The State of Modern Philanthropy 2020 finds the majority of online donors who check out on a donation page do so within one minute
Classy, creator of world-class online fundraising software for nonprofits, today released its third-annual report analyzing nonprofit digital fundraising trends: The State of Modern Philanthropy 2020. Basing strategic decisions on data is more important than ever for nonprofits fundraising through a challenging economy. The report, subtitled “Deconstructing the Online Donor Journey,” leverages Classy’s proprietary online giving data from nearly 4,500 nonprofits to reveal the latest trends surrounding online donor behavior, including conversion rates and activity across campaign types, the additional ways in which recurring donors engage with organizations, and the actions of donors who come back.
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Classy’s new report analyzes data from the past several years, spanning over 40,000 active online fundraising campaigns and 6.4 million transactions, 2.8 million of which were recurring gifts.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has affected nonprofits in a variety of ways this year, so elevating insights that help nonprofits advance their fundraising efforts is vital to their success in 2020 and beyond,” said Scot Chisholm, CEO and Co-Founder of Classy. “Our hope is that this report shares data to spark new or improved ideas that can help organizations sustain support for their important missions.”
Key findings from the report include:
- Nonprofit donation pages must hook potential donors immediately: Across the Classy platform, 60% of people who check out on a donation page do so in less than one minute. However, when looking at how long people spend on campaign pages across all campaign types—including crowdfunding, events, peer-to-peer, and donation pages—conversion rates peak between 4 and 5 minutes. This data reveals the opportunity for nonprofits to offer compelling content that will get potential donors to either convert immediately or be compelled enough to keep learning more about the campaign and eventually convert.
- Many return donors don’t wait until the next holiday season to make a second donation: Nonprofits sometimes assume that the typical Giving Tuesday donor won’t return to make a second donation until the following year. However, data shows that 31% of return donors make a second donation within six months. Organizations that re-engage donors sooner after big moments in time, such as Giving Tuesday, can capture more continual support from people who have already expressed interest in the organization’s mission once before.
- The value of recurring donors should not be underestimated: Recurring donors can become more than just an automatic monthly transaction if the nonprofit works to foster the relationship. Of recurring donors who signed up through a donation page and took an additional action, 11% made a contribution to a crowdfunding campaign, 16% purchased an event ticket, 14% signed up to fundraise or donated to a registration with fundraising campaign, and 10% participated in a peer-to-peer campaign. This shows that many of these donors are willing to make additional contributions if asked.
In addition to providing insights that nonprofits can use to make data-driven decisions, The State of Modern Philanthropy 2020 includes a free nonprofit benchmarks worksheet that organizations can use to compare their fundraising results with the rest of the industry.
