Last month, I highlighted some benchmarks in both social media and email marketing that were released in recent reports so that you could see how your nonprofit stacked up. Today, we are going to look at online fundraising.
Using the 2012 Online Marketing Nonprofit Benchmark Index Study by Convio and the 2012 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study published by M+R and NTEN, we see that online fundraising continues to grow in importance, especially to smaller nonprofits.
Here are the key findings from each report:
2012 Online Marketing Nonprofit Benchmark Index Study (Convio, which includes orgs of all sizes in the study)
- The impact of online fundraising continues with the median growth rate at 15.8%. This compares unfavorably to the 20% growth rate achieved in 2010, but is up from the 14% achieved in 2008 and 2009. The disaster in Haiti is a part of that decline as well as a slower growth of event fundraising. When excluding special events, overall online fundraising comes in at 19.7 %.
- Online giving continues to grow fastest for smaller organizations. Organizations with 10,000 or fewer email addresses grew by 26.7% in median revenue, similar to 2010’s growth rate.
- First time online gifts represented 37 % of total median online revenue at $136,625 of a total $366,572.
- The average online monthly gift amount was $31.96, with Performing Arts orgs receiving an average monthly gift of $63.22 and Public Broadcasting Stations averaging only $14.56.
- The percentage of online advocates also making an online donation grew from 6.4 % in 2010 to 11.9 % in 2011. Get people involved and they give more!
2012 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study (M+R and NTEN, which includes only very large orgs in its study)
- On average, nonprofits increased their dollars raised online by 19% from 2010 to 2011.
- The number of gifts rose by 20%, with the typical gift size remaining roughly the same, falling by 2% between 2010 and 2011.
- Between 2009 and 2010, the international sector saw a huge 163% increase in the total raised online, likely due to two major emergencies – the earthquake in Haiti and massive flooding in Pakistan – that received substantial media attention and resonated strongly with donors.
- Between 2010 and 2011, rights groups had the highest increase, with the total revenue online jumping by 56% and the number of gifts by 63%.
- For organizations with a monthly giving program, while one-time gifts remain the largest source of online revenue, online revenue from monthly giving has grown at a much faster rate over the past few years. On average, online monthly giving accounted for 8% of total online revenue in 2011, up from 5% in 2010.
- On average, 35% of online revenue was sourced to direct email appeals. The remaining 65% came from other sources, such as unsolicited web giving and peer referrals.
In addition, Network for Good has released first quarter stats for 2012 on their Quarterly Digital Giving Index. Here are some highlights from that:
- Overall giving, excluding disaster relief donations for Japan in March 2011, was up across all channels in Q1 2012 vs. Q1 2011, increasing by 16%.
- Charity websites continued to comprise the bulk—over 60%—of digital donations. Following charity websites, social giving (19%) overtook portal giving (10%) for the second most used form of digital giving.
- Average gift size on social networks increased 90% in Q1 2012 vs. Q1 2011.
Other sources for online fundraising trends:
Netwits Think Tank by Blackbaud
The Blackbaud Index
April 2012 Nonprofit Blog Carnival: Social Fundraising Tips and Best Practices
