Measuring Impact

Donors are our key focus at Mite. We want to have an energized, engaged and active donor community, and we recognize that it is our responsibility to help donors in this process. The indicators we evaluate from our donor community are critical in helping our team accomplish our mission. Here is a selection of those indicators:

Donor Community Growth - This is a very obvious one. We evaluate this metric monthly based on our current donor community growth rate. The metric is evident through new donors joining the Mite community.

Donor Retention Rate - Another vital metric that we follow on an annual based. We calculate this indicator at the beginning of every new operating year.

Number of Mites Donated - How active are the Mite donors? We evaluate number of donations received. This metric is reviewed quarterly and reported on the organizations performance review.

Donor Demographics - This is a breakdown of the Mite Donor Community into age, gender and type (organizational, individual, etc). The data for this indicator are collected monthly, and we review this metric annually.

Project Outreach Metrics

Within our project scope we look at the following indicators to determine overall performance and quality of the programs:

• Number of Projects Annually - This metric is tracked throughout the year. It is easily verified through normal project operations reviewing project releases and calculating the overall costs of the projects.
• Total Lives Impacted through Projects - Calculated as the directly reported recipients of benefit through the project outreach. Lives impacted is determined through partner collaboration on every project executed. The per project and overall annual impact is documented.
• Partner Satisfaction - Our project coordination team uses a survey tool to evaluate our outreach partners' response and satisfaction to collaborating on a Mite project. This metric is collected after each project completion and evaluated annually.
• Overall Program Expense Ratio - This metric is evaluated monthly through our financial reports. We attempt to maintain our program ratio at over 80% of Mite's overall budget.
• Cost per Life Impacted - While there is no value to put on a life, we review this metric as a matter of return on investment for our donor community. This indicator is calculated by taking the number of people impacted through project outreach compared to the overall costs to execute the project outreach. This metric is reviewed annually.

Development and fundraising is part of the nonprofit supply lines for accomplishing the mission. However, for Mite, the indicators from this area are even more critical because they give insight in the way we are accomplishing our mission. The indicators below give shed light on why that is.

Mite Follow Base - Is Mite reaching more people? We evaluate the overall following Mite has online, including number of lines and shares on social posts. These metrics are collected and evaluated annually.

Fundraising Events - Each development event that Mite conducts is evaluated for new donor growth, attendance, and overall response by attendees. These metrics are collected and evaluated per event.

Corporate and Family Engagement - We evaluated indicators within our corporate and family giving programs to determine overall effectiveness. Each participating corporate partner is evaluated quarterly and reported on annually.