The Ultimate List Of Charitable Giving Statistics For 2024

Americans gave $471.44 billion to charities in 2020, up 5.1%.

• 31% of donors worldwide give to NGOs, NPOs & charities located outside of their country of residence.
• 41% give in response to natural disasters.
• Giving to international affairs, human services and public-society benefit organizations all grew. This growth is in spite of relatively few widely publicized natural disasters, which often increase contributions to these types of organizations.
• Environment and animals charities; arts, culture and humanities organizations; international affairs nonprofits; and health causes experienced the largest jumps in contributions.
• Total charitable giving grew 4.1% year over year.
• Foundations contributed an estimated $103.5 billion to US charities in 2023, which shows a growth of nearly 180% since 2016.
• Giving to Education charities was up 6.2% to $58.9 billion (14% of all donations).
• Donations to Human Services charities were up 5.1% to $50.06 billion (12% of all donations).
• Foundations saw an increase of % to $45.89 billion (11% of all donations).
• Health charities experienced an increase of 15.5% to $38.27 billion (9% of all donations).
• Public-Society Benefit charities saw an increase of 7.8% to $29.59 billion (7% of all donations).
• Giving to International charities decreased by 4.4% to $22.97 billion (6% of all donations).
• Arts, Culture and Humanities saw an increase of 8.7% to $19.51 billion (5% of all donations).
• Charities that focus on the Environment / Animals saw an increase of 7.2% to $11.83 billion (3% of all donations).
• In 2017, the largest source of charitable giving came from individuals at $281.86 billion, or 72% of total giving; followed by foundations ($58.28 billion/15%), bequests ($30.36 billion/8%), and corporations ($18.55 billion/5%).
• The majority of charitable dollars go to religion (32%), education (16%), human services (12%), grantmaking foundations (11%), and health (9%).
• Environmental and animal organizations experienced the largest giving increase, receiving 7.2% more than the previous year.
• Charitable giving accounted for 2.1% of gross domestic product.
• Historically, charitable giving rises about one-third as fast as the stock market.
• Approximately 91% of high net worth households give to charity.
• On average, high net worth donors gave $29,269 to charity in 2023.

• 56% of the country’s public schools have at least one donor appeal on its site.
• School groups raise more than $1.5 billion every year selling various products.
• Traditional product fundraising accounts for roughly 80% of the dollars that school groups use to provide “extras” for their schools.
• 67% of principals turn fundraising decisions over to their PTO or PTA, even though experts believe this hands-off approach actually hampers a fundraiser’s
  success.
• 71% of parents said they’ve sold fundraising products to friends, family, and co-workers.
• 35% of schools average $0 – $5,000 in annual earnings from fundraising while 27.1% earn more than $75,000.
• Charitable contributions to colleges and universities in the United States increased only 1.7%.
• $58 billion was raised for colleges and universities in 2023, up from $41 billion raised in 2016.
• The top 20 fundraising institutions together raised $11.12 billion, 27.1 percent of the total funding.

Giving to religion (defined as giving specifically to congregations, denominations, missionary societies, and religious media) has consistently remained America’s single largest recipient of charitable giving.

• 49% of all church giving transactions are made with a card.
• 8/10 people who give to churches have zero credit debt.
• 60% are willing to give to their church digitally.
• Tithers make up only 10-25 percent of a normal congregation.
• Churches that accept tithing online increase overall donations by 32%.
• Only 5% tithe, and 80% of Americans only give 2% of their income.
• Christians are giving at 2.5% of income; during the Great Depression it was 3.3%.
• Only 3-5% of Americans who give to their local church do so through regular tithing.
• When surveyed, 17% of Americans state that they regularly tithe.
• For families making $75k+, 1% of them gave at least 10% in tithing.
• 3 out of 4 people who don’t go to church make donations to nonprofit organizations.
• The average giving by adults who attend US Protestant churches is about $17 a week.
• 37% of regular church attendees and Evangelicals don’t give money to church.
• 17% of American families have reduced the amount that they give to their local church.
• 7% of church goers have dropped regular giving by 20% or more.
• About 10 million tithers in the US donate $50 billion yearly to church & non-profits.
• 77% of those who tithe give 11%–20% or more of their income, far more than the baseline of 10%.
• 7 out of 10 tithers do so based on their gross and not their net income.

