Welcome, my forecasting friends! This new tool allows you to view (at a glance!) the cumulative donation totals that you have received so far in your current fiscal year per week. Nifty right? That's not even the start of it.
Note: If you haven't set up a fiscal year in Keela, we'll default the view to be the current calendar year.
The tool also calculates what your cumulative donation totals are likely to be throughout the year based on your current donation trends. Hooray!
By simply entering your donations into Keela as they come in, you'll be able to get an understanding of what kind of funds you'll be working with later on in the year. Our hope is that this will help you with budgeting, forecasting and even justify some much needed extra spending money from your Board.
Click on Fundraising > Click on the Forecasting tab > Check out the Donations Forecasting graph
Let's take a deep-dive into what you're viewing on this page!
How Do I Interact with Keela's Forecasting Tool?
(1) Cumulative Amount [$] - This axis displays the total cumulative amounts of your donations in the current fiscal year. You can cross reference this axis with the Date axis to see total cumulative donations at any point this year.
(2) Date - This axis displays dates throughout the current fiscal year. You can cross reference this axis with the Cumulative Amount axis to see what the total donations were (or could be) at any point this year.
(3) The year so far - The dark green line let's you know what the cumulative totals for your donations were for each week of the current fiscal year. You can slide your cursor along the line to view the totals of particular dates.
(4) Forecasted totals - The light green section of the graph shows the potential total cumulative donations that you might accumulate in the upcoming fiscal year based on Keela's calculations. Drag your cursor along the graph to see what the Most and Least Likely figures are for particular dates.
(5) Transaction Type -The graph will show All Donations by default but if you like you can choose to look at more specific information like:
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Single Donations (donations that aren't setup on a recurring schedule)
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Recurring Donations (donations that are scheduled in Keela and are received on an ongoing basis)
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Pledges
(6) Time Period - The graph will show "This year" by default but if you like you can also drill down on the following time periods:
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This quarter
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This month
(7) Yearly goal - If you have input a yearly Donation Goal in the Fundraising Summary Tab, this will be displayed on the graph as a grey line. This is great to track your forecasting against your donation targets!
(8) Graph Legend - We've included a little legend below the graph to remind you what #3 and #4 are.
Churn Rate
You can use this sliding bar to determine how a specific percentage of churned (or lapsed donors) will impact your forecasted income. If you know your Churn Rate already, you can get a visualization straight away!
Example: I used Keela to view my One Year Donor Retention Rate which was 85%. I want to see how a Churn Rate of 15% impacts my Forecast.
If my Churn Rate is 0%, my "Most Likely" Cumulative Donation Amount is between $73,706.79 and $91,237.53
If my Churn Rate is raised to 15% to reflect my Donor Retention Rate from the last 12 months, my "Most Likely" Cumulative Donation Amount drops to be between $62,091.46 and $78,111.22.
How Do I Calculate my Churn Rate?
Keela has a built-in KPI to track Donor Churn Rate in our Fundraising Summary Tab!
Correction Factor
We understand that there can be extraneous variables that will increase or decrease your donations that Keela might not be aware of. In comes the Correction Factor. Here you can understand how a decrease or increase in donation percentages will affect your forecast.
The Correction Factor begins at 100% and you can either dial it down or dial it up to adjust your forecast.
Example: Our
If my Correction Factor is 100% (ie. No Decrease or Increase) my "Most Likely" Cumulative Donation Amount drops to be between $73,706.79 and $91,237.53
If my Correction Factor is 89% (ie. 100%-11%) my "Most Likely" Cumulative Donation Amount drops to be between $65,188.88 and $81,611.57
Now learn what else Keela has whipped up to best help you forecast your donations!
Transaction Types
This handy pie chart shows you the breakdown between Single and Recurring Donations, and their Revenue counterparts within the current fiscal year. The chart will show the Total Monetary Amount breakdown by default but you can change this to Number of Transactions by clicking on the drop-down menu.
To see the figures for either type, hover over the slices of the pie chart!
Donor Scores
By now, you might be quite familiar with the Keela intelligence tool Donor Scores as they are scattered throughout the Keela system. We've included a summary here just in case it's helpful: Donor Scores.
This graph charts all of your Donor Score data to give you an idea of what the average level of engagement for your donor base is.
Donor Readiness
Donor Readiness is another Keela Intelligence tool that determines the likeliness of a donor contributing to your organization within the next two weeks based on their giving history (and other factors!). You can learn more about it here.
Folks whose Donor Readiness is "Ready" or "Shows potential" will be listed here. Click on the envelope icon to send them a direct email!
Time of Year
The Time of Year graph is in its first rendition - there will be more to come! At the moment, it's an interesting visual representation of how many Donors are deemed as likely to give each month over the upcoming years. You can find more about the Time of Year Intelligence tool here.
Tip: If you would like to see which specific Contacts fall into each month, head over to Segments and Filter your list by the "Time of Year" filter!
Important Note
The forecasting tool should be used to get an estimated idea on what sort of donation totals you may receive in the upcoming months. It is a guide only and should not be considered as a concrete prediction.