Quarterly Fundraising Report™

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q3 2022 (JAN 1, 2022 - SEP 30, 2022)

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Donors: The number of people who have made a donation so far this year
Dollars: The amount of money raised by people making a donation so far this year
Retention: The percentage of people who have been retained from previous years so far this year

Key Insights

Total dollars fundraised are up 4.7%
Smaller donors are contributing fewer dollars in 2022 than they did in 2021
Donors are down -7.1% from 2022 compared to 2021.
Donors being down in the third quarter is a pattern that continues from 2021.
There are large decreases in overall donor counts
Decreases in overall donor counts are driven by weaker acquisition rates as well as lower retention of new donors.


DONORS -7.1% (+/- 2.0%) YOY change	DOLLARS 4.7% (+/- 2.0%) YOY change	RETENTION -3.1% (+/- 1.0%) YOY change

Visit https://data.givingtuesday.org/fep-report/ for the most detailed version of this report, which includes additional data splits and organization-focused insights.
In this report, we compare data compiled from the first three quarters of previous years to data from the first three quarters of 2022.

Current Dataset

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q3 2022 (JAN 1, 2022 - SEP 30, 2022)

Key Limitations

Data in our panel is limited to organizations with >=3 years of data, with $5K - $25M received in the prior year, via the Growth in Giving database.
Organizations in our panel are also analyzed to include limited growth/loss constraints.
Data is weighted across size of organization as determined by amount fundraised - including organizations raising between $5,000 and $25,000,000.
Data is also sorted by NTEE (National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities) codes utilized by the IRS to determine organization type and/or cause.
A significant amount of data arrives late, so we estimate the difference for top-line metrics by reviewing historical patterns of delayed data ("data drift"). Throughout this report, ranges for each metric express uncertainty in the estimates.


DONORS 11.2M in 2022	DOLLARS $6.1B in 2022	ORGANIZATIONS 8,800 in 2022

Revenue and retention metrics report on year-to-date (YTD) performance compared against the prior year total, based on a panel* of organizations selected from the Growth in Giving Database of 241 million transactions from more than 20,000 organizations since 2005.
*Note: A significant amount of data arrives late, so we estimate the difference for top-line metrics by reviewing historical patterns of delayed data ('data drift'). Throughout this report, ranges for each metric express uncertainty in the estimates. The panel for each year differs based on panel criteria, described on Page 2.

Donors: Time Series

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q3 2022 (JAN 1, 2022 - SEP 30, 2022)

Key Definitions ✖ Overall rate of growth in donors: net of gains minus losses in number of donors from last year to this year divided by total number of donors up to this time last year
Key Insights

Donors appear to be down -11.6%, when we take the data at face value. But after adjusting for delays in data reporting ("data drift"), we estimate the actual decrease is -7.1%.

		Overall donors are significantly lower than last year. 2021 donor rates were also lower than 2020 by comparison. Donor participation rates driven down because of lower donor acquisition rates. Small donor participation rates also contributed to lower donor participation numbers overall.

NOTE: The panel for each year differs based on our panel rules (stable organizations over the past 3 years w/ $5K - $25M received in the prior year, via the Growth in Giving database). This ensures consistent historical data & avoids biasing past results by filtering on future data.

Donors by Donor Size

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q3 2022 (JAN 1, 2022 - SEP 30, 2022)

Key Definitions

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Donor size: the grouping of donors by giving levels (dollar ranges) using donors’ year-to-date giving amounts

Key Insights

Donors under $500 make up the majority of all donors and are the largest donor category
Almost all of the drop in donors (96%) is attributable to losses of donors of $500 and less
Based on late reporting in past years, we expect the proportion of Major and Supersize donors to increase, relative to other categories.


MICRO (Under $100) -15.4% YOY Change	SMALL ($101 - $500) -7.8% YOY Change	MIDSIZE ($500 - $5K) -4.2% YOY Change	MAJOR ($5K - $50K) -1.2% YOY Change	SUPERSIZE ($50K+) +0.0% YOY Change
55.8% % of total donors	28.9% % of total donors	13.0% % of total donors	2.1% % of total donors	0.3% % of total donors

All year-over-year (YOY) changes are computed on year-to-date (YTD) totals. Donor size segments were chosen to span both dollars and donors, with each segment representing 1-50% of the total. Estimates for late data only apply to top-line donors, dollars, and retention. Thus, these more granular breakdowns underestimate year-over-year growth.