What age group donates the most to charities?

Millennials

• are 25.9% of US population.
• 40% of Millennial donors are enrolled in a monthly giving program.
• 26% gave tribute gifts.
• 46% donate to crowdfunding campaigns.
• 15% gave on #GivingTuesday 2017.
• 16% give through Facebook fundraising tools.
• 64% volunteer locally, 9% internationally.
• 55% attend fundraising events.
• 11% of total US giving comes from Millennials
• 84% of Millennials give to charity, donating an annual average of $481 across 3.3 organizations.
• Millennials are active on their phones and respond best to text message and social media, but rarely check personal email or respond to voice calls.
• Millennials are most likely to contribute to work sponsored initiatives, donate via mobile and watch online videos before making a gift.
• 47% of Millennials gave through an organization’s website.

Gen Xers

• are 20.4% of US population.
• 49% of Gen X donors are enrolled in a monthly giving program.
• 31% give tribute gifts.
• 45% donate to crowdfunding campaigns.
• 14% gave on #GivingTuesday 2017.
• 19% give through Facebook fundraising tools.
• 64% volunteer locally, 8% internationally.
• 56% attend fundraising events.
• Gen Xers are most likely to fundraise on behalf of a cause, make a pledge, and volunteer their time to an organization.
• Gen X prefers text messages or voice calls. These donors regularly check email and stay up to date on social media feeds.
• Email prompted 31% of online donations made by Gen Xers
• 59% of Gen Zs are inspired to donate to charity by a message/image they saw on social media.

Baby Boomers

• represent 23.6% of the US populations.
• 49% of Baby Boomer donors are enrolled in a monthly giving program.
• 41% give tribute gifts.
• 35% donate to crowdfunding campaigns.
• 15% gave on #GivingTuesday 2017.
• 21% give through Facebook fundraising tools.
• 71% volunteer locally, 9% internationally.
• 58% attend fundraising events.
• 24% of Boomers say they were promoted to give an online donation because of direct mail they received.
• 72% of Boomers give to charity, donating an annual average of $1,212 across 4.5 organizations.
• Boomers answer voice calls, check email regularly, and also use text messaging and social media. Though initially slow to adopt new technology, they take to it quickly once they do.
• Boomers are most likely to make recurring donations on a monthly, quarterly or yearly basis.

Greatest Gen 

• is 11.8% of the US population.
• 30% of donors aged 75+ say they have given online in the last 12 months and on average give 25% more frequently than younger generations.
• 88% of the Greatest gen gives to charity, donating an annual average of $1,367 across 6.2 organizations.
• They represent 26% of total US giving
• Greatest prefer voice calls and direct mail. These donors are late adopters of email and do not typically use text messaging or social media.
• Greatest are most likely to give through direct mail campaigns and donate physical goods.

