The world is changing fast, and fundraising is changing just as rapidly. To accommodate these transformations, nonprofits are developing strategies to improve their digital presence and reach donors online, with many turning to Google Analytics to achieve these goals.
Whether you’re already familiar with Google Analytics or run from the mention of data statistics, we’ve created a complete guide outlining the many ways your nonprofit can benefit from what Google has to offer.
What is Google Analytics?
Google Analytics is a powerful tool that serves as a trained eye on your website’s traffic.
Looking at a homepage, you can see photographs, videos, text, call-to-action (CTA) buttons, testimonials, links to other pages, and so on. Google Analytics sees more than that. It sees who you are, how you got there, where you are in the world, how you’re interacting with the page, where you’re going next, how long you’re spending on each page, and if you’ve been there before.
How Does Google Analytics Work for Organizations?
Google Analytics works on three funneled levels:
- Account level: Your organization has a single account that serves as the place where Google sends you the data it collects.
- Property level: Now that Google knows where to send information, it needs a place to gather it. Think of properties as a place for Google to set up a home — in this case, it’s your organization’s website or subdomain.
- View: With this home established, Google is ready to look for information. The view is a filtered perspective on a specific property, and you can customize it to show goal-specific data.
We’ll get into the different types of data you can track to maximize your campaign’s capabilities, but first, why is Google Analytics better than any other software?
5 Reasons Nonprofits Should Use Google Analytics
Operating any part of a nonprofit organization requires considerable effort. Google Analytics supports your decision-making and ensures you’re learning in real time with the most accurate information.
Of the many reasons to use Google Analytics, here are the top five we feel can truly help your nonprofit thrive and get the website recognition it deserves:
1. Benefit From Google Ad Grants
Google recognizes its power to help nonprofit organizations. With this understanding, Google Ad Grants was started, providing a monthly $10,000 in-kind advertising fund for text ads and access to campaign-building tools.
You can create, target, and optimize your organization’s campaigns with this funding. When people search for your nonprofit organization or efforts similar to yours, Google will place an advertisement toward the top of the search engine results page (SERP) to maximize your exposure.
Before Google grants you the funding, you’ll need to see if your organization is eligible for a Nonprofits account. Once you’re verified, all you’ll need to do is activate your account and start advertising!
2. Greater Data Accuracy
Your annual reports are indispensable — there’s no denying that. Sharing real, personal stories about your organization’s mission and community impact is inspirational and sparks interest in members with shared values. Although indispensable, annual reports can sometimes be misleading, creating a courtesy bias of sorts.
Google Analytics tracks accurate data from every webpage visitor, even if the visitor’s values don’t entirely align with your mission statement. You can see the unconcealed interactions with your company and discover what people like — and more importantly, what they don’t.
3. Measurable ROI
For a nonprofit, you want to know where your money is going and if it’s generating revenue. If so, great! If not, where else can you funnel that money?
Google Analytics measures your return on investment (ROI), showing you, with dollar amounts and visual representations, what your advertising spending is generating. Once you set goals, you can prompt Google Analytics to track specific advertising efforts to see what’s worth your time, effort, and money.
4. Maximize Goal Tracking Abilities
Once you integrate with Google Analytics, you can set organizational goals and focus on those objectives and interaction rates. Track goal types like:
- Destination goals: When a donor donates, navigate them from the submission page to a “thank you” page URL. This URL is an example of a destination page. You can track interactions with this page, which indicates how many people have donated.
- Smart goals: Using Google’s sophisticated algorithm, smart goals sort and analyze your visitors and transform their interactions into objectives. Specifically, the algorithm determines which content the top 5% of your traffic engages with based on signals such as session duration, location, and device type.
- Event tracking: An event, as defined by Google Analytics, is a triggered action. Examples of an event include clicking a contact or donation button, engaging with an advertisement, or pressing play on an embedded video. Events can’t be tracked using destination goals, so use event tracking as an equal alternative.
Goal tracking is particularly useful for conversion tracking, a strategic decision-making tool we’ll explain in detail later in this guide.
5. Save Money
The best part about Google Analytics is that it’s free!
In 2025, public charities in the United States generated approximately $592.50 billion in revenue, with over 65% of that typically spent on program-related expenses. Also in 2025, approximately 81% of surveyed nonprofits reported struggling to raise enough funds to cover all their costs, and 36% ended their most recent fiscal year with an operating deficit due to inflation and rising service demands. Using Google Analytics, nonprofits can increase revenue and better support their community and mission statement.
