Data Review: Templates & Questions
by Richard Evans

"Computing is not about computers any more. It is about living."-- Nicholas Negroponte

INTRODUCTION

It's been a few tough years for everyone at the Underworld Symphony. It's not that they've done everything wrong, they've just taken a long time to realize what's going on, and to begin to think their way strategically out of their difficulties. There's an essential human story behind the development of the Underworld Symphony, and a huge range of artistic experiences by composers, conductors, musicians and audiences that we need to appreciate before we can say we fully know what the life of this Symphony has comprised. But reviewing and analyzing everything about the Symphony that can properly be represented in numerical form is going to tell us a great deal of the story, more than we realize, and will serve to identify and articulate the key issues in a way that no other approach is able.

For one thing, this review will allow us to look past the barrage of everyone's emotions, opinions and memories to a different perspective based on measurable outcomes and achievements. This is an important place to get to if we want to make well-informed judgments on the Symphony's current position, and plan reasonably for the future. If the Symphony then decides to depart from reason in its decisions about future initiatives (there is some room here, after all, for inspiration) we shall all know that, and be able to measure the risks.

Whether your organization is thriving or struggling at present, what's true for the Underworld Symphony is true for you. So these Data Templates are both a series of formats for numerical data about your organization--to adapt for your use in Advancement--and the outlines of a case study. Thinking about what the numbers tell you about the Underworld Symphony may help you and your Planning Consultant to see parallels or contrasts in your own work, whatever artforms you work in, and no matter how large or small your organization. Exploring the data formats in action may help you to identify more useful (and better!) formats to analyze your own figures.

What follows is therefore divided into two sections:

• A commentary on each of the ten Data Templates;
• A series of questions relating to each of the Templates.

The ten Data Templates themselves are available as downloadable files and/or on disk by mail by contacting the Bay Consulting Group. [Download]

COMMENTARY ON THE DATA TEMPLATES

The templates are intended to offer sample formats for the arrangement of data on your operating budget and balance sheet, and on aspects of earned and contributed income. They do not cover all areas that you may want to present and analyze, but should provide an approach which can be utilized in the presentation of additional information as you need it. Although it is obviously very important, analysis of earned income (particularly ticket sales, enrollment, attendance, income from services) is included only in one sample template as it is the most idiosyncratic of sources of income and needs to be addressed organization by organization.

The templates concentrate on presenting and analyzing financial data, as this is considered to be at the heart of the review process. The information presented branches out a little from the financial, to cover membership numbers and donors by category, member and subscriber renewal rates, and so on. Building on these analyses, a lot more can be done to review non-financial data, such as audience, student or donor demographics and preferences. These essentially qualitative and attitudinal reports are vital to well-focused marketing and development efforts. Because they usually depend upon individuals providing specific additional information (and cannot be completed using only data held in-house), they are typically carried out as discrete surveying exercises and are therefore not included here. But use of these templates will point up where such surveys would crucially inform planning the development of new strategies.

The templates also concentrate by-and-large on analysis of income, rather than expense. This is because your income derives from a multitude of external sources that need to be tracked and understood in detail over extended periods; while it is equally important to be clear and purposeful in allocating your financial resources, the expenditure side is more readily organized as a matter of course via your Chart of Accounts, and reported on regularly as part of your accounting system.

Please note that, although the templates are filled out for the fictitious Underworld Symphony, they are not designed to fit exactly with any particular artistic discipline or single organization. What the templates offer is a standardized presentation format that you and your Planning Consultant can adapt and develop to meet the needs of your organization in summarizing and interpreting historical data. Replace the Underworld Symphony's figures with your own. From these analyses you can then start to build up future projections in a realistic fashion, in the light of recent trends. This approach--of "trying out" future scenarios and testing their implications well before committing to a particular budget--should become an integral part of the way you do business.

These templates are all spreadsheets created in Microsoft Excel 5.0 for Windows. They are extensively formulated, in that all the "totals" rows, all the percentages, and many of the analyses are calculated by formula. Note that each template identifies the date on which it was prepared, and the person responsible. This is essential in keeping track of progress!

If you use the templates on diskette, it would be well to add "protection" to all formulated cells after downloading, so that you cannot overwrite them. If you want to use a template as it is, go through it cell by cell before inputting data, to see how it is composed. Minor changes to row or column headings, for instance, can then be easily made. If you want to make more significant changes, please be aware that you may disturb the references in some formulae ("REF!") and have to reformat them. Also, you may have to copy and adjust formulae if you add rows or columns.