Donors by Life Cycle

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q3 2022 (JAN 1, 2022 - SEP 30, 2022)

Key Definitions

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Donor Life Cycle: the grouping of donors based on when they were last seen in the dataset

Key Insights

New donors are down by -19.2%
Newly Retained donors are down by -24.7%
These decreases in New and Newly Retained donors account nearly all of the change.


NEW DONORS -19.2% YTD Change	NEW RETAINED DONORS -24.7% YTD Change	REPEAT RETAINED DONORS -2.0% YTD Change	RECAPTURED DONORS -3.3% YTD Change
37.2% % of total donors	9.3% % of total donors	40.0% % of total donors	13.5% % of total donors

NEW DONORS - never gave to this organization before.
NEW RETAINED DONORS - gave last year to the organization, but never before.
REPEAT RETAINED DONORS - gave last year to the organization, but not for the first time.
RECAPTURED DONORS - did not give last year to the organization, but had given in the past.

Donor by Donation Count

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q3 2022 (JAN 1, 2022 - SEP 30, 2022)

Key Definitions

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Donor Donation Counts: the grouping of donors based on how many times they've made a donation

Key Insights

One time donors are the largest segment of any category - making up 69.9% of all donors
All segments of donors by donation count align with the overall trend of decreased donors


1 DONATION -12.7% YOY Change	2 DONATIONS -11.8% YOY Change	3-6 DONATIONS -12.7% YOY Change	7+ DONATIONS -1.9% YOY Change
69.9% % of total donors	11.9% % of total donors	8.3% % of total donors	9.8% % of total donors

Donation count segments were selected to best illustrate the distribution of total donors and dollars across the giving spectrum. A donor's donation count covers the period from the start of the year until the end of the current quarter.

Dollars: Time Series

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q3 2022 (JAN 1, 2022 - SEP 30, 2022)

Key Definitions ✖ Overall rate of growth in dollars: net of gains minus losses in money from fundraising from last year to this year divided by total dollars raised up to this time last year
Key Insights

Fundraising dollars appears to have decreased by -1.8%, but after adjusting for delays in data reporting ("data drift"), we estimate dollars increased by +4.7%, compared to 2021.

		Stability in large donors keeps fundraising figures consistent in the face of unstable donor participation Dollars from recaptured donors is also a contributor to fundraising growth

Dollars by Donor Size

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q3 2022 (JAN 1, 2022 - SEP 30, 2022)

Key Definitions

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Dollars by donor size: the segmentation of dollars based on the size of an individuals total contributions, year-to-date

Key Insights

Numbers of Micro and Small donors (donating less than $500) have fallen much more than larger donor categories
Micro donors have dropped 13.2%
Small donors have dropped 7.0%
Funds from "Small" and "Micro" donors make up only 9.3% of funds raised


MICRO (Under $100) -13.2% YOY Change	SMALL ($101 - $500) -7.0% YOY Change	MIDSIZE ($500 - $5K) -2.0% YOY Change	MAJOR ($5K - $50K) -1.4% YOY Change	SUPERSIZE ($50K+) -0.4% YOY Change
2.9% % of total dollars	6.4% % of total dollars	16.3% % of total dollars	25.4% % of total dollars	49.0% % of total dollars

Donor size is computed on a donor’s total year-to-date dollars given.

Dollars by Life Cycle

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q3 2022 (JAN 1, 2022 - SEP 30, 2022)

Key Definitions

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Dollars by donor size: the segmentation of dollars based on when the associated donor was last seen in the dataset, year-to-date

Key Insights

Dollars are being driven downward by New donors (-3.7%) and New Retained donors (-18.1%)
Dollars from Recaptured donors are up 7.1%


NEW DONORS -3.7% YOY Change	NEW RETAINED DONORS -18.1% YOY Change	REPEAT RETAINED DONORS -0.2% YOY Change	RECAPTURED DONORS 7.1% YOY Change
19.2% % of total dollars	8.1% % of total dollars	59.8% % of total dollars	12.9% % of total dollars

NEW DONORS - never gave to this organization before.
NEW RETAINED DONORS - gave last year to the organization, but never before.
REPEAT RETAINED DONORS - gave last year to the organization, but not for the first time.
RECAPTURED DONORS - did not give last year to the organization, but had given in the past.