The Most Important Google Analytics Reports for Nonprofits
For some people, the amount of information Google Analytics presents feels like a puzzle. Starting at the ground level, we’ve outlined the most important Google Analytics reports you’ll want to keep an eye on to help you eliminate the noise.
The Most Important Google Analytics Reports for Nonprofits: Users Report
In the old days, you could refresh your webpage and rack up website views with each refresh, resulting in inaccurate engagement rates. Users reports track the unique number of people who visit your campaign, meaning one person can view your link 10 times, but Google Analytics will record one unique user.
The Most Important Google Analytics Reports for Nonprofits: Sessions Report
Let’s say that a user interacts with your website on Monday. Then, on Wednesday, they visit again. These are two different sessions, defined as a single user’s interaction within a given time frame. Because a user can have multiple sessions, you’ll most likely find that session reports are higher than the number of users.
The Most Important Google Analytics Reports for Nonprofits: Pageviews Report
A single session can have multiple pageviews depending on the user’s navigation and interaction rate. You can also break this down by pages per session, which provides a more detailed overview of your traffic quality. The higher the number, the better.
The Most Important Google Analytics Reports for Nonprofits: Bounce Rate Report
A “bounce” occurs when a user leaves your website without interacting. An interaction includes visiting another page within your website, clicking a video, or responding to a CTA. If only one user visits your page and then leaves immediately, Google Analytics will report a 100% bounce rate. So, the lower the number, the better the traffic quality.
The Most Important Google Analytics Reports for Nonprofits: Exit Rate Report
When a user doesn’t “bounce,” they can exit from any page, which Google Analytics tracks and calculates as an exit rate.
For example, say a user started at the homepage, navigated to the about page, then landed on the donation page and exited your website. Even though three pages were visited, the algorithm counts the exit rate based on the last page visited. Each page will have its own rate.
The Most Important Google Analytics Reports for Nonprofits: Average Session Duration Report
Calculated by dividing the total time spent on every session by the total number of sessions within a given time frame, the average session duration is an estimation of how long a visitor spends engaging with your site.
The Most Important Google Analytics Reports for Nonprofits: New Vs. Returning Users Report
Google Analytics segments page visitors into two groups: people who have never visited your site before and those who have. This estimate allows you to determine whether you’re attracting new audiences and retaining the loyalty of existing ones.
The Most Important Google Analytics Reports for Nonprofits: Website Traffic Report
Found under the Acquisition tab, the website traffic element can be broken down into categories to pinpoint exactly where visitors are coming from and how different segments are performing. Aside from unidentified channels, your traffic splits into five categories:
- Organic search: Users who visit your website through relevant keywords or search terms, often from a SERP.
- Direct: This occurs when a user visits your website by directly typing or searching your site’s URL.
- Referral: You get a referral if a user clicks on your website’s link from another site.
- Social: This occurs when users visit your website via a social media link.
- Paid search: This category applies when a user arrives at your website from a paid advertisement link.
By learning which category drives the most traffic, you can make data-driven decisions when allocating advertising efforts, such as increasing pay-per-click (PPC) marketing or producing more search engine optimization (SEO)-friendly content.
The Most Important Google Analytics Reports for Nonprofits: Behavior Flow Report
The behavior flow is a visual tool that shows your users’ journey throughout their sessions. Specifically, Google Analytics shows you which content your users find most engaging and which they aren’t as interested in. You can also pinpoint which pages are bringing in new traffic — often your homepage or about page.
The Most Important Google Analytics Reports for Nonprofits: Acquisition Device Report
Equally important is knowing what content your users prefer; you should know what device they’re using to view it. Google Analytics breaks down device categories into desktop, tablet, and mobile, and further details how much revenue each category generates. Most people engage with websites on mobile devices.
Conversion Tracking for Nonprofits
Going back to organization goals, what are you hoping to achieve through your website? Do you want to increase ticket sales, attract more volunteers, or encourage more email sign-ups?
Nonprofits that use conversion tracking can see whether the number of visitors who engage with their site is higher or lower than competitors. They can also discover how those users respond to specific advertising efforts.
What is Conversion Tracking?
Conversion tracking is a Google tool that tracks users’ actions specifically related to your goals, whereas clicks only measure generalized website traffic.