• 77% of nonprofit professionals report that having qualified volunteers on staff might improve their organization’s practices.
• 61% of survey respondents reported that participation in employee volunteer activities increased in 2023.
• The average corporate volunteer participation rate is 33%.
• 51% of workers expect their employers to allocate work time and resources for their employees to volunteer for social causes.
• 65% of companies offer some sort of paid-release-time volunteer programs for their employees.
• Companies with VTO offer an average of 20 hours per team member each year.
• Employees see 5x higher engagement rates at companies with employee volunteer programs.
• 40% of Fortune 500 companies offer volunteer grant programs.
• 80% of companies with volunteer grant programs provide $8 to $15 for each hour an employee devotes their time.
• 79% of people who volunteer with a nonprofit also contribute financially to the organization.
• Approximately 63 million Americans — 25% of the adult population — volunteer their time, talents, and energy to making a difference.
• As of 2024, the value of a single volunteer hour (according to the benefit it produces for an organization) is estimated to be $29.95.
• Women volunteer at higher rates (27.8%) than men (21.8%).
• People aged 35-44 and 45-54 are most likely to volunteer (28.9% and 28% respectively) while 20-24 year olds have the lowest rates (18.4%).
• On average, people spend an average of 52 hours per year volunteering their time.
• 72% of volunteers are involved with only one organization, while 18.3% are involved with two.
• The top four national volunteer activities are food collection or distribution (24.2%), fundraising or selling items to raise money (23.9%), general labor or transportation (18.8%), and tutoring or teaching (17.9%).
• The top four volunteer areas are for religious (34.1%), educational (26%), social service (14.9%), and health (7.3%) organizations.
• 42.1% of people became volunteers with their main organization after being asked to volunteer.

• 30% of annual giving occurs in December.
• 10% of annual giving occurs on the last 3 days of the year.
• 77% believe everyone can make a difference by supporting causes.
• 4.5 is the average number of charities each person supports.
• 64% of donations are made by women.
• 69% of the population gives.

Corporate giving in 2021 increased to $20.77 billion—an 8.0% increase from 2019.

• 39% of companies surveyed indicated plans to expand their workplace giving programs in the next two years.
• More than 49% of nonprofit respondents identified workplace giving as a growth strategy for their organization.
• In the last three years, the percentage of Russell 1000 companies that offer corporate matching gifts grew by 11.8%.
• 97% of donors want flexibility in where and how they give to causes they care about through corporate giving programs.
• 93% of nonprofits believe they can grow the amount of money they raise from corporate giving.
• New auto-submission functionality is projected to yield an 80% increase in matching gift revenue for organizations leveraging Double the Donation’s tools.

• Double the Donation is the largest provider of matching gift tools for nonprofits and educational institutions working with 78% of the largest nonprofits in the United States.
• More than $50 million has been invested in the last two years into new CSR startups to help expand matching gifts, volunteer grants, and other corporate giving offerings.
• The three largest legacy CSR vendors for corporations are YourCause, CyberGrants, and Benevity, though collectively, they power <25% of all corporate giving programs.
• Four of the fastest-growing CSR vendors are Millie, Point, Selflessly, and Givinga, all of which have integrations with Double the Donation to help boost matching gift utilization rates.
• Nonprofits leveraging matching gift software to identify eligible donors results in 77% more donations being flagged as match-eligible, and can double or even triple an organization’s matching gift revenue due to better identification and higher utilization rates.
• Nonprofits using 360MatchPro’s automation tools in their fundraising strategy increases matching gift revenue by over 61%.

• Only 1.31% of individual donations are matched at the average nonprofit, despite more than 10% being eligible for corporate matching.
• 78% of donors are unaware if their company offers a matching gift program.
• 16% of donors know their company has a program, but are unsure if they’re eligible or don’t know how to submit their matching git request.
• 8% of donors know their company has a program, know they’re eligible, and know how to submit their matching gift request.
• Only 19% of companies include more than one paragraph on their matching gift programs in easily accessible employee handbooks or training materials and on their website.
• 80% of nonprofits said they have difficulty building strong corporate partnerships and workplace giving strategies with limited staff and resources.

With all these roadblocks, the best way for nonprofits to grow their matching gift revenue is to use Double the Donation’s service. Corporations should also make sure they use a CSR Vendor with Autosubmission enabled.

• Employee matching gift programs are the most sought-after corporate giving program by employees.
• 67% of Fortune 500 companies offer matching gift programs, with that number growing for each of the last 3 years.
• Nearly 27 million individuals work for companies that offer matching gift programs.
• Approximately $5 billion is raised through workplace giving annually, with more than 50% of that coming from employee matching gift programs.
• An estimated $2-3 billion is donated through matching gift programs annually, with $4-$7 billion going unclaimed each year
• Corporate matches of employee donations made up 12% of total corporate cash contributions.

