Reporting is about setting pertinent measures of success, and reviewing progress. It helps organisations understand their trajectory. 

Reporting also allows organisations to adjust their course if necessary. When organisations learn lessons, they can improve their impact.

Digital has the potential to access a vast quantity of data. The challenge is deciding which things to report on and how best to measure those. 

Organisations should avoid vanity statistics. These might include Twitter impressions or Facebook reach, which may be of no real value. 

It’s important to compile digestible reports. It’s also important to share these with the right people at the right time. This can be hard to master if data is in disparate systems and databases.

Things to think about

• How often are reports of previous activity used to inform a new project?
• Do you have a dashboard that presents key performance statistics in one place?
• How quickly and easily can you create basic reports to answer questions, such as how many donations came from a specific email, how many donors are also email subscribers, how many donors also took an action?