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IOM Blog

June 14, 2021

Why Revenue and Member Totals Aren’t the Most Important Growth Numbers

Can you imagine telling your board that revenue and number of members are not the most important measures of organizational growth?

As the leader of the organization, it is your job to drive revenue to run programs and find members to pay memberships, sponsorships, and attend events. It is the lifeblood of the organization. And it’s your job to do both.

Of course you play a key role in those outcomes and their growth.

Here is the challenge. Who ultimately controls that decision?

  • Are you the one approving the purchase requisition?
  • Do you sign the sponsorship check?
  • Do you convince leadership about the value of membership?

As leaders of membership organizations, ultimately, we cannot control members’ decisions to join, sponsor, or attend. They have to make those decisions.

So why spend so much time focused on things you can’t control?

What if you focused more time on those things you can control?

So many factors go into your success, which leads to organizational success. Are you clear on what they are and if you are growing them? It isn’t luck, being in the right place at the right time, or happenstance. It is taking intentional steps to free up your time for the most important efforts; to enable your staff to connect and engage with members and create processes that make your organization more effective.

Are you clear on what they are?

Things like accountability, motivation, delegation, and others are the areas that strengthen your organization and drive revenue and membership growth.

How often do you evaluate, measure, and report on these key areas of effective leadership and organizational growth?

As you consider thinking differently about your organization’s growth, here are four steps you can take to better understand where you and your organization can grow. They will help you determine the areas you can control and see where you have room for growth.

  • Take this free and quick leadership assessment to get a baseline awareness of your strength in these key leadership areas.
  • Determine where growth is needed.
  • Decide which one you will address first.
  • Schedule regular reviews to understand and evaluate your growth and where you have room for more.

Being clear on where you stand and where you still have room for growth is critical for leaders and organizations. It is hard to control what you don’t measure and hard to grow when you focus on things you can’t control.

Your board will never stop measuring your growth in terms of revenue and members and those aren’t likely to grow if you are not growing as a leader in the areas you can control.

Avatar photo
Tom Brush
Chief Executive Officer
Advancement Designs

Tom Brush is a nonprofit consultant/coach who partners with nonprofit leaders and organizations to design strategies to further engagement with their constituencies, effectively manage volunteers and boards, increase donations from individuals, corporations, and foundations, and creatively steward donors.

In 25 years, Tom has worked on four comprehensive fundraising campaigns which all achieved their goal; built and managed annual fundraising appeals that have increased giving; developed engagement and communications plans that increased participation; identified, cultivated, solicited and steward major gift prospects for gifts up to $250,000; and created and directed events that increased net revenue.

As the founder of Advancement Designs, Tom has supported nonprofits of all sizes and has strong connections in the higher education advancement industry.

Serving as an Associate Consultant with the Maryland Association of Nonprofits (MANO), Tom holds a Bachelor's degree, an MBA, and has served as president of two nonprofit boards.

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