Quarterly Fundraising Report™

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q1 2023 (JAN 1, 2023 - MAR 31, 2023)

✖

  • 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

  • Fundraising dollars decreased, driven by a decline in the large donor and new donor segments.
  • While overall retention increased — and contrary to intuition — retention in all categories of donors dropped.
  • Donor participation fell as acquisition of new donors and small donors remained a challenge.
DONORS

-3.8%
(+/- 1.5%)
YOY change 		DOLLARS

-0.7%
(+/- 2.0%)
YOY change 		RETENTION

1.3%
(+/- 0.5%)
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 previous years to 2023. All metrics are computed up to Q1 (from January of a given year to the end of March of the same year).
Year-to-date Fundraising Performance. All right reserved.
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Current Dataset

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q1 2023 (JAN 1, 2023 - MAR 31, 2023)

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.
  • Data is weighted across size of organization as determined by amount fundraised, including organizations raising between $5K - $25M.
  • Data is also weighted 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

2.0M
in 2023 		DOLLARS

$1.8B
in 2023 		ORGANIZATIONS

8,061
in 2023
 
  • 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 26,000 organizations since 2005.
Year-to-date Fundraising Performance. All right reserved.
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Donors: Time Series

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q1 2023 (JAN 1, 2023 - MAR 31, 2023)

✖

  • 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

 

 

 
  • Donor participation dropped -10.8% when not accounting for late data. After adjusting for delays in data reporting ("data drift"), we estimate the actual decrease was -3.8%.

  • This was the 7th consecutive quarter of year-over-year decline in donor participation.
 

 

 
  • Decreases in donor participation were driven by low acquisition rates and low retention.
 

 

 
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.
Year-to-date Fundraising Performance. All right reserved.
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Donors by Donor Size

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q1 2023 (JAN 1, 2023 - MAR 31, 2023)

✖

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

Key Insights

  • The most substantial donor group consisted of those contributing less than $500, accounting for
    88.2% of all donors.
  • The decrease in donors was largely caused by losses of donors contributing $500 and below.
MICRO
($1 - $100)

-14.0%
YOY Change 		SMALL
($101 - $500)

-5.7%
YOY Change 		MIDSIZE
($501 - $5K)

-4.8%
YOY Change 		MAJOR
($5K - $50K)

-5.2%
YOY Change 		SUPERSIZE
($50K+)

-6.8%
YOY Change

60.7%
% of total donors

27.5%
% of total donors

10.0%
% of total donors

1.6%
% of total donors

0.2%
% 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.
Year-to-date Fundraising Performance. All right reserved.
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Donors by Life Cycle

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q1 2023 (JAN 1, 2023 - MAR 31, 2023)

✖

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

Key Insights

  • New Retained donor participation was down -18.2% year-over-year.
  • New Retained donors accounted for 17% of the decrease to the donor pool, despite accounting for just 9% of donors.
  • New donors dropped by -19.2%, driving another large decrease in donor participation. This group accounted for 50% of the topline decrease and represented just 25% of the donor pool.
  • Repeat Retained declined by only -5.1%, but as they represented 52% of the donor population, their decrease accounted for 23% of the overall decrease.
NEW
DONORS
 

-19.2%
YTD Change 		NEW RETAINED
DONORS
 

-18.2%
YTD Change 		REPEAT
RETAINED
DONORS

-5.1%
YTD Change 		RECAPTURED
DONORS
 

-8.4%
YTD Change

25.4%
% of total donors

9.4%
% of total donors

52.2%
% of total donors

13.0%
% 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.
Year-to-date Fundraising Performance. All right reserved.
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Donor by Donation Count

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q1 2023 (JAN 1, 2023 - MAR 31, 2023)

✖

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

Key Insights

  • One-time donors were the largest group of donors but their participation dropped the most year-over-year, driving the overall decrease in donor participation.
  • Donors who made at least 7 donations (our most active category) increased year-over-year.

1 DONATION

-13.5%
YOY Change 		2 DONATIONS

-3.6%
YOY Change 		3-6 DONATIONS

-6.2%
YOY Change 		7+ DONATIONS

10.9%
YOY Change

66.4%
% of total donors

10.7%
% of total donors

22.1%
% of total donors

0.8%
% 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 includes all contributions made year-to-date.
Year-to-date Fundraising Performance. All right reserved.
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Dollars: Time Series

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q1 2023 (JAN 1, 2023 - MAR 31, 2023)

✖

  • 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 decreased by -8.7%, but after adjusting for delays in data reporting ("data drift"), we estimate dollars decreased by -0.7% compared to 2022.
 

