Your checklist for digital attribution
This article was initially published on Fundraising & Philanthropy Magazine.
“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” John Wanamaker
This quote is over a century old — but still hits home today, especially for fundraisers trying to prove ROI.
Attribution in 2025 is messy. You’ve got offline and online campaigns. Tracking cookies disappearing. New privacy rules changing what data you can use. And donors? They don’t follow a neat path. One might see your ad on Facebook, open your email days later, search you on Google, then finally donate.
So what worked?
This guide won’t pretend to give you a perfect attribution model (because no one has one right now). But it will help you:
See what channels are working hardest
Make better decisions with your budget
Improve your ROI and ROAS
Focus your team’s effort where it counts most
Step 1: Get clear on your campaign’s goal
Before diving into data, ask: what are we trying to achieve?
Are you focused on acquiring new donors? Maximising total revenue? Generating leads? If you’re not clear on your goal, it’s easy to collect data… but learn nothing.
Once you’ve set your objective, select digital metrics that match. Some of the most useful and telling digital KPIs include:
Conversion rate
Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)
Cost-per-acquisition (CPA)
Engagement by channel or ad creative
Then map your donor journey. Even a quick sketch will help you visualise how people move from awareness to donation. (eg social ad → email → Google search → donate). This makes sure you’re valuing every touchpoint, not just the last one.
Step 2: Choose your attribution method (and stick with it)
There’s no ‘best’ model, as all models have their upsides and downsides. But using one consistently will help you compare, learn and improve. Here are two common approaches:
Option 1: Last-Click Attribution (LCA)
Simple and widely used. Gives 100% credit to the final touchpoint (tracked using UTM codes). Helpful for understanding what closed the gift — but ignores what created the interest. Many not-for-profits use this for its simplicity.
Option 2: Data-Driven Attribution (DDA)
Available in GA4, this spreads the credit across multiple touchpoints based on user data. More balanced than LCA, but it still has blind spots — like bias toward search, and limited visibility before someone hits your website.
More complex models exist, like Marketing Mix Modelling or Incrementality Testing — but these require deep data, long timeframes, and bigger budgets.
Our advice: Start simple. Stick with it. Use both LCA and DDA side by side to get a fuller picture — especially if you don’t have enterprise-level tools.
Step 3: Connect your platforms and channels
You can’t measure what you can’t see.
Make sure your platforms are talking to each other:
GA4
Google Ads & Meta
Email platform
Donation platform
CRM (your single source of revenue truth)
Even if you don’t have a dashboard yet, start by aligning UTM tracking and naming conventions across platforms. This alone can give you way more visibility.
Step 4: Track the right things — consistently
Now that your platforms are connected, it’s crucial to focus on pulling the right data from each platform…
CRM
Your CRM data helps you distinguish between new and returning donors — essential for NFPs balancing digital and direct mail fundraising. The downside is that this only tracks users once they have donated, meaning onsite engagement and channels driving demand are not represented.
What and when to track:
What: New vs. existing donors, gift type, acquisition channel or campaign.
When: Weekly or monthly, depending on donation volume.
Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
GA4 measures traffic from all digital channels with UTM tracked URLs. GA4 is also free and relatively easy to implement, meaning there are low barriers to entry. However one thing to watch out for is that Google Analytics cannot understand engagements that occur prior to users arriving on site (eg seeing a post on social media or receiving a DM pack).
What and when to track:
What: user sessions, conversion events, and overall revenue.
When: Weekly for a clear view of your website’s performance.
Ad platforms (ie Meta, Google Ads)
Ad platforms provide critical information on performance before users reach a website. This allows for granular measurement and optimisation of audiences and creatives. However be aware that the data only looks within one environment and fails to account for the impact each channel has on another, meaning ad platforms will often over-attribute conversions due to this.
What and when to track:
What: Spend, Cost-Per-Mile, Click-Through-Rate and Cost-Per-Acquisition
When: Daily to weekly, depending on ad spend.
Step 5: Use what you find
Measurement is only helpful if it drives smarter action. For effective, and valuable measurement reporting on your digital fundraising campaigns ensure you’ve considered these three things during each campaign review:
Look at the bigger picture — Ask yourself questions like Is overall revenue or conversion rate improving? Is there a lift in brand search volume after campaigns? These insights will help you spy new opportunities to invest in channels, change around budgets, or go harder on your currentstrategy.
Compare performance across channels — At this current state in time, you will need to review a number of channels and platforms (i.e. CRM, GA4, Advertising platform) to understand an overall picture to make informed decisions for your next campaign.
Be on the look out for data hygiene — While AI will revolutionise measurement in the near future, accurate data will be key to leveraging any new tool.
Final thoughts
You don’t have to figure it all out alone.
Attribution is evolving. Whether you’re just getting started or looking to level up your digital fundraising game, ntegrity can help. We help nonprofits track what matters, cut through complexity, and build strategies that scale. Whether you need help proving ROI or setting up GA4 properly, we’re here.
Download our free Digital Fundraising Measurement Checklist for 2025 to start building the foundation for confident, data-driven digital fundraising decisions today.