Comments on each of the templates are provided below. Feedback and ideas for additional useful analyses would be welcomed.

TEMPLATE 1: Summary of Operating Results over 4 fiscal years (DT1)

All the rows for data input are lettered, and these letters (together with their respective row headings) are the same in this template and the following two. This ensures that all three match up and facilitates the addition of notes. The second column for each year expresses all income and expense items as percentages of total operating expense for that fiscal year. This provides a useful trend analysis on sources of income and resource allocation.

It is envisaged that the row headings will in effect be a summary of the arrangement in your Chart of Accounts for the allocation of income and expense. You may wish to increase or decrease the amount of detail given here; templates 1, 2 and 3 have deliberately been organized to fit one standard page (it reduces copying and enormously helps understanding), but you may have to spill over to two pages. The changes in row headings that you may want to make to suit your circumstances will probably occur most in "Earned Income" and in "Program Expense."

Row E: Income from membership subscriptions/fees is viewed as earned income. This is because it comprises (at least in part) fees for services provided. It also distinguishes this income from individual gifts. You may want to consider whether this distinction is useful to you, and exactly how it is made.

Rows P and AA: Special promotional and fundraising events are "grossed up" with full income and expenses shown.

Row Q: Only in-kind support that has an objectively verifiable monetary value is included here; it is expensed as part of the relevant expense line. It is advisable to maintain a separate budget detail showing the precise expense items that are being fully or partially underwritten by in-kind support.

Row CC: As the provision of (or lack of) benefit packages to staff can be a subject of much discussion, you may wish to separate "taxes/benefits" from the basic "salaries" by adding an extra row.

Organizations adopt differing policies in displaying Depreciation. As a non-cash item, it is not included here, although a due allowance for depreciation (where appropriate) would be shown in putting together a complete picture of your annual financial results.

As part of planning, you should get into the habit of comparing your board-approved budget projection with the actual results. As you plan your future activities, the comparison between your projection and the actuals will guide you toward more accurate budgeting, as well as making clear its limits.

TEMPLATE 2: One-year summary of Operating Results by Program (DT2)

This template takes one year of operating results and displays them by program, with a final column for "General Management." The first column of figures ("Operating Summary") is therefore the same as for the corresponding year on Template 1. The columns "% of total expense" show each figure as a percentage of total operating expense (not total expense for that program alone). This provides a strong indicator of priorities in resource allocation.

The program headings ("Romantic Series," "Classical Series," etc.) should be altered to describe your actual programs. It is your decision as to how many of these you can usefully distinguish. Your decision should relate closely to the allocations you maintain on your Chart of Accounts by means of a "department" code.

The General Management column is the place for unrestricted income and for administrative expenses that are not program-related. You may develop a policy of allocating some unrestricted income to specific programs -- a note to this template should explain that.

Not only is this template valuable in analyzing historical data, it is the essential starting-place in building up future organizational operating budgets.

TEMPLATE 3: Distribution of salaries/fees by Program (DT3)

Template 2 adopts the common policy of allocating direct year-round personnel costs across programs according to the percentage of time expended on each. This can be seen in Rows R and CC (Row S shows fees to artists retained only for a series of specific events or separate productions, with costs allocated to each relevant program). If this policy is adopted, the balance of salaries/fees is placed in the final (General Management) column.

Template 3 provides the rationale for the figures given for direct personnel costs in Template 2 and should always accompany any version of Template 2. It identifies all relevant personnel and their total pay, and then allocates percentages of their time and cost across the same set of columns as in Template 2. Because the balance of time spent naturally varies by position and job responsibilities, this allocation cannot be done in a single percentage across personnel as a whole, but must be built up person by person. The last line of Template 3 gives an "effective" percentage allocation by program across all personnel, derived from the cost implications expressed in Template 2.

This allocation of personnel time and cost is an important exercise for three reasons: first, in constructing the allocations from tracking of time actually spent, staff will be led to a useful comparison with their stated, or understood, roles in your organization; second, the board will come to understand better how your organization actually utilizes its human resources; and third, board and staff will gain a clearer picture of the true cost of each program.

