The Dons Trust board has published a shared set of KPIs, and historic membership data for the first time
The end of the football season is a great time for an update. Earlier in the year the Dons Trust board promised to publish a list of KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to provide members with a view on how the board is working and measuring its effectiveness.
Our Dons Trust KPIs
We will report on our performance against these KPIs in our end-of-year updates and informally throughout the year.
Underneath each of these headings, the board also has specific targets that we are working towards. As with all plans and targets they need to be adaptable and flexible enough to respond to changing circumstances and stretching enough that they help us fulfil our ambitious goals.
Members
We have put together a full historical picture of the Trust’s membership numbers. This gives us a good sense of how we have grown over the years. Included as well are the average attendance figures for each season, together they give a good sense of one of the factors behind joining season tickets and membership this year.
Increased data and visibility will give us all a better sense of who our members are and how we can best communicate and engage with them.
Communication
Our KPIs for communication include the timely delivery of minutes and meeting summaries (all on track this year so far), regular newsletters (our monthly newsletter has an industry-beating average open rate of 55%), more regular surveys and polls, and more face-to-face and online events.
Oversight
We now have a new MD in place, James Woodroof, at the Club and he’s already making an impact. Showing a real enthusiasm to listen and engage with fans, and our wider community.
Our role as the Dons Trust board and members is to help set the guiding strategy for James, head of football operations Craig Cope and through the operational PLC board hold them to account.
In the last 6 months, we have had strategy sessions with the Club leadership and together agreed on KPIs and processes to allow the DT board to hold the PLC and the Club to account.
Best Practice
The Football Supporters Association has reviewed our constitution and working practices and made some recommendations to ensure we meet the most recent guidelines. We will be working with them, our secretary Andrea Knox, and the wider board to implement the recommended changes.
Debt and Ownership
Managing our debt sustainably has to be one of the major priorities of all of us at the Club and Trust. Not managing our debt is the greatest single risk to the continued fan ownership of AFC Wimbledon that we all want.
We are on track for the funds we need to cover the bonds that holders have indicated are likely to be redeemed in the next tranches. A full finance update is coming shortly that will go into much more detail.
It might seem surprising for us to have KPI on maximising Dons Trust ownership at the same time we are talking about restricted action votes on reducing Trust voting rights from the current 75%.
The KPI is there for the long term and about how we raise funds and finances to ensure we always have the flexibility to grow and invest whilst maintaining fundamental fan ownership.
Dons Trust income and expenditure
Whilst doing an update on KPIs and membership it also felt like a good time to update members on the Trust’s income and expenditure.
For 2022/23 the Trust’s total income was just under £160,000 with the two biggest categories being membership fees and the Dons Draw.
All Dons Draw profits are spent on supporting the Academy. For 22/23 that amounted to over £60,000 that we were able to put towards developing the next generation of first team players. We also proudly sponsored AFC Wimbledon Women £40,000.
The next biggest outlay was on printing and postage for documents around our formal meetings, a number that we will continue to work to reduce and fulfill digitally where we can.
An update on similar numbers for the 23/24 season will be available later this year.
Dons Trust membership, the story so far
Understanding our members, who they are, why they joined, and how we have changed over time is an essential job for the Trust board.
We thought it would be useful to publish our historic membership numbers for, what we believe is the first time, in one place. You can see the steady growth of the Trust as we pushed for league football, moved back to Plough Lane, and how numbers have responded to crucial times in the Club’s recent history.
| Season | Members | Average Attendance | Division |
| 2002-03 | 2,200 | 3,003 | CCL Premier |
| 2003-04 | 1,751 | 2,606 | CCL Premier |
| 2004-05 | 1,593 | 2,858 | Ryman Division 1 |
| 2005-06 | 1,463 | 2,706 | Ryman Premier |
| 2006-07 | 1,250 | 2,512 | Ryman Premier |
| 2007-08 | 1,286 | 2,603 | Ryman Premier |
| 2008-09 | 1,504 | 3,219 | Conference South |
| 2009-10 | 1,600 | 3,535 | Conference National |
| 2010-11 | 1,775 | 3,486 | Conference National |
| 2011-12 | 1,935 | 4,295 | League 2 |
| 2012-13 | 1,935 | 4,060 | League 2 |
| 2013-14 | 1,909 | 4,135 | League 2 |
| 2014-15 | 2,061 | 4,073 | League 2 |
| 2015-16 | 2,751 | 4,138 | League 2 |
| 2016-17 | 3,231 | 4,477 | League 1 |
| 2017-18 | 3,009 | 4,325 | League 1 |
| 2018-19 | 3,006 | 4,254 | League 1 |
| 2019-20 | 3,498 | 4,310 | League 1 |
| 2020-21 | 3,738 | COVID | League 1 |
| 2021-22 | 3,963 | 7,034 | League 1 |
| 2022-23 | 3,744 | 7,662 | League 2 |
| 2023-24 | 3,485 | 7,893 | League 2 |
Dons Trust membership and home attendance over time
You can also see the size of the opportunity by bringing more fans into the Trust. We believe, and it’s a central part of AFC Wimbledon’s growth strategy, that the more Trust members we have the better for the long-term sustainability and success of Wimbledon football.
We will continue to update this and report back to members during the season.
COYDs