Your nonprofit’s website is one of the primary ways you deliver on your mission. Yet if yours is like many mission-driven organizations, you still measure digital performance using basic metrics (like page views and visitor counts) that fail to demonstrate real mission impact.  

In a digital-first world, the nonprofits that thrive will be those that effectively connect their digital strategy to their world-changing missions. That means creating a measurement plan that aligns digital KPIs with mission-related objectives. 

However, a savvy measurement plan doesn’t require tracking every possible metric or having the most sophisticated analytics setup. It requires clarity about your goals, an understanding of your audiences, and a focus on measuring what truly matters.

Here’s what you need to know to create an organization-wide measurement plan that aligns your KPIs and digital momentum with your mission. 

What is a Measurement Plan? 

A measurement plan is a strategic document that outlines topline organizational objectives and ties them to specific goals and metrics, allowing you to gauge success and inform strategy and implementation decisions. 

When it comes to creating your measurement plan, the order of operations is critical. You shouldn’t identify any metrics before first clarifying your goals. What are you trying to accomplish over the next 2-3 years? Only after answering this question should you consider how your digital presence supports those objectives.

Too often, organizations approach measurement backward. They start with available website metrics and try to force-fit them into their strategy. This leads to tracking numbers that sound impressive in board meetings but don’t actually indicate mission progress. 

Working backward from your goals allows you to take a mission-first approach to measurement, ensuring you only track the metrics that really matter most.

What to Include in Your Non-Profit Organization’s Digital Measurement Plan

There are four main components to a measurement plan. Together, these interconnected pieces provide a high-definition picture of how (and how much) your digital strategy supports your mission. Here’s what your measurement plan should include: 

• Organizational goals. These are the topline goals that define how you will advance your mission. They should be written with enough specificity to be objectively measurable.
• Desired outcomes. Outcomes represent what happens when you succeed in meeting a particular goal. Think of these as tangible evidence of whether or not you’re achieving your mission-related objectives. 
• Leading KPIs. Each topline goal should be tied to a single leading key performance indicator (KPI) that tells you at a glance whether or not you are succeeding in meeting that goal. KPIs should unambiguously tell the story of your success, reside within the scope of your influence, and be collectible and trackable using available resources.
• Supporting Metrics. Select up to five supplementary metrics that ladder up to each KPI. These digital strategy metrics should provide color and explain why a specific goal was (or wasn’t) achieved. They should be taken in context rather than as standalone bellwethers. This means they should be analyzed in relation to each other, your goals, and the overall use of the site to capture a comprehensive picture of user behavior. 

But what does putting these pieces together look like in practice? 

One of your topline goals is to increase awareness of your organization and available educational resources. The outcome might be increased engagement with your educational content, with a corresponding KPI measuring the percentage increase in resource downloads. Supporting metrics could include page views, time spent on resource pages, and social media shares.

Finally, as you build your measurement plan, remember that less is more. It may seem like more data is always good, but tracking an overwhelming array of metrics can quickly muddy the waters. A targeted goal-KPI-supporting metrics framework allows for more meaningful analysis and clearer communication of impact to stakeholders. 

Crafting User-Centric Website Goals to Move Your Mission 

As mentioned above, your nonprofit’s measurement plan depends on first establishing topline goals. When setting these goals, take a user-centric approach. This strategy ensures your website serves your organizational needs and provides immediate value to your audience. 

Consider structuring your goals around these three key areas:

1. Driving Audience Discovery

Your first goal should focus on visibility. Is your target audience finding you? Are they aware of your organization and the important work you do? Visibility-related goals likely involve optimizing your digital presence to ensure that those who need your services or support your cause can easily discover you online. Metrics related to search engine rankings, referral traffic, and brand awareness can help track progress in this area.

2. Creating a Positive First User Experience

Your second goal should center on user experience. Specifically, are visitors interacting positively the first time they visit your organization’s website? First-time visitors’ initial interactions with your site are critical. 9 out of 10 users won’t return to a website after a negative first experience. 

Consider the concept of “jobs to be done” from user experience design. People visit your website for specific reasons. By understanding and fulfilling these needs—or “jobs to be done”—first, you create a foundation for deeper engagement and support. This can be measured through metrics like bounce rate, time on site, and pages per session.

3. Meeting Organizational Needs

Your third goal should align with specific organizational objectives, such as increasing donations, volunteer sign-ups, or engagement with your resources. However, it’s important to remember the principle of reciprocity here. Meet your users’ needs first before asking something of them. This approach builds trust and increases the likelihood of meaningful engagement.

Well-articulated goals should serve your organization well for years. Of course, you’ll need to revisit them when your organization undergoes significant shifts. But if you find yourself changing goals annually, it may indicate you haven’t identified the right long-term objectives. Stability in your core metrics allows for meaningful year-over-year comparisons, which often yield the most insightful data.

Implementing and Maintaining Your Measurement Plan

With a strong measurement plan in place, it’s time to start regularly monitoring your performance and adjusting your digital strategy as needed to improve results.

The data you accrue becomes more valuable over time, so be patient as you wait for clear patterns to emerge. Quarterly data reviews are more than sufficient and strike a balance between staying informed and avoiding information overload. 

Data Dashboards

Consider using dashboards rather than lengthy reports to present data in quarterly reviews. This approach simplifies communication and aligns with evolving data maturity practices in the nonprofit sector. As you design your data dashboard, keep in mind that different stakeholders will require different levels of detail. For instance, your executive team and board will likely only need to see topline KPIs, while hands-on practitioners will benefit from reviewing in-the-weeds supporting metrics. 

By maintaining a focused, mission-aligned measurement plan, you’ll find that data analysis becomes less daunting and more actionable over time. 

Maximizing Impact through Mission-Aligned Digital KPIs

The true power of mission-aligned digital KPIs lies in their ability to transform data into action. They provide the insights needed to make informed decisions, allocate resources effectively, and demonstrate the tangible impact of your digital initiatives. 

As you work toward building a comprehensive measurement plan, let your mission be the north star guiding your digital strategy. Do that, and you’ll ensure that every click, share, and online interaction brings you one step closer to achieving your organization’s vision for a better world.