Overall revenue from online fundraising grew by 23% in 2017.

• Online giving grew 12.1% in 2017.
• Online giving has seen consistent year over year growth:
  • 2012: $19.2 billion
  • 2013: $21.2 billion
  • 2014: $24.1 billion
  • 2015: $25.8 billion
  • 2016: $27.8 billion
  • 2017: $31 billion
  • 2018: $31.9 billion
  • 2019: $36 billion
  • 2020: $40 billion
  • 2021: $46 billion
  • 2022: $44.2 billion
• 54% of donors worldwide prefer to give online with a credit or debit card.
  • 11% prefer direct mail.
  • 11% prefer cash.
  • 10% prefer bank/wire transfer.
  • 9% prefer Paypal.
  • 4% prefer mobile app/wallet.
  • 1% prefer text message.
• $128 dollars is the average online donation amount.
• $326 dollars is the average annual donation total for recurring donors.
• 67% of nonprofits across the globe are set up to accept online donations.
• On December 31st, online giving is concentrated between 12 PM and 7 PM.
• On December 31%, online giving is concentrated between 12PM – 7PM.
• Custom-branded donation pages nested inside a nonprofit’s website raise 6X more money.

• Overall online revenue increased by 23% in 2017, accelerating from 15% growth the previous year.
• Every sector tracked saw at least 15% online revenue growth, with particularly large gains for Environmental (34%) and Rights (37%) nonprofits.
• On average, 38% of donors who made an online gift to a nonprofit made an online gift again to that nonprofit the following year.
• Retention was 25% for donors who made their first gift, and 60% for repeat donors.
• Revenue from one-time gifts increased by 19% in 2017.
• Remarketing on Facebook, Google Adsense, Twitter, or LinkedIn can increase traffic to your donation pages.
• In one case study, a nonprofit used Custom Facebook Audiences to drive 63% more online donations.
• Revenue from monthly giving grew 23% compared to 13% growth for one-time giving.
• Pre-selecting monthly giving on your donation page can increase conversions of monthly donations by up to 35%.
• Email messaging accounted for 26% of all online revenue.
• Live Chat Support increase audience engagement rates to drive 45% more opt-in conversions.
• For every 1,000 fundraising messages sent, nonprofits raised $42.
  • There were noticeable differences in this metric by nonprofits’ size. Small nonprofits (under 100,000 email subscribers) received $71 per 1,000 fundraising emails sent; Medium nonprofits (100,000–500,000 email subscribers) received $36; and Large nonprofits (over 500,000 subscribers) received $32.

• Only 3% of charities rate their board and executive leadership as being digitally savvy.
• 66% of charities are worried they will miss out on opportunities for digital fundraising.
• Direct mail motivated 36% more donors to give online compared to previous year.
• 51% of high-wealth donors ($200k+) prefer to give online.
• 34% of nonprofits have paid for advertising on social media.
• 21% of donations are directly through social.

• Nonprofit spending on digital ads increased by 19% in 2021, with organizations spending around $0.06 for every dollar raised online.
• Search ads (like Google Ads) have the highest ROI for nonprofits using paid advertising, with an average ROI of $4.78.
• Google processes about 3.7 billion search queries every day and owns over 84% of the desktop search engine market.
• 98% of searchers click a result on page 1 of Google search results.
• Microsoft’s search engines (including Bing and Yahoo!) own around 11.5% of the desktop search engine market share.
• The Google Ad Grants program has given over $10 billion in free advertising for its paid advertising platform to over 115,000 nonprofits in 50+ countries.
• For Google Ads, advocacy groups and nonprofits have an average cost per click (CPC) of $1.43.
• View-through revenue (revenue from donors who saw but didn’t click on an ad) accounts for 35% of all giving sourced from digital ads.
• In 2021, return on ad spend (ROAS) was highest for search ads ($3.72). Display ROAS was $0.59, while social media ROAS was $0.57.

