Blackbaud Data Highlights Giving Trends
Credit: Blackbaud
Blackbaud, a provider of software for powering social impact, has released its annual Blackbaud Luminate Online Benchmark Report and Peer-to-Peer Benchmark Report, which include insights into online giving trends and an analysis of peer-to-peer fundraising based on data from previous years.
"As we look back on the past few years in fundraising, from the turbulent times of the Covid-19 pandemic and the shift to a new normal, there are several trends we're seeing," said Graeme Port, senior director of product management for Peer-To-Peer Fundraising at Blackbaud. "The growing importance of sustaining donors and the rebound of in-person events are two things that stand out in this year's benchmark reports. We hope that fundraisers can use these insights to inform their strategies and set their organizations up for success as we head into a new year."
Luminate Online Benchmark Report
Data in this report comes from a set of social impact organizations that collectively raised over $1.5 billion online, handled over 20 million transactions, and sent more than 3 billion emails. The aggregate data collected from January 1, 2021–December 31, 2022, offers insights into organizational performance and provides an opportunity for nonprofits to compare online fundraising results to peers of similar verticals and sizes.
Key Findings
- Sustainer revenue grew 10.70% at the median.
- All verticals showed growth in sustainer metrics, including number of sustainers, revenue from sustainers and percentage of total revenue from sustainers.
- Revenue and transactions from one-time gifts declined, but this was offset by growth in sustainer revenue.
- Email lists grew in size, as did usable emails, giving organizations bigger lists to work with.
- Click rates declined across the board, indicating that organizations should focus on producing content that is clickable, interesting, timely, and actionable.
Sustaining Donor Trends
- Sustaining revenue as a share of all online revenue grew by 14.64%.
- Sustainer gifts increased by 8.77%.
- Seven sectors raised between 20-29% of their total revenue from sustaining revenue, including Animal Welfare (25%), Disaster and International Aid (27%), Environment (23%), Faith (23%), Food Banks (29%) and Public Society Benefit (20%).
- Public Broadcasting continues to be the leader in this area (61%).
- The annual value of a sustainer is four times greater than the average one-time donor.
Email Engagement Trends
- Open rates are no longer a reliable industry benchmarking metric. Click rates and conversion rates are better metrics to evaluate engagement.
- The largest organizations show that the more fundraising emails you send, the more money you raise, showing that nonprofits need to invest in robust acquisition.
- The unsubscribe rate declined, meaning fewer people unsubscribed from fundraising emails.
View the full report here. Data is available for comparison by sector as well as organization size.
Peer-to-Peer Benchmark Report
Data highlighted in this report represents a careful analysis of a set of organizations that produced nearly 6,400 peer-to-peer (P2P) fundraisers from January 1, 2020, through December 31, 2022, on Blackbaud TeamRaiser, Blackbaud's peer-to-peer fundraising software for nonprofits looking to grow engagement and revenue. More than 4.4 million people combined to raise over $1.1 billion during this three-year period.
Key Findings
- Revenue grew in 2022 by 23% compared to 2021, driven by a 29% increase in event participation.
- The number of events in 2022 was relatively steady from 2021, but the participation and revenue jumps mean those events were more effective in driving participation. More participation in events translated to more donations. Transaction counts were up 26% from 2021 to 2022.
- The average gift size in 2022 remained similar to 2021.
- Walks/5Ks without registration fees accounted for the largest category of event types and number of participants. They also raised the most revenue of any event type, representing 64% of all revenue raised in 2022.
View the full report here. Data is available by event type and broken down across fundraising metrics.
The preceding press release was provided by a company unaffiliated with NonProfit PRO. The views expressed within do not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of the staff of NonProfit PRO.
