all the information.

7. Who’s in charge of what?

If there are multiple members of your web team, ensure clarity on who will perform each step. Who's responsible for collecting the data? Analyzing it? Ensuring the team meets to use the data for decision-making? Who's ultimately in charge of whether the website meets its goals?

A solid measurement plan streamlines the process of tracking your website's success. It doesn't replace the need to explore your metrics more deeply from time to time to uncover unexpected trends. However, it does offer a straightforward way to integrate metric reviews into a busy nonprofit schedule, ensuring your website continually moves in the right direction.