Successfully managing your digital ads can take a lot of work. We recommend working with an expert like Getting Attention to leverage programs like Google Ads or Microsoft Ads.

The next Giving Tuesday event will be held on December 03, 2018.

• Giving Tuesday raised $380 million dollars online, up 38% or $106 million from 2017.
• 14.2 billion social media impressions.
• 150+ countries participated in Giving Tuesday
• Giving Tuesday continues to grow year over year:
  • 2012: $10.1 million
  • 2013: $28 million
  • 2014: $45.7 million
  • 2015: $116.7 million
  • 2016: $177 million
  • 2017: $274 million
  • 2019: $380 million
  • 2020: $2.5 billion
  • 2021: $2.7 billion
  • 2022: $3.1 billion
  • 2023: $3.1 billion
• Facebook raised more than $125 million for charity on Giving Tuesday, up 178% or $80 million from 2017.
  Facebook and PayPal matched $7 million in donations to United States nonprofits Giving Tuesday. Up to $20,000 per donor and $250,000 per nonprofit.
• The largest Giving Tuesday payment processing platforms:
  • Facebook:$125 million, up from $45 million (+178%) last year.
  • PayPal: $98 million, up from $64 million (+53%) last year.
  • Blackbaud: $62.6 million, up from $60.90 million (+2.80%) last year.
  • DonorPerfect: $35.20 million processed in 2018.
  • Classy: $15.40 million processed in 2018.
• 46% of donors worldwide have not heard of #GivingTuesday.
• The online average gift amounts exceeded $134.00.
• 17% of online donation form views were on a mobile device.
• Faith-based nonprofits now receive the largest percentage of #GivingTuesday online donations.
• Top five issues discussed: public & societal benefit, human services, education, health, environment & animals.

• For every 1,000 website visitors, a nonprofit raises $612.
• Nonprofits raised $1.13 per website visitor in 2017.
• International nonprofits raised the most, $4.11 per visitor, while the Rights sector had the lowest revenue per visitor at $0.31.
• Overall, 1.1% of website visitors made a donation, an increase of 18% since 2016.
• Website traffic declined slightly in 2017, with 1.4% fewer visitors per month.
• Half of nonprofit website traffic came from mobile and tablet users.
• Mobile accounted for 40% of all visitors, tablets for 10%, and desktop users made up the other 50%.
• Nonprofit homepages took an average of 3.181 seconds to load, while donation pages took 2.816 seconds to load.

• 45% of donors enrolled in a monthly giving program.
• The average monthly online donation is $52 ($624 per year) compared to the average one-time gift of $128.
• Monthly giving revenue increased by 40% in 2017.
• Monthly giving accounted for 16% of all online revenue.
• Donors that set up recurring donations give 42% more annually, compared to one-time donations.
• 52% of Millennials are more likely to give monthly over a large one-time donation.

• 41% have donated to crowdfunding campaigns that benefit individuals.
• 16% of crowdfunders donate less money to NGS, NPOs, & charities due to their financial support of crowdfunding campaigns.
• 14% of donors worldwide have created an online peer-to-peer fundraising campaign.
• $9,237.55 is the average amount a nonprofit crowdfunding campaign raises.
• $568 is the average amount individuals raise through crowdfunding.
• An average of 8 people donate to an individual crowdfunding campaign.
• The average donation size to a crowdfunding campaign is $66.
• 17% of crowdfunding donations are made on mobile devices.
• Campaigns that can gain 30% of their goal within the first week are more likely to succeed.

