On Tuesday Tom alerted us to Convio’s Benchmark Report on Online Fundraising for 2009.
Today Blackbaud is out with another new Index –The Blackbaud Index of Online Giving. This fundraising index reports revenue trends on a monthly basis for 1,787 nonprofits representing $399 million in 12 month online revenue.
The new Index is based on actual revenue stats, not just from Blackbaud customers, but other vendors as well. You can read more about the methodology here.
Here are the main takeaways from the launch edition of the Index:
- Online revenue increased 23 percent for the three months ending May 2010 as compared to the same period in 2009. [This parallels Convio’s report of 20% through May 2010 over same period 2009. Excluding Haiti giving … nice to see the experts agree!]
- Unlike in Blackbaud’s other new Index of Charitable Giving which I reported on last month, where small nonprofits led overall fundraising recovery, the Online Index reports that small organizations with revenues of less than $1 million fared less well (a 13.1% increase) compared to the 21.3% increase for medium sized organizations (revenue $1 million to $10 million) and far short of the 28% increase for large organizations with revenue greater than $10 million.
- According to Nick Allen, chief strategy officer of DonorDigital, who provided guest analysis of the new Index “the data shows that it is important for nonprofits to invest in building their online fundraising program because it can grow much faster than their mail/phone program, even in a poor economy.”He noted that nonprofits’ online programs acquire higher value donors, attract younger donors, and bring in acquisition gifts that are typically twice as high or more than mail gifts, resulting in a higher lifetime value.
- Nick added that the new Index not only shows the substantial 23% increase in revenue, but also shows that retention of online-acquired donors is almost as good as for mail-acquired donors. Good news indeed.
This morning also sees the updating of The Blackbaud Index of Charitable Giving, launched last month. Today’s edition reports a 6.2 % growth in overall fundraising for the three months ending May 2010 compared with the same period in 2009.
You can get further data on both Indicies, download the Blackbaud Index of Online Giving Report and get monthly updates all in one handy location. Just click here.
Roger
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Roger, it is good to see the growth in online fundraising. To add a little more color to the good news here is the actual data for Convio’s 1,300 clients:
Online Giving revenue increased by 20 percent for the three months ending May 2010 as compared to the same period in 2009 – in the same period of 2009 organizations in the study raised just close to $262M compared to more than $314M in the same period in 2010.
These orgs raised $1.2B in the past 12 months. Our clients have raised more than $750 million in the first six months of 2010. Eliminating giving related to Haitian relief the amount raised is more than $950M during the last 12 months, and more than $500 million in the first 6 months of 2010.
Nick’s analysis is very consistent with what we are seeing as well. Thanks for sharing the good news.
This data leads me to question the type of donations that are being received online. Are they in response to Direct Mail or online appeals or are they tied to fundraising initiatives such as walks and runs? As people become more comfortable with online security we are seeing an increase in online donations too, but they are for our endurance training program and run/walk where people are giving to people they know not because of our organization. Is there any data out there to show if online giving has increased as a result of basic fundraising appeals from the organization?
The question from “Chicago” about peer to peer fundraising growth is an interesting one. I don’t have a break-down for 2010, YTD, but for 2009, we saw 14% online revenue growth across our entire benchmark and 10% for special event centric fundraising organizations. This was a slight contrast from 2008, where the growth rate for special events fundraising was around a few points higher than the overall benchmark. The recession took a larger toll on high ask fundraising events than smaller events and appeal based fundraising.
I do believe however that peer to peer funraising will teturn to being a larger growth vehicle in the future, both online and overall. The generational donor research we recently published – Next Generation of American Giving indicated that across demographics, peer to peer solicitation was considered the most acceptable form of solicitation from a charity with whom you have a pre-existing relationship. Interestingly we also learned that 50% of the reason why people support the cause is due to the ask from the friend/ family member, and 50% is because they genuinely are interested in/ care about the cause.
Vinay Bhagat,
Founder & CSO, Convio