TEMPLATE 4: One-year summary Cashflow Analysis by month (DT4)

Unless it has been customary in the past, it is unlikely that you will be able to construct this summary for completed fiscal years. However, it provides as important an indicator of the financial feasibility of your operations as does the customary operating budget, so all future budgeting should be accompanied by a cashflow projection of this type.

As the chart deals only with cash (in the bank) "In-kind" income should be excluded, as should the balancing expense item. If you account for your business on an accrual (rather than a cash) basis, the final column ("Total") will also be different from the operating budget for the same year, because the accrued sums will here be laid out as income or expense in the actual month received or incurred.

It is advisable to be cautious in estimating cashflow: place income later than you might think, and expense earlier. This will show up more clearly those times when cash may be in short supply. You can then review the monthly figures (and your policies on payables and receivables) to ameliorate the position. You may also have to consider adjusting programming and fundraising schedules.

Use the cashflow analysis as a "what if" tool to model different financial scenarios, depending on timing of events, size of staff and scheduling of income and expense items. Such models help to clarify the levels of risk you might be taking in differing circumstances. Use the "header" to identify with care the various versions of the cashflow projection that you may maintain.

You should get into the habit of notating actual monthly cashflows after the event in a similar format (as with the Summary Operating Budget). As you plan your future activities, the comparison between your projection and the actuals will guide you toward more accurate forecasting.

TEMPLATE 5: 4-year Historical Summary of Financial Data (DT5)

This template is based on one developed by the National Arts Stabilization Fund. Its distinctive feature is that it provides an analysis of key elements in the balance sheet as well as the operating account. It is therefore of greatest use to organizations that already have, or plan to develop, a capital base beyond their current assets and liabilities.

The analysis of the balance sheet organizes the data into various tiers -- first, "net current position," (a measure of liquidity), then "working capital reserve," (a revolving internal loan fund applied to meet cashflow exigencies), then other designated reserves (to meet unexpected operating loss, or to invest in artistic development, for instance) and finally "permanent endowment." Expressed as percentages of the operating budget (at the bottom of the template), these tiers give an indication of the overall financial strength of the organization.

TEMPLATE 6: 4-year Analysis of Ticket Sales by Program (DT6)

This template is the only one to address income earned from sales of services. This is the area that naturally varies most according to the nature of your organization's work. You will need to decide how best to organize and analyze the income you derive from all your services (such as entry fees, tickets for performances, student fees, publishing, advertising, merchandising, contracted income).

This template is based on an orchestra giving a number of different concert series. It identifies subscribers, single ticket sales, and complimentaries separately, and concentrates on a few key indicators of performance (ticket yields, subscriber renewal rate, total occupancy and percent of capacity sold). Data is recorded for each ticket price, so that trends within the overall sales per event can be seen. In addition to admission prices of this sort, you may have discounts and special packages, which should be treated as separate price bands. You should also keep separate production reports by event. This template aggregates that data (adding new information) to give a broader overview and to permit comparison between different program areas.

TEMPLATE 7: 4-year Analysis of Individual Contributions (DT7)

This template analyzes individual giving by size of gift, simultaneously separating out board giving from other donors. The category titles and amounts are no more than an example and should be modified to fit your organization, as appropriate.

At the bottom of the template various analyses are given as assistance in determining trends. You may wish to add other indicators according to your circumstances.

The template is useful in ensuring that future projections for individual giving are properly related to recent actual trends. By analyzing past performance, and then building budgets from the bottom up, you can turn number-plugging into a much more scientific process, and relate fundraising strategies to quantifiable results.

TEMPLATE 8: 4-year Analysis of Membership Revenue by Category (DT8)

Some organizations derive all or part of their individual support from the maintenance of a membership scheme, wherein Members at various levels receive a defined set of benefits in return. As with Template 7, this form presents Members by category (including a Corporate Membership scheme), and then offers some additional analyses at the bottom of the page. Membership development campaigns are particularly suited to planned increment, with specific types of solicitation aimed at new members, renewing members, lapsed members, and upgrades to higher categories. This template provides a simple way to target such campaigns and to track the results.

If your board giving takes the form of purchasing Membership in your organization, you will want to give that its own column each year on this template (rather than on Template 7).

TEMPLATE 9: 4-year Analysis of Membership Benefits and Costs by Category (DT9)

Linked to the previous template, this one provides important information on the return on membership for the organization--the expense side of this equation is easily overlooked. This form also helps to guide organizations towards the refinement of benefits (so they consume a lower percentage of the gross income) and helps to identify the high-yielding categories to which Members can most effectively be upgraded. The benefits listed here, as well as the costs per member and average gifts, are all fictitious.