• Social Media is a critical factor in crowdfunding success: for every order of magnitude increase in Facebook friends (10, 100, 1000), the probability of success increases drastically (from 9%-, 20%, to 40%).
•  Individuals ages 24-35 are much more likely to participate in crowdfunding campaigns; those over 45 are significantly less likely to back campaigns.
• There’s an average of a 35% increase in giving when there’s a crowdfunding thermometer.
• 62% of donors who give to crowdfunding campaigns are new to crowdfunding.
• 300-500; the average word count in the campaign description for projects that raise the most money.
• Campaign owners raise 3X more if they update supporters every 5 days.
• The average number of updates that a successful campaign owner posts is 4.
• Crowdfunding campaigns get 126% more donations when owners update supporters.
• Campaigns that are shared fewer than 2 times have a 97% chance of failure.
• Crowdfunding campaigns with personal videos raise 150% than those that don’t have videos.
• Over half of people who receive an email about a crowdfunding campaign made a donation.

55% of people who engage with nonprofits on social media end up taking some sort of action.

• In an average month, 8 out of 10 18-49 year-olds watch YouTube.
• Among millennials, YouTube accounts for 2/3rds of the premium online video watched across devices
• More than half of YouTube views come from mobile devices
• The average mobile viewing session lasts more than 40 minutes
• The most viewed brand videos are on average 31–60 seconds long (32% of all views)
• 28% of nonprofits are on Youtube.
• 6 billion nonprofit videos are viewed in a given year.
• 57% of people who watch nonprofit videos go on to make a donation.
• 68% of nonprofit video watchers view similar videos within 30 days.

• 36% of online adults ages 18-29 are on the social network.
• 80% of active users access Twitter via mobile.
• 60% of consumers expect brands to respond to their query within the hour, but the average is 1 hour 24 minutes.
• 55% of people who engage with nonprofits on Twitter end up taking some sort of action.
• Twitter users send 700% more visitors to donation pages on Giving Tuesday than on a typical day.
• 77% of Twitter users feel more positive about a brand when their Tweet has been replied to.
• Companies using Twitter for customer service see a 19% lift in customer satisfaction.
• Tweets with images receive 18% more click throughs, 89% more likes, and 150% more retweets.
• 23% of pastors use Twitter.
• About 1 in 5 churches use Twitter (21%).
• 44% of churches that have an average attendance of more than 250 use Twitter.
• 9% of those actively involved in church use Twitter.

• 55% of people who engage with nonprofits on social media end up taking some sort of action.
• 59% of those people donate money.
• 53% volunteer.
• 52% donate clothing, food, or other personal items.
• 43% attend or participate in charitable events in their community because of social media.
• 40% subsequently purchase a product that benefits that charity.
• 25% contact their political representatives either by phone, letter, or email after engaging with a cause on social media.
• 15% organize their own events in their community afterward.
• For every 1,000 email subscribers, nonprofits have an average of 199 Facebook followers, 110 Twitter followers, and 13 mobile subscribers.
• Nonprofits have claimed Facebook as the most important social media for their causes, with Twitter in a close second place, and YouTube in third place.
• Nonprofits share a daily average of 1.2 updates on Facebook and 5.3 Tweets.
• 46.1% of churches say that using social media is their most effective method of outreach.

• 30% of nonprofits use Instagram to raise money and awareness.
• 6 in 10 online adults ages 18-29 use Instagram.
• 75% of Instagram users take action, such as visiting a website or making a purchase after looking at an Instagram advertising post.
• 26% of Instagram users make more than $75,000 per year.

• 67% of Pinterest users are under the age of 40.
• 75% of Pinterest usage takes place on mobile devices.
• 93% of Pinners shopped online in the past 6 months.
• Pins with prices get 36% more likes than those without.
• 87% of Pinners have purchased a product because of Pinterest.
• About 70% of Pinners are saving or clicking on Pins not just visiting.
• 29% of nonprofits have Pinterest.
• The words “DIY,” “Cup,” and “Recipe,” resonate most.