 

 
 

 

 


Year-to-date Fundraising Performance. All right reserved.
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Dollars by Donor Size

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q1 2023 (JAN 1, 2023 - MAR 31, 2023)

✖

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

Key Insights

  • All donor sizes saw a relative decrease in donations through the end of March.
  • Micro and Supersize donors experienced the largest drop in dollars donated, falling by
    over -13.0% and -10.9% respectively.
  • Even though Supersize donors represented a small part of the population (0.2% of donors), they
    represented a larger share of the total donations (47%) and therefore accounted for 52% of the overall decrease.
MICRO
($1 - $100)

-13.0%
YOY Change 		SMALL
($101 - $500)

-6.1%
YOY Change 		MIDSIZE
($501 - $5K)

-4.7%
YOY Change 		MAJOR
($5K - $50K)

-7.1%
YOY Change 		SUPERSIZE
($50K+)

-10.9%
YOY Change

3.1%
% of total dollars

7.0%
% of total dollars

16.9%
% of total dollars

26.0%
% of total dollars

47.0%
% of total dollars
 
Donor size is computed on a donor’s total year-to-date dollars given.
Year-to-date Fundraising Performance. All right reserved.
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Dollars by Life Cycle

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q1 2023 (JAN 1, 2023 - MAR 31, 2023)

✖

  • 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

  • New and New Retained donor groups saw a large decrease in total dollars donated.
  • New donors were the largest driver of the overall decrease in dollars donated.
  • Dollars donated by Repeat donors stayed relatively constant while accounting for 63% of all dollars donated.
NEW
DONORS

-34.4%
YOY Change 		NEW RETAINED
DONORS

-15.2%
YOY Change 		REPEAT
RETAINED
DONORS

-0.4%
YOY Change 		RECAPTURED
DONORS

-3.8%
YOY Change

13.9%
% of total dollars

7.5%
% of total dollars

63.2%
% of total dollars

15.4%
% 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.
Year-to-date Fundraising Performance. All right reserved.
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Dollars by Donation Count

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q1 2023 (JAN 1, 2023 - MAR 31, 2023)

✖

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

Key Insights

  • One-time donors gave less year-over-year. As this group represented a big share of all dollars donated, they drove overall donations down.
  • Two-time donors gave -5.1% less compared to last year.
  • More frequent donors (three or more donations) gave more compared to last year.
1 DONATION

-13.7%
YOY Change 		2 DONATIONS

-5.1%
YOY Change 		3-6 DONATIONS

2.1%
YOY Change 		7+ DONATIONS

4.6%
YOY Change

58.9%
% of total dollars

14.9%
% of total dollars

20.4%
% of total dollars

5.8%
% 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 includes all contributions made year-to-date.
Year-to-date Fundraising Performance. All right reserved.
10
 

Retention Rate: Time Series

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q1 2023 (JAN 1, 2023 - MAR 31, 2023)

Key Insights

 

 

 
  • Retention increased by 0.3% year-over-year, but after adjusting for late data we anticipate retention was at 1.3% year-over-year.

  • Year-to-date retention of 2022 donors stood at 17.3% in Q1 2023.
 

 

 
  • While overall retention increased slightly, this is a bit misleading. As a blended rate, shifts in the donor composition can move the rate in unexpected ways. The larger proportion of repeat donors caused this increase, even though that segment saw a decline in retention.
 

 

 


Year-to-date Fundraising Performance. All right reserved.
11
 

Retention Rate: Donor Type

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q1 2023 (JAN 1, 2023 - MAR 31, 2023)

Key Insights

  • Retention decreased across the board by donor type.
  • Recaptured donors suffered a relative decrease in retention of -18.9%. However, this group's retention rate was already low last year (1.2%) so the relatively large decrease this year only represented a small absolute decrease of -0.2%.
  • Overall retention was slightly positive, despite each segment trending negative. This was mostly due to a change in donor composition: there were relatively less new and small donors which mechanically drove the overall retention up. This is a common statistical phenomenon when a general trend suggests a certain direction while smaller segments within that larger trend are pointing towards the opposite direction.
NEW DONOR
RETENTION RATE

-4.8%
YOY Change 		REPEAT DONOR
RