Measurement sounds like an inherently complicated subject, but it’s not. Most of the time we can learn an immense amount about a situation without even looking at specific measurements. All we need to look at is what’s being measured.

Take traditional transactional fundraising. (Please.)

In traditional transactional fundraising (ttf), what do we measure?

• Gross income raised
• Net income raised
• Cost of fundraising
• Recency of gift
• Frequency of giving
• Size of gift
• Wealth information related to the donor or prospect.

Sum it up and say that what we measure in ttf are quantifications of the relationship between the donor and our organization.

When we report back to donors (and foundations and our board), and when we evaluate our organization internally, what we typically report on are measurements between our organization and the cause our organization is seeking to impact.

So there are umpteen measurements between the individual and our organization, and between our organization and the cause.

But are there any measurements between the individual and the cause in ttf?

In a word? No.

Why?

Because ttf does not believe it is the individual’s job to impact the cause. That’s the organization’s job. The individual’s job is to determine which organization to give money to in order to impact the cause, and to give as much as possible as frequently as possible.

Similarly, ttf does not measure the relationship between the individual and his or her church. Why would we? After all, that’s the donor’s business, right?

According to Barna Group research, church members are shifting their giving away from churches and to nonprofits at an astonishing rate. Three years ago the average Christian was giving 84 cents of every donation dollar to the church. Today, that’s plummeted to 76 cents of every donation dollar, and the trend is accelerating.

The fact that we don’t measure how an individual’s giving to our nonprofit affects his or her giving to church is a sign that our attitude toward the Barna statistic is, ‘It’s not my problem. Tough luck, church. It’s a charity-eat-charity world out there. You better suck it up and figure out how to compete better. Eat my complimentary address labels.’

Another thing ttf doesn’t measure is the relationship between the individual and his or her sphere of influence in relation to spreading the cause.

Grassfire.org was one of the first organizations to build its development philosophy around what founder Steve Elliot called ‘The Grassfire Effect‘–the idea that individuals could be something more than the source of ‘endless referrals’ for an organization; instead, they were the most effective means by which a cause can spread in their sphere of influence.

The fact that ttf doesn’t measure the degree to which an individual’s sphere of influence is saturated with the cause indicates that nonprofits don’t believe individuals are the main means by which the cause spreads. Nonprofits believe nonprofits are the primary spreaders of the cause.

Finally, ttf doesn’t measure the individual giver in relation to himself or herself. Is the gift a healthy step for this individual’s giving portfolio? What does it represent about his or her giving overall–not just as a percentage but as a step of maturity in understanding what the Bible calls him or her to do? Does it reflect maturation in relation to the cause?

The fact that ttf doesn’t measure these things indicates that, in the end, it’s not really the relation between the individual and the organization that is being measured. It’s the amount of money that’s transacted (or in the case of prospects, the amount of money that potentially may be transacted) that’s key.

And that, dear reader, is pretty sad.

And beyond sad, it’s likely not even ’cause smart’ in the long run. It may perhaps be smart in relation to institutional survival, though even that’s debatable. But do we really want to say that Kingdom causes are best impacted by Christian nonprofits funded by reverse consumers known as ‘donors’ who are cultivated the same way for-profit marketers cultivate people to buy a certain brand of dishwashing detergent?

Or would we rather gamble that Kingdom causes are works prepared from before the foundation of the world by God for His people to walk in on the way to full maturity in Christ, assisted by leaders whom God sends for exactly that purpose, all to reveal the glory of His Son (cf. Ephesians 2:10 and Ephesians 4:12)?

Sounds like something well worth measuring.