Dollars by Donation Count

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q3 2022 (JAN 1, 2022 - SEP 30, 2022)

Key Definitions

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Dollars by donation count: the grouping of dollars based on how many times the associated donor made a donation

Key Insights

The largest proportion of dollars come from one-time donors. All other segments show a similar decline to each other.


1 DONATION 1.4% YOY Change	2 DONATIONS -6.3% YOY Change	3-6 DONATIONS -5.9% YOY Change	7+ DONATIONS -5.2% YOY Change
58.1% % of total dollars	15.6% % of total dollars	16.5% % of total dollars	9.8% % of total dollars

Donation count segments were selected to best illustrate the distribution of total donors and dollars across the giving spectrum. A donor's donation count covers the period from the start of the year until the end of the current quarter.

Retention Rate: Time Series

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q3 2022 (JAN 1, 2022 - SEP 30, 2022)

Key Insights

Retention is expected to decrease by -3.1% year-over-year, following last year’s -7.4% decrease Year-to-date retention of donors from last year stands at 29.9% in Q3

		Year-over-year retention rates have been steadily increasing throughout the year, but they remain negative These year-over-year drops are significant, especially given last year's singificant decrease

Retention Rate: Donor Type

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q3 2022 (JAN 1, 2022 - SEP 30, 2022)

Key Insights

Retention rates have decreased across all types of donors


NEW DONOR RETENTION RATE -14.8% YOY Change	REPEAT DONOR RETENTION RATE -5.4% YOY Change	RECAPTURE RATE -15.0% YOY Change
13.7% retained YTD	41.5% retained YTD	2.7% retained YTD

NEW DONORS - never gave to this organization before.
REPEAT DONORS - donors who gave last year to the organization, and were not new last year.
RECAPTURED DONORS - donors who did not give last year to the organization, but had given in the past

Retention Rate by Donor Size

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q3 2022 (JAN 1, 2022 - SEP 30, 2022)

Key Insights

Retention is down across all donor sizes
Overall retention is driven primarily by Micro (under $100) donors
Micro donors are the largest segment of donors


MICRO (Under $100) -5.6% YOY Change	SMALL ($101 - $500) -2.5% YOY Change	MIDSIZE ($500 - $5K) -3.9% YOY Change	MAJOR ($5K - $50K) -4.0% YOY Change	SUPERSIZE ($50K+) -5.1% YOY Change
21.5% retained YTD	37.7% retained YTD	48.1% retained YTD	50.9% retained YTD	55.2% retained YTD

Donor size segments were chosen to span both dollars and donors, with each segment representing 1-50% of the total.

Retention Rate by Donation Count

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q3 2022 (JAN 1, 2022 - SEP 30, 2022)

Key Insights

Retention has decreased across all donation count segments
One time donors are the largest segment
One time donors also had the largest decrease in retention rates
Two-time donor retention has decreased significantly as well


1 DONATION -4.0% YOY Change	2 DONATIONS -2.1% YOY Change	3-6 DONATIONS -1.1% YOY Change	7+ DONATIONS -1.5% YOY Change
18.6% retained YTD	38.6% retained YTD	63.8% retained YTD	88.6% retained YTD

Donation count segments were selected to best illustrate the distribution of total donors and dollars across the giving spectrum. A donor's donation count covers the period from the start of the year until the end of the current quarter.

Organizations

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q3 2022 (JAN 1, 2022 - SEP 30, 2022)

Key Insights

Organization size (based on amount raised) factored much more significantly into fundraising than last year
Organization cause explained little of the variance in fundraising amounts.
The proportion of organizations not reporting data continues to exceed pre-covid (2019) rates. In 2022, 10.4% of organizations provided no fundraising information.