• 18% of donors worldwide have given through Facebook fundraising tools.
• Of those, 88% say they are likely to give through Facebook fundraising tools in the future.
• 42% of marketers report that Facebook is critical or important to their business.
• 93% of social marketers use Facebook advertise regularly.
• Facebook refers 29.4% of traffic to donation pages on #GivingTuesday.
• More than 29% of mobile donation traffic on Giving Tuesday came from Facebook.
• In an average peer-to-peer fundraising campaign, 15-18% of donations are referred directly from Facebook.
• 84% of FaceBook users share to show their support for a cause and highlight issues that are important to them.
• Daily watch time for Facebook Live broadcasts grew 4x.
• On Thursdays and Fridays, engagement is 18% higher.
• Nonprofits share an average of 1.2 Facebook updates and upwards of 5.3 Twitter updates per day.

• Snapchat nearly triples their user base in 3 years from 60 million in 2014 to 173 million in 2017.
• 70% of Snapchat’s users are under the age of 24.
• 54% use Snapchat daily.
• Daily Snapchat visitors use the app 25-30 times per day.
• Sending instant gratification snaps to donors could be a good way to give a ” quick thanks for your support” followed by a real donor thank you letter.

Responsive design doubles giving on mobile devices.

• By 2018, mobile devices will account for 57% of all Internet traffic.
• In the last year, the percentage of smartphone owners making mobile payments grew by 36%.
• 39% of smartphone owners indicated that they had used their phones to pay at least one bill in the past month, which equates to 53 million adult individuals.
• 79% of people said that they would increase their usage of mobile payments if discounts or coupons were offered.
• 1 in 4 donors use mobile devices to discover nonprofits they were previously unaware of.
• 25% of donors complete their donations on mobile devices.
• 44% of millennials said that would rather use their mobile phones than use cash to pay for small items.
• In the past year, mobile giving donations have increased 205%.
• 51% of people who visit a nonprofit’s website do so on a mobile device.
• Overall giving increased 4% last year.
• Faith-based organizations saw the greatest increase in giving with an 18.1% increase in online donations.
• By the end of last year, 1.4 billion people worldwide donated money to nonprofit organizations.
• 64% of mobile donations come from women.
• Nearly three-fourths of the entire population of the United States donates to charity in some form or another on a regular basis (69%).
• By incorporating mobile-responsive design to their websites, nonprofits can increase their donations by 126% on average.
• An express checkout option on a website can increase mobile sales and donations by up to 55%.
• 30% of all annual giving occurs in December, and 10% of that happens within the last three days of the year.
• Custom-branded donation pages on a nonprofit’s website help raise up to 6 times as much money on average.

• The average mobile donation pledge for fundraising events is $167.
• 84% of event fundraising pledges are fulfilled.
• The largest fulfilled mobile donation pledge to-date was $20,000.
• The largest single donation pledged was $10,000.
• The highest pledge for an event last year was $109,590 (223 pledges)
• 51% of mobile pledges came from call centers.
• 49% came from text links

• 117% is the average mobile subscription rate
• 54 % of nonprofit emails are read on mobile
• 58% of nonprofit social media happens on mobile
• 95% mobile phone adoption rate for US adults
• 81% smartphone adoption rate for US adults
• 51% of US donors do not have a landline
• 11% of Americans change their address each year

• The average donation size for text-to-donate fundraisers is $107.
• 90% of text message reminders are read in 3 minutes
• Responsive design doubles giving on mobile devices.
• Over $43 million was raised by the Red Cross’s Haiti earthquake relief text-to-give campaign.
• More than half of the Haiti donors surveyed have made text message contributions to other disaster relief efforts since their Haiti donation.
• More than 50% of the Text-to-Haiti donors made their donations shortly after learning about the campaign.
• Text donors are most likely to be between 49 and 59 years old, female, married, and college graduates.
• 91% of American adults own a smartphone.
• 41% of people still have a landline.
• It takes 90 seconds to respond to a text, versus 90 minutes by e-mail.
• 7 out of 10 churchgoers use text messaging.

Email results in 1/3 of online fundraising revenue.

