As part of the Strategic Planning Process, certain measures are established to help the church determine the effectiveness of the plan. In keeping with the Performance Cycle, it is necessary to routinely review “results.” These results are called Key Performance Measures (KPMs) and are reviewed regularly. The review is a comparison of the results the plan is delivering versus the original stakeholder needs identified in the beginning.
To the extent possible, a “measure” should be established that helps the church understand every stakeholder need. Additionally, these KPMs should be graphical. It’s very difficult to learn anything from a listing or table of numbers. The Stat Sheet, for example, is a good “at a glance” weekly tool to be used to keep staff and other key stakeholders informed about some important results. Data should be taken from the Stat Sheet (and other places such as the church’s church management software) and be made graphical for review and assessment of how well the plan is accomplishing its goal to “meet stakeholder needs.”
Of course, this can result in a pretty extensive list of graphs (KPMs).
Here’s a listing of the KPMs my church currently has in place:
- Baptisms
- Average Weekly Attendance
- Average Weekly Attendance by Service
- Annual Average Weekly Attendance
- Average Weekly Attendance – Children’s Ministry
- Average Weekly Attendance – Middle School
- Average Weekly Attendance – High School
- Groups Measures
- Membership Class Measures
- Average Weekly Giving
- Average Weekly Giving Per Capita
- Percent Giving Online
- Total Accumulative Giving
- Front Door Donors
- First Time Guests
- Starting Point Class Attendance
- Volunteer Participation
- Website Traffic
- Facebook Page Likes