You can import your goals directly from Google Analytics. Set up your conversions to read accurate information, as not every key performance indicator (KPI) is equally influential to your objective. When setting up conversions, Google will prompt you to assign weights, values, and time frames to your KPIs to ensure the most accurate data.
What Should Nonprofits Track with Google Analytics?
Google recommends tracking these aspects, broken down into four main categories:
- Purchases: This includes any donations, memberships, ticket sales, or other sales.
- Sign-ups: Sign-ups include volunteers, newsletter subscriptions, new memberships, accounts, and other events.
- Leads: This category encompasses any lead generation through call or email buttons, contact forms, information downloads, or links to other social media accounts.
- Key pageviews: This involves contact page visits, session durations, and pages per session.
Consider your organization’s strengths and areas for improvement when determining your goals and tracking conversions.
How to Evaluate Website Performance with Google Analytics
Ultimately, Google Analytics’ reports show you the health and overall impact of your website. Depending on the quality and quantity of your content, your website performs on a spectrum from good to bad, and Google gives you the tools to determine where it falls.
You can evaluate your website’s performance in many ways, including:
1. Landing Page Conversion Rate
A landing page conversion rate tells you how effective your CTAs are at encouraging people to donate. In this context, the landing page is your donation page, and you’re measuring the total number of visitors against the total number of donations made.
- To calculate, divide the number of visitors by the number of donations and multiply that value by 100.
2. Donations Conversion By Traffic Channel
By seeing what traffic channel — organic, direct, referral, social, or paid — brings the most donors, you’ll know where to dedicate targeted advertising efforts and interest. Moreover, this information tells you what attracts other users to your website and how you can improve both.
To quantify donation conversion by traffic channel, segment the total number of donors into categories based on whether they responded to a channel-specific CTA, as estimated by Google Analytics. Divide the total number of donors by the number for each donor segment, then multiply by 100.
3. Donor Growth Rate
Most likely, one of your goals is to increase donor rates either monthly or annually. To see how effective your efforts are at attracting new donors, use the following formula:
- Donor growth = ((most recent year’s donors – last year’s donors) ÷ last year’s donors) × 100
Using the same formula, you can also calculate the overall donation growth rate. If you’re using different time goals, ensure the numbers follow the same measurements. For example, this month’s donors subtracted from last month’s donors.
4. Donor Retention Rate
Comparatively, another goal you might have is to retain relationships with existing donors. A good donor retention rate indicates strong brand loyalty, suggesting that you’re publishing content that upholds your organization’s image and mission.
To calculate your donor retention rate, determine last year’s donors and quantify how many donated again this year. Then, divide the number of returning donors by last year’s total donors.
5. Advertising ROI
Your goal for advertising is to generate a positive ROI: for every dollar you spend to attract a donor, you want them to donate $2. If you’re in the positive, that may indicate you’re funneling your money into the right strategies.
- Calculate advertising ROI by dividing your total advertising costs by the donations raised.
You can also calculate your advertising strategy’s health by comparing last year’s and the current year’s ROI. Your method may be generating more funds, but if it’s steadily decreasing in efficiency, you may want to start brainstorming other plans.
4 Ideas to Grow Your Mission Via Your Website
Your website is the window into your organization, where you communicate who you are and what your mission is. By sharing that information, you can attract loyal donors and volunteers to help you achieve your goals of serving your community.
Based on Google Analytics reports, you can grow your mission visibility by:
- Making your mission clear: Without scrolling, your visitor should know who your organization is and what you stand for. Put your mission statement front and center, then engage the user from there.
- Creating a donor-friendly experience: If a donor is ready to contribute, they don’t want to navigate through mazes of pages and information. Odds are, they’re eager to donate, so make the donation button easy to find and save the extra information for the thank-you page.
- Encouraging volunteer recruitment: Your mission relies equally on volunteers as it does donors, so make volunteering buttons and CTAs easy to find, too.
- Designing mobile-friendly navigation: Worldwide, there are approximately 4 billion unique mobile users. Make sure your website accommodates this mobile expansion and is easy for these users to navigate.
As you improve your website, continually track your Google Analytics reports to see how your users respond.Want to dive even deeper into Google Analytics? Register for any of their free courses through GA Academy. And if you want to learn how others have successfully adapted their fundraising strategies, check out our GiveSmart resources!
