Online fundraising growing, but slower; Donors giving but less
- Thu, May 14 2009
- Filed under: Fundraising essentials
Photo by Thomas Hawk on Flickr
There’s lot of juicy data in a new study just released by M+R Strategic Services and the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN). The eNonprofit Benchmarks Study* (get it here) measures the effectiveness of nonprofit internet fundraising and activism programs for last year. We like it here at Network for Good, because it shows why the Internet is important to what all nonprofits do.
The headline: people are still giving online (up 26% from 2007 to 2008 by their count), but they are giving less.
This is very much in line with what we’re seeing here at Network for Good, where we’re seeing more donors and more donations, but lower average gift sizes.
Here are the key findings I found most interesting:
-Online fundraising was up by 26%.
-Monthly gifts account for 9% of online gifts - steady from 2007. We can do better than this, folks! The average size of a monthly gift was $21.
-Email fundraising and advocacy response rates held steady this year, compared to declines in previous years.
-The average online gift size was $71, down $15 from the previous year. This decline was most pronounced in the fourth quarter of 2008.
-Email lists continue to grow, though more slowly every year: growth was at 17 percent in 2008, down from 19 percent in 2007 and 21 percent in 2006.
-Fundraising emails sent to previous donors received response rates more than three times as high as those sent to non-donors.
-Message volume remained steady between 2007 and 2008. The average subscriber on a study participant’s list received about 3.5 messages per month in both years, despite marked increases in volume in the fall of 2008, presumably due to the election.
-In the months preceding the election, message volume increased dramatically, but email open rates, click-through rates, and response rates did not suffer as a result.
-Email lists continue to grow, though more slowly every year: growth was at 17 percent in 2008, down from 19 percent in 2007 and 21 percent in 2006.
-19 percent of email addresses “went bad” annually, due to bouncing or unsubscribes – the same as in 2007.
-For most organizations, almost one-third of all online actions are taken by the most active subscribers – just seven percent of the list.
-Alerts sent to previous action-takers on a given issue received response rates three times higher than those sent to the full file.
-Email click-through rates fell in all issue sectors. Advocacy emails have higher click-throughs that e-nes and fundraising appeals.
[*The 2009 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study analyzes data from 2008 and evaluates the changing landscape of nonprofit email programs, fundraising and advocacy. The data came from 32 major nonprofits working on environmental, legal/civil rights, health and international aid issues.]
Comments
Might be the donars not feeling safe and secure to give funds in this easy way.