The 2011 Online Giving Report was recently released detailing the behavior of individuals who donate online and the nonprofit organizations that benefit from such donations. The full report can be viewed here. Online fundraising is a key element in efforts by nonprofits to collect funds throughout the year. As a nonprofit, you face many challenges. Understanding the current state of online fundraising efforts can help you to develop effective strategies for more effective efforts. Here are some of the highlights of the report of special interest to nonprofits.
About the Report: The 2011 Online Giving Report combines annual multi-year giving data with the Blackbaud Index of Online Giving to provide a comprehensive look at trends in the nonprofit industry.
1. Online Giving Up
In 2011, online giving increased 13 percent when large international affairs organizations were removed from consideration. More than half of the organizations considered for the report experienced a similar growth rate. Large organizations grew by nearly 9 percent and medium organizations grew by about 13 percent in 2011. Smaller nonprofit organizations grew by nearly the same amount when compared to 2010 figures. Due to the Hatti earthquake, online giving in the international affairs sector was down 55 percent in 2011 over the previous year. However, the Japanese earthquake and tsunami had little impact on online giving trends in 2011. Nearly 35 percent of online giving for 2011 came in the final quarter of the year, a similar trend for most charitable contributions. December remains the strongest month for online giving.
2. Trends By Sector
The education sector experienced the greatest growth in online giving in 2011, making up just over 26 percent of all online contributions. Online giving in the education sector has spiked 40 percent in just the past few years alone. Higher education groups come in second with just over 21 percent of all online giving for nonprofit organizations in 2011. Arts, culture and humanities follows with just over 13 percent. Human services closely follows with just over 12 percent. This is followed by environmental and animal-related organizations, public and society-related organizations and healthcare. All sectors showed growth, except international affairs.
Note: Religious nonprofits are excluded from the annual report at this time.
3. Smaller Nonprofit Organizations Lead the Pack
Larger nonprofit organizations experienced significant losses in the first four months of 2011. This was due to several major international disasters which took the focus away from nonprofit organizations. Larger nonprofit organizations saw an increase later in the year, but this was not enough to offset the first quarter drop. Smaller nonprofit organizations tend to more resistant to outside influences such as natural disasters. For this reason, smaller nonprofit organizations posted significant gains in 2011. These numbers were boosted by strong showings in the education sector. Medium-sized organizations showed solid growth as well. Larger organizations posted strong 3rd and 4th quarter gains.
4. Donation Trends
Nearly 50 percent of online donations to nonprofit organizations were up to $1,000. Approximately 43 percent of online donations were $1,000 or more. Just 3 percent of online donations exceeded $10,000 in 2011. The largest single online donation in 2011 was $260,000. This was a significant increase from the single largest online donation of $100,000 in 2010. The average online donation of $1,000 or more in 2011 was $1,200. This is down slightly from 2010 figures. Nearly 90 percent of the nearly 3,000 online organizations considered for the report had at least one online donation of $1,000 or more in 2011.
5. Big Growth Among Medium Nonprofit Organizations
Outside factors drew a serious blow to larger nonprofit organizations in 2011. This leaves smaller and medium organizations to pick up the slack. Smaller nonprofit organizations showed impressive growth in 2011, but still down from the 35 percent spike seen in 2010 over the previous year. Medium nonprofit organizations, however, showed significant gains in every quarter in 2011. Medium organizations are those with annual fundraising efforts between $1-10 million. One reason given for this trend is the way medium nonprofit organization focus their resources when it comes to seeking online donations. Medium organizations tend be more likely to launch campaigns targeting multiple audiences by using multichannel strategies.
The report stresses the need to place an emphasis on retention by engaging previous donors and focusing on year-round campaigns to avoid the end-of-the-year crunch many nonprofit organizations face each year.