TEMPLATE 10: Sample Analyses of 4-year Trends

These final three pages offer a broad range of trend analyses, using information from the previous templates. Some of the analyses relate to year-on-year changes in a single category of income or expense, others track comparative ratios between different elements of the operating account. Notice the ones that track "returns"--the ratio of expense to the income it is intended to produce. These are important dynamics of organizational performance.

The idea here is no more than to suggest some possible angles of inquiry, from which you can develop your own analyses which speak to emerging issues. With all the other templates filled, you should have plenty of data on which to base your analysis.

"Don't pay any attention to the critics. Don't even ignore them."

--Samuel Goldwyn

DATA REVIEW QUESTIONS

SO, WHAT DO WE DO NOW? CAN WE DO SOMETHING ELSE?

The most important part of the Data Review starts when you've arranged all the relevant data in suitable formats and done some basic analysis. Even if this exercise has been carried out by one person, the rest of the Review should involve a larger planning group. The central question is: "What do we notice here?" and the involvement of a group will provide a much richer set of insights. It will also build a genuine understanding of the issues your organization is facing and result in better-informed responses to the challenges ahead. If good questions that point to key pressure points are laid out in advance, you will find that a meeting of your planning group--devoted to considering the Fact File you have created about your organization--will be a lively occasion. It is very important to complete the Data Review process by compiling a narrative report on the findings of the planning group, once you've decided what the factual history of your organization actually means. This point-by-point description of the main features and trends, identifying the strategic issues that demand resolution, will do a great deal to focus attention on critical areas and identify priorities for action. It will also serve as an invaluable reference point in evaluating your plan, and an orientation tool for newcomers to your organization.

Here are some questions that you may find relevant. They are intended to stimulate your own thinking and should not be used slavishly. You know your organization better than anyone, and will be able to come up with more specific and more searching questions. As you explore these questions, try to reduce the menu of questions in each area of analysis to the three or four most important. Once you have reached a firm, shared understanding of "what?" and "why?" (i.e., the contours of your organizational life to date, and the factors that have affected it), you will turn naturally toward "how?" (i.e., questions about the ways in which you can strengthen your development in future years). In other words, your questions will become strategic. It is these questions that you will need to prioritize and address through planning.

The questions below have been arranged to follow the ten Data Templates, but some issues overlap and Templates have been brought together.

DT1: 4 years of Operations in summary
DT10: 4-year Trends

• Have our total annual operating income and expenses been consistent in recent years? What differing trends do they exhibit? What effect have these had on our annual results?
• Observing year-on-year trends across each line, are there obvious discontinuities (up or down)? Do we know the reasons for these? Are any inter-related?
• Are there consistent upward trends in any lines of income? Do we know why? What are we doing right? Is there more mileage in any of these, or should we plan for them to level out?
• Are there any consistent downward income trends? What, within our control, might we do to reverse these? Are there any that we must reverse, even if it means partly changing what we are?
• Is there evidence of income growth that has been erratic, or petered out? Do we know why? How might future initiatives be sustained?
• Have we been deriving our income from a consistent set of sources, or has this varied a good deal? Have we been spending our money in similar ways each year, or has this also varied?
• How has the balance between earned income and contributions changed in recent years? Do we know why this is? Do we consider it a positive trend?
• How has the balance between elements of earned income been changing annually? And between elements of contributed income? What have been the overall advantages and disadvantages to us of these shifts?
• How has the balance between our spending on programs, on promotion, and on management altered in recent years? Do we consider these trends healthy? Do we consider the proportion of our income that we spend on artistic programs to be the optimum for us? Are artists paid a fair wage?
• In proportional terms, which expense lines have reduced, which remained flat, and which persistently risen in recent years? Which of these have had significant impact in cash terms? Where do we consider these trends positive, and where negative? Have any expense lines exploded? Can we exert more control over any of these?
• How has the shortfall between our earned income and total operating expenses changed in recent years, in cash terms and as a percentage of our total operating expenses? Should we be trying to ameliorate this trend, and what targets might be feasible?
• How has the ratio varied annually between the income generated by our promotional efforts, and the cost of those promotions (including direct staff costs)? Does this trend suggest that our marketing is becoming financially more or less effective? Can we identify which areas of promotional expense are performing least well, and improve them or divert funds to stronger areas? Can a target ratio for return on promotional expense be used to help us build our future budgets?
• Can we construct and analyze similar ratios for artistic expense, fundraising expense, and Special Events? How might these ratios combine to underpin a variety of financial scenarios for the whole organization for the future? How might they be used to help us assess levels of risk as we plan our future budgets?