• Email messaging drove 28% of all online revenue in 2017.
• 68% of donors worldwide most trust websites & email addresses that use the .org domain extension.
• The Public Media sector received the lowest share of revenue from email (10%), while 57% of online revenue for Wildlife/Animal Welfare nonprofits was driven by email.
• Public Media nonprofits saw 41% growth in list size in 2017, while International was the only sector to experience a decline (a change of -8%).
• For every 1,000 fundraising emails a nonprofit sends, it will raise an average of $17.
• Nonprofits send an average of 66 email messages per subscriber, marking an 11% increase in volume from the previous year.
• The largest category of email messages was fundraising (25 emails per year per subscriber).
• Environmental nonprofits sent an average of 89 emails per subscriber, the most of any sector; the Health sector had the lowest volume, with 38.
• Advocacy email response rate declined by 9% in 2017, to 2.2%.
• Small drops were reported for open rate (down 1% to 15%), click-through rate (down 1% to 2.5%), and page completion rate (down 4%, to 76%). The unsubscribe rate fell to 0.12%, 13% lower than in the previous year.
• Fundraising email response rate declined by 6% in 2017, to 0.06%.
• As with advocacy messages, small drops were reported for open rate (down 1% to 15%), click-through rate (down 6% to 0.42%), and page completion rate (down 6%, to 16%). The unsubscribe rate fell to 0.18%, 3% lower than in the previous year.
• Walk/run/cycling event fundraisers who send more than 15 emails raise 76% more than non-email senders.
• 79% of fundraising emails do not personalize their “To” line with a first and last name.

• It can take up to 18-20 touchpoints to reach a customer for the first time.
• 90% visit website first before calling.
• 96% leave without making a purchase.
• Direct mail with digital ads yields 28% higher conversion rate.
• Marketing campaigns that used direct mail and 1 or more digital media experienced 118% lift in response rate compared to using direct mail only.
• Website visitors who are retargeted are 70% more likely to convert.
• 26% of customers will return to a site through retargeting.

• Direct mail response rates are an estimated 5.3% for house file and 2.9% for prospect lists.
• At 6.6%, oversized envelopes have the greatest household response rates over other mediums (followed by postcards at 5.7% and letter-sized envelopes at 4.3%).
• At 37%, oversized envelopes have the greatest household return on investment over other mediums (followed by postcards and letter-sized envelopes at 29%).
• The top response rate tracking methods are online tracking such as PURLs (61%), call center or telephone (53%), and code or coupon (42%).
• For every $167 spent of direct mail in the US, marketers sell $2095 in goods.
• Adding a person’s name and full color in the direct mail can increase response by 135%.
• Adding a person’s name, full color and more sophisticated database information can increase the response rate by up to 500% vs not doing any of these things.
• Targeting customers on a 1:1 level increases response rates up to 50% or more.
• 40% of a direct marketing campaign’s success is in the data.
• 73% of firms aspire to be data-driven but only 29% of firms succeed at turning data into action.

• 13% of emails are opened and read within five minutes.
• 17% of people who send their support from email are doing so on a mobile device.
• The open rate for nonprofit emails specifically is between 15% and 18% on average.
• Emails with social sharing options increase click-through rates by 158%.

• 2018 Global Trends in Giving Report
• National Philanthropic Trust
• Blackbaud
• Philanthropy Outlook
• Npengage
• M+R Benchmarks
• Charity Navigator
• Skills Platform
• YouTube Statistics
• Facebook

• Dunham+Company
• Nonprofit Tech for Good
• @pay
• Instagram Business
• Pew Research Center
• WordStream
• GettingAttention
• Hootsuite
• YouTube Nonprofit Program
• Socialbakers
• Bureau Of Labor Statistics

• Google
• AdLibbing
• Nonprofit Hub
• VentureBeat
• Double the Donation
• Think With Google
• SocialMedia Examiner
• Data & Marketing Association