CFY vs Baseline
This dashboard-format analytic compares current fiscal year pacing to a three-year baseline org-wide, by segment, and by donor lifecycle, using analyses QX104, QX150, and QX107.
How to use the CFY vs Baseline
This is a dashboard-format analytic that shows you how the current fiscal year is pacing against a rolling three-year baseline. It is built on the data from three analyses: QX104 (org-wide monthly performance), QX150 (monthly performance by segment), and QX107 (incremental lift by new versus existing donors). Months are shown in fiscal order, July through June, so cumulative pace reads naturally as the year unfolds.
The Org-Wide Monthly Trend tab gives you a year-to-date scorecard of baseline versus actual and a cumulative pace line. The Segment Monthly Trend tab breaks that same comparison down by Top, Middle, and Bottom, so you can see which tier is driving any variance. The Lifecycle Lift tab isolates how much of your performance is coming from newly acquired donors versus your existing base. The key metric throughout is the gap between actual and baseline, expressed both monthly and cumulatively, which matters because a single strong or weak month is far less meaningful than a sustained departure from your historical norm.
The strategic value is that it turns a vague sense of being ahead or behind into a precise, sourced diagnosis. Rather than reacting to a raw total, you can see exactly which segment and which donor type are responsible for the variance, which is where your mid-year effort should go.
You should refresh this monthly once the prior month has closed, and it should be reviewed by your executive director and development director together in the monthly pipeline meeting. When the dashboard shows a segment or lifecycle group falling behind baseline, concentrate outreach, appeals, and personal contact there rather than spreading effort evenly.
Measure success by a shrinking gap between actual and baseline over the following months, and by whether the segments you targeted at mid-year closed their shortfall by fiscal year end.
Analytic ID: QX256
Analytic Name: CFY vs Baseline
Focus: 3.3: Dashboards; 1.4: Seasonal Giving Patterns; 3.1: Health Checks
Type: Dashboard Style
Segments: Top, Middle, Bottom | Scope: Organization, Segment
Description: Current fiscal year monthly performance dashboard vs a three-year baseline org-wide (QX104), by segment (QX150), and by donor lifecycle (QX107).
Key Question: How is the current fiscal year pacing against the three-year baseline overall, by segment, and by donor lifecycle?
Action: Identify which segments and donor types are driving the variance and concentrate mid-year outreach there.
Fiscal-Year Timing: fiscal months 2–12