DT2: Each year's Operations by Program

• How is our income generation divided among our programs? Which attract most earned income, and which grant support? What trends are observable across the years?
• Do the programs that produce the highest levels of income also have the strongest bottom lines? Have changes in each program's scale of operation affected its financial performance in recent years? How might we extend the net income some programs produce, and reduce the net losses on others?
• Is our income predominantly restricted to particular programs, or free to use as we wish? Has this balance shifted significantly in recent years?
• What choices have we been making in our allocation of financial resources? What relative financial priorities are visible? Are these as we intended? Are they in line with our mission and organizational objectives?
• Which programs produce a surplus, and which a loss? What level of year-round human resource cost does each program involve? If we allocated our unrestricted income so as to cover each program shortfall, would we be happy with that distribution?
• What proportion of our financial resources have we been spending on our general management operation? Does our unrestricted income cover these costs? Is this a desirable aim?

DT3: Time spent by personnel on Programs

• Is the time spent by each person on each program in line with their job description or role in the organization? Has the use of anyone's time changed significantly in recent years? Has staff turnover affected the pattern?
• Has the overall use of time reflected our mission and organizational priorities? In what areas might we be over-resourcing? Where might duplication or inefficiency be reduced? Where are we most poorly resourced?

DT4: Each year's Cashflow

• What would a graph of monthly income look like? Which are the peak months, which the troughs? How do the quarters compare? How do these rhythms relate to our earned and contributed income campaigns? What changes have there been in recent years?
• What might we do to move significant slices of income to earlier months in the fiscal year? Could the rhythm of fundraising campaigns (including membership renewals and special events) be changed to contribute to this? Could the timing of major program activities be altered? Does our policy on receivables need tightening?
• What would a graph of monthly expenditure look like? Which are the peak months, which the troughs? What are our fixed monthly costs? What is our average total monthly expenditure?
• What might we do to move significant expenses to later months in the fiscal year, without delaying income for just as long? Does our policy on payables need reviewing?
• In how many months each year have we been posting losses (reductions in cash-in-hand)? How might these losses be spread over several months to gain time?
• In which months do we tend to go into the red (with a negative closing balance)? How long do these periods of cash starvation generally last? What mechanisms do we have ready to deal with lack of cash? Are they reliable, and what are the costs?
• What happens to the organization and our personnel during these times, and are there spin-off effects? Do we manage our relationships with regular suppliers and important creditors appropriately, and give adequate warning of possible delays in payment?
• Are the length and depth of our cash shortages increasing or decreasing? What size of cash reserve would we need to provide a 15% cushion beyond our worst annual position? What differences to the organization might having such a reserve make? Is this a priority in planning?

DT5: Balance Sheet and Operating Activity

• How has our capital fund base changed in recent years? What funds are held as permanent capital endowment, and what safeguards (if any) exist to preserve the integrity of the capital? Are these sufficient? Are there any restrictions on the uses to which appreciation, interest and dividends may be put? Are these in need of review?
• Do we maintain reserve funds other than permanent endowment? Are their purposes defined and do their degrees of liquidity match these purposes?
• How have we been investing our capital funds (endowment and reserves), and any annual cash surpluses? Have the investment instruments and terms matched our need for access to the funds and thus produced the best possible returns commensurate with fiscal prudence? What policies have we maintained to determine how we draw operating income from our capital funds? Have these policies resulted in our capital base growing in real terms, remaining flat, or diminishing? Do we need to review our investment instruments and policies?
• Are we carrying any long-term debt or deferred income (payable/receivable in more than one year's time)? Have we taken due account of any of this debt or income becoming current (payable/receivable within one year)?
• How has the balance of our current assets and current liabilities changed in recent years? Are we generally able to maintain a positive "net current position"? If not, how might we improve our current liquidity without transferring capital funds permanently into the operating account?
• As a percent of operating expenses, has our overall financial strength (net current assets plus capital funds) increased or decreased in recent years? What realistic future targets might we develop for each tier of our balance sheet?