Organization Size Impact 152% YOY Change Size matters more than in 2021	Organization Cause Impact -40.0% YOY Change Cause matters less than in 2021	Organizations Not Reporting 10.4% Not Reported More orgs did not report in 2022

Our 'impact' metrics measure the importance of size and cause on organization results. These are meant to be more directional than quantitative, but numbers help track these trends year-over-year.

Organization Size Impact: Time Series

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q3 2022 (JAN 1, 2022 - SEP 30, 2022)

Key Insights

Organization Size Variability can be interpreted as the importance of an organization's size in its fundraising performance Variability of fundraising increased significantly as a function of organization size compared to last year Organization size variability is up 152% year-over-year

		In 2022, organization size is a much larger factor in fundraising than its been in previous years

Organization Size Impact: Splits

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q3 2022 (JAN 1, 2022 - SEP 30, 2022)

Key Insights

All organization sizes, except organizations raising $5M+, grew in the mean but shrank in the median amount of fundraising
The data suggest that a handful of organizations account for most of the growth

% DOLLAR GROWTH (MEAN) - Year-over-year dollar growth for organizations, grouped by an organization's budget size. Trends in the mean are more informative of the sector as a whole.

% DOLLAR GROWTH (MEDIAN) - The median year-over-year dollar growth for organizations, grouped by an organization's budget size. Trends in the median are more indicative of a typical organization's fundraising experience.

Organization Cause: Time Series

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q3 2022 (JAN 1, 2022 - SEP 30, 2022)

Key Insights

Organization cause explained little of the variance in fundraising amounts. Most cause areas fundraised similarly to previous years, with two exceptions.

		Religious causes in our dataset outperformed in 2022 International causes underperformed when compared with 2021

Organization Cause: Split

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q3 2022 (JAN 1, 2022 - SEP 30, 2022)

Key Insights

Religious organizations fundraised 4.9% more than last year
International and foreign affairs causes decreased -20.2% on average in our study
Public & societal benefits (-7.8%) also raised less funds than last year

% DOLLAR GROWTH (MEAN) - Year-over-year dollar growth for all organizations of this NTEE major group. More informative about the sector as a whole.

% DOLLAR GROWTH (MEDIAN) - The median year-over-year dollar growth across each organization of this NTEE major group. More indicative of a typical organization's fundraising experience.

Organizations Not Reporting: Time Series

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q3 2022 (JAN 1, 2022 - SEP 30, 2022)

Key Insights

Organization dropout has stayed at its unprecedented rates 10.4% of the organizations we expected to report data have not yet done so

FUNDRAISING EFFECTIVENESS PROJECT

The Fundraising Effectiveness Project (FEP) - first established in 2006 - and the Growth in Giving database - created in 2012 - are both administered jointly by the Association of Fundraising Professionals and GivingTuesday. The Growth in Giving database is the world’s largest public record of donation activity, with more than 241 million donation transactions, and is continuously updated by top fundraising software partners (in alphabetical order) Bloomerang, DonorPerfect, Keela, and NeonCRM. Additional partners include the 7th Day Adventists, The Biedermann Group, DataLake Nonprofit Research, and DonorTrends (a division of EveryAction). For more information and how you or your fundraising software provider can participate, please visit www.afpfep.org

METHODOLOGY

We removed organizations that did not have a minimum of 25 donors and $5,000 in revenue in each of the previous three years. We removed organizations at either tail of the revenue growth curve. If revenue growth was more than 300% or less than -66% in any of the past three years, organizations were removed. We also excluded individual contributions above $10M. We weighted our data by organization size and NTEE major group to make it reflective of 2018 IRS filers in the $5K - $25M range of contributions. In 2018, there were 222K IRS filers in this contributions range and passing our growth and size filters, making this report representative of 3.9% of the total relevant filers. Details regarding estimation methodology for data drift (late reported data) can be found here.




DATA PROVIDERS The FEP wouldn’t be possible without data. These software providers make the collection of data for this analysis possible.


DATA REPORTING The Quarterly Report wouldn’t be possible without the data processing and analytics provided by these firms.