Most leaders responsible for fundraising are working hard.
Yet many still end the week unsure whether anything meaningful actually moved forward.
Not because they didn’t make calls or send emails – but because it’s hard to point to a small set of numbers and say, “Yes, this week worked.”
For mosdos Torah, engaged in avodas haKodesh, clarity matters even more.
When fundraising feels heavy or unpredictable, it’s rarely because effort is lacking.
It’s almost always because the right things aren’t being tracked clearly and consistently.
In my work, I see this constantly: capable, committed leaders doing real work, but without a simple way to tell whether fundraising is actually on track.
That’s why I encourage leaders to work with a simple fundraising scorecard.
Here’s a helpful way to think about it.
Imagine you delegated fundraising to a capable deputy and asked for a five-minute weekly update.
As the CEO of your organization, what would you need to see to feel confident – not hopeful, but confident – that things were under control?
The purpose of a scorecard is not more reporting.
It’s to replace gut feeling with visibility – and to answer one simple question at the end of each week:
Did our fundraising move forward?
Jot down three measurables you’d want to see consistently.
Examples might include:
– Dollars raised or pledged
– New qualified prospects added
– Meaningful donor conversations completed
– New monthly donors acquired
– Time invested in fundraising activity
Not all of these.
Just the right few.
Rather than tracking many items, the most effective scorecards group measurables into three simple categories:
Time invested
Actions taken
Outcomes achieved
For example:
Time: 3 hours per week dedicated to donor relationships
Actions: 10 meaningful donor moves per day
Outcomes: $10k raised per week or 3 new donors acquired
(Adjust the scale to your reality – the structure is what matters.)
How leaders build clarity into their fundraising
This is where many leaders get stuck.
Leaders often know they should be tracking something, but struggle to decide which measurables actually drive their goals, how ambitious the targets should be, and how to review progress without turning it into busywork.
Some track too much and learn nothing.
Others track too little and rely on instinct.
The leverage isn’t more numbers.
It’s choosing the right three, setting them well, and reviewing them with discipline.
Here’s what that looks like in practice:
Step 1: Choose three weekly measurables.
Step 2: Set targets that clearly roll up into a defined quarterly, annual, or campaign goal.
Step 3: Track them consistently and review them weekly.
At this point, most leaders fall into one of two categories:
They either have a scorecard but aren’t sure it’s driving the outcomes they’re accountable for –
or they don’t have one at all.
Have a strong fundraising week,
Avraham
P.S. If you’d like a second set of eyes to pressure-test your scorecard or sharpen the measurables you’re tracking, that’s something I work through with leaders in 1:1 HighRaise Coaching.
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