Let's start with a little poll:
Are you a nerd, like me, who gets excited about reading the latest trends in social impact? |
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Maybe you will be, by the end of this newsletter. 🤓
Here’s the deal.
The Fundraising Effectiveness Project (a project spearheaded by Association for Fundraising Professionals) shares insights on donors, giving, and fundraising regularly.
In their latest report, they sounded the alarm on a continuing trend.
Here’s what that looks like based on the latest 2024 Q3 data:
You see it, right? 👀
Fewer individuals are donating (even if those who are donating may be giving a little more).
The biggest change in donors was in micro donors – those who give in amounts under $100.
This is a problem for a few reasons:
- Even though micro donors are giving in small amounts, they make up the largest percentage of donors overall (over 50%). So a drop in these donors = a big drop in overall donations.
- If there are fewer small donors, then more nonprofits are competing for large donors (large donors who give over $5,000 make up less than 3% of all donors, according to the full report). This could mean fewer nonprofits receiving donations.
- Giving should be accessible to all sorts of people, even if they aren’t wealthy philanthropists. 💗 This data seems to suggest that fewer people believe charitable giving is within their reach. That’s not good for the health of a community-minded society.
As much as it can feel like we’re doing social impact work in a bubble sometimes, the truth is, trends happening in the country and the world do impact our efforts. When there’s an economic downturn or, say, pandemic, it tends to influence our outcomes.
But we aren’t completely without power. 💪
Based on this latest report, here are a few actionable strategies to consider for your fundraising efforts this year:
1. Give Love to your Repeat Donors
It’s easier and more cost effective to keep the donors you have than get new donors.
And those repeat donors - those who know and love your cause - make up the largest portion of a typical donor base (40.1%).
How can you ramp up your stewardship efforts?
Do you have a regular time on your calendar to share impacts and updates with your donors? Have you created a process for personalized donor thank you's? Or how about a “town hall” where you share the latest updates with supporters during a short virtual meeting?
Here’s one idea 💡 you can steal:
One of my favorite things to do in my organization was host our annual “Thank A Thon” 🙏. It was a day we brought our Board and staff together to write and call donors, just to say thank you. There were NO donation requests that day – only gratitude. Not only did donors love it, but it was a fun way to engage our Board in fundraising efforts.
2. Create a Strategy for Small and Micro Donors
Since Small ($101-$500) and Micro donors (under $100) account for over 80% of all donors, it’s critical to find ways to retain and attract these givers. Especially because these smaller donations are often an entry point for more or larger giving later.
Try digital campaigns on email or social media focused on targeting this group. The key here is messaging your campaign to showcase how those smaller donations make an impact on your organization. For example, “$25 feeds a family for a day”.
You can also invite these donors to become recurring monthly givers 📅 at these lower levels - $50, $25, $15, or even $5 – because over the course of a year those donations add up, and recurring donors are more likely to be retained year after year!
3. Create Specific Opportunities for Mid-Level Donors
Mid-sized donors – those giving $501-$5,000 - are the next largest donor group at nearly 15% of donors.
In my experience, many generous people are willing to give at higher amounts if they can grasp how those donations will matter to you.
If you don’t already have messaging outlining how donations of this size can make an impact for your cause, now is the time to develop said messaging. 💬
Try highlighting how giving at this level is an invitation for donors to engage more deeply with your mission, and structure giving opportunities around that invitation. For example, you might start a “community champions circle” for donors at this giving level, or showcase a few specific projects that could be funded with those amounts (New fridge for your food bank? Laptops to increase team capacity? 💻).
Make sure you’ve got your plan for sharing impacts and communicating regularly with these donors, too, of course.
In summary:
Data is a tool 🛠️, not destiny. It’s meant to inform us and challenge us to be agile. The changemakers who are able to adjust their strategy with new information will thrive in 2025!