DT6: Income earned from Programs

• Do we have a clear picture of the income earned by each of our program activities? And of the overall financial performance of each event? Does this measure of performance correlate with our assessment of the artistic or educational value of each activity? How might these be brought better into line?
• Are all our events available on subscription, or only some? Is this advantageous? By how much are subscriptions discounted? How much potential income are we foregoing through subscription sales? Do the certainty and cashflow benefits more than make up for this?
• Has our subscriber base been increasing or decreasing? How has the renewal rate changed? Do we notice any other variations in the nature or timing of subscriber purchases? Is our subscription structure easily understood, by us and our constituency? Does it need reviewing? Have we solicited the views of our subscribers about our work?
• What patterns are visible in our record of single sales for each event? Do we offer discounts and why? Are these discounts achieving their purposes? What are the characteristic timelines for single sales? Are our marketing efforts attuned to these rhythms? Can we affect the rhythms to our advantage?
• Does the balance of sales across price bands suggest our pricing policies are well-adjusted? Might there be gains from increasing or decreasing the gradient from top to bottom prices? How do our prices compare with other leisure activities accessible by our constituency?
• Do we have a coherent policy on complimentary admissions? Who controls it? What percentage of our audience tends to be complimentary? Are we getting any measurable return on this investment?
• To what percentages of capacity (overall, and by price band) have our events been playing? Do we know the reasons for shifts in these figures in recent years? From an audience-generating point of view, are our events in venues with appropiate capacities and attractions? Can we exercise any options?
• How have admissions prices, total income per event, average yield per admission and audience numbers per event related to each other in recent years? How have changes in one or more affected the others? Are we satisfied with the results? How might we refine these relationships to increase our overall admissions revenue?
• Do we sell our services for activities other than those we ourselves present? Has this work proven a major income producer, and has it generated net income for us? Has our pricing of services been appropriate to our needs, as well as reflective of the market? Does this work further our mission, or is it a distraction? How might giving more or less emphasis to parts of this work prove profitable to us, and beneficial for the organization as a whole?
• Have we been effective at merchandising? Has the quality of goods been sufficient? Have we been generating a satisfactory margin, at least in line with comparable operations? Given our resources, should we consider doing more or less in this area?

DT7: Individual Contributions

• How has our overall income from individuals varied in recent years? Do totals for board-generated gifts and other gifts exhibit similar trends? How have the size of our donor base and our donor renewal rates varied? Have these changes been the result of planned campaigns? How much have our individual fundraising expenses been each year? Which forms of solicitation have proven most effective?
• How have the average gifts (board-generated and others) varied each year? How do the trends differ if we exclude the top 10% of donors? What percentage of total individual gifts do our major donors tend to provide? Is it clear that we have "major donors" and a variety of "others," and do we respect these differences in our development efforts and in recognition given to donors?
• Do we maintain a budget for individual donor development? Does this address increases in gifts, as well as generating new gifts and resuscitating lapsed donors? How is it applied? What return have these efforts produced in recent years?

DT8: Membership Revenue
DT9: Membership Expenses

• How has our overall income from Members varied in recent years? Are all Members part of one integrated program, or do we run several programs (e.g., Individual Membership, Institutional Membership, Corporate Membership)? How have the size of our membership and our membership renewal rates varied? Have these changes been the result of planned campaigns? Which forms of membership solicitation have proven most effective?
• How has the average membership gift varied each year? How does this trend relate to the internal dynamics of our membership pool (new Members, upgrades and Members lapsing)? Do we consider these patterns healthy? How might they be strengthened?
• Do we maintain a budget for membership development? Does this address upgrades, as well as generating new Members and resuscitating lapsed Members? How is it applied? What return have these efforts produced in recent years?
• Are the benefits that our Members receive appropriately tiered in line with levels of gift? Do we know whether additional benefits at higher levels have been working effectively as incentives for Members to upgrade? What does each benefit cost us, and how much therefore does each Member cost at each membership level? Have we been taking proper account of these costs? What percentage of gifts at each level is expended on benefits provided and how has this changed in recent years? How might we reduce this figure at each level? Can we devise additional or alternative benefits which involve us in lower fixed costs?
• Do our Membership categories, pricing and benefits structures need reviewing?

Please send us your comments on this Essay.

Lessons Learned

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