Core participation metrics

• Registrations. What it tells you: raw interest and the effectiveness of your comms and sign-up funnel. Low registrations despite heavy promotion points to messaging, timing or friction in the form. Track source (email, intranet, manager briefings) so you know what drives interest.
• Participation rate. What it tells you: how many registrants actually turned up or joined. A big drop between registration and participation flags scheduling conflicts, unclear instructions, or a weak commitment mechanism.
• Active participants. What it tells you: how many people engaged meaningfully (completed tasks, attended sessions, logged activity). This separates passive sign-ups from people contributing value to the cause.
• Completion rate. What it tells you: among active participants, who finished the campaign goals (e.g. challenge distance, project milestones). Use completion to judge achievable design and fairness for mixed-ability teams.

Team and repeat-engagement signals

• Team participation. What it tells you: collaboration and internal advocacy. High team sign-ups usually mean managers supported the campaign or social proof worked. Low team involvement may indicate insufficient team-level briefings or unclear incentives.
• Repeat engagement. What it tells you: sustainability of interest. Measure return participation from previous campaigns or internal champions who join multiple initiatives—this is often more valuable than one-off spikes.

Fundraising and donations

• Fundraising activation. What it tells you: how effectively you convert engagement into donor action (peer donations, payroll giving). Separate number of donors from donation frequency to see if many small donors or a few large ones drove results.
• Total donations. What it tells you: the absolute financial outcome, useful for partners and beneficiaries. Use alongside participation metrics to judge per-person fundraising effectiveness rather than as a standalone success measure.

Cost and feedback

• Cost per participant. What it tells you: campaign efficiency. Include direct costs (materials, platform fees, external facilitators) and a reasonable allocation of internal labour to compare alternatives.
• Employee feedback and sentiment. What it tells you: quality and perceived value. Use short post-event surveys and qualitative comments to uncover what motivated participants, barriers they faced and suggestions for next time.

Interpreting metrics together

No single metric proves success. For example, high donations with low active participation may mean a few fundraisers carried the campaign; high participation but low donations can still be valuable for engagement or employer branding. Prioritise metrics that match your campaign objective (awareness, behaviour change, fundraising or team-building) and present a small dashboard combining a participation funnel, donation conversion and cost per participant.

End with a clear next step: choose three primary KPIs before launch, assign owners for data collection, and run a short post-campaign review to turn insight into the next campaign’s design.