In our conversations with various pregnancy centers, most directors share the common desire to use their donors' money well and impact the most lives possible. As leaders, the overwhelming desire is to know, “How well am I using my resources?”
Is a pregnancy center that only gives out 3 or 4 pregnancy tests per month underperforming? What about centers that give our 50 or more pregnancy tests per month? Are they performing well or just expending too many resources on clients who had plans to carry to term regardless?
To understand how well your center is performing, you'll need to compare its data with that of similar centers.
After reviewing inputs from over 350 pregnancy centers, we can see patterns and trends that can help you answer this question for your center.
A Tale of Two Cities: Determining Your Effective Reach
How many clients your center should be getting on a monthly basis is determined by a variety of factors:
- What is the population of the area your center is in?
- How many people are close enough to your location that they can easily reach your center and become new clients?
- What is the legality of abortion in your state and how does that impact your new client intake?
- Are there other pro-life or pro-abortion services readily available that compete with your center?
- Is your mission to support all clients who might need help, or are you laser-focused on the solely the abortion-minded and determined?
- What should your center’s budget be to support the needs of your community?
Depending on how you answer these questions, you may actually be overperforming relative to similar pro-life pregnancy centers, even if your center only has a handful of clients each month. Or you may not be spending your donor’s money wisely, even if your facilities are constantly full.
For example, a rural pregnancy center that gets around 10 new clients a month may be performing much better than an inner-city clinic that gets around 30.
The Unplanned Pregnancy Estimator
So, how many clients should your center have per month? This number – what we call your “Effective Reach” – can be determined by analyzing all the factors and comparing your performance to similar centers across the nation.
These factors include population density (rural v. urban), socio-economic status, and the legality of abortion in your state. Here's how each of these impact how your center performs:
Population Density
Centers that serve more rural areas oftentimes find themselves filling the role that a traditional medical clinic or hospital does.
Because access to prenatal care is more difficult in rural settings, pregnancy centers in this context tend to see a higher percentage of clients that may not be abortion-vulnerable, as they are often fulfilling the needs an OB/GYN normally fulfills.
Whereas centers in more urban areas usually focus on clients who are more at risk for abortion. As a percentage of the population they serve, they may see new client numbers that are half of their more rural peers.
Socio-Economic Status
It's no secret that the majority of your clients likely come from less wealthy backgrounds. Since pregnancy centers usually offer free services, they tend to primarily attract individuals who can't afford medical treatment elsewhere.
As such, pregnancy centers in states with a lower household income average tend to see more clients than centers operating out of wealthier states.
Abortion Legality
Since the Supreme Court overturned the ruling of Roe v. Wade in 2022, the legality of abortion is determined by each state. These can mostly be broken down into three tiers – illegal, legal up to heartbeat, and mostly or completely legal.
For pregnancy centers where abortion is more restricted, the number of abortion-minded clients tends to be lower.
Calculating Your Center's Performance
With so many variables, it's highly unlikely you can just sit down with a cup of coffee and a blank sheet of paper and feel confident that you are using your resources effectively.
Over the last 18 months, 828Collective has been working diligently to gather baselines and help centers like your understand your performance and set realistic and achievable goals.
By gathering data from the CDC, the 2020 U.S. Census Data, and other inputs from over 350 pregnancy centers, we have developed the Unplanned Pregnancy Estimator to help you answer this question.
To use the tool, simply enter the state you are in, the number of people that live in your service area, how many pregnancy-related clients you see monthly, and your best estimate of how many of these are abortion-minded and abortion-determined women you see.
For rural centers, you service area might encompass the entire county, while for urban centers, this may only be a section of your city.
For example, if you're in a large urban area with one million residents and 3 similar pregnancy centers, your service area population would be closer to 330,000, not one million.
The estimator looks at all the factors discussed above and will give you a monthly estimate of the unplanned pregnancies in your service area, goals for monthly new pregnancy-related clients and how many should be abortion-minded or abortion-determined clients. Meeting these goals means you are performing in the top 20% of similar pregnancy centers.
Extending Your Effective Reach
Understanding the unmet needs and the number of unplanned pregnancies in your community helps you set measurable and achievable goals. Once needs are known and goals are set, you can draft a plan on how to achieve them.
To help get you started, check out this free resource that helps you identify actions you can take to meet these goals and prepare a 12-to-18-month plan that communicates the budgetary needs of your center to your board and donors.
Our Heavenly Father owns all the cattle on a thousand hills and gives liberally to those who ask. We pray that these resources give you the information and confidence you need to set and achieve these goals for your center.
This blog was written by 828Collective – a digital marketing agency for pregnancy centers. We provide pregnancy centers with industry-leading websites and marketing services at a price that is affordable for even the smallest centers.
We devote ourselves to understanding how to attract the abortion vulnerable, minded, and determined and support her during Her Journey from learning about your center to choosing life.
Visit us online or schedule a time to chat with us about your center’s marketing strategy, Her Journey, or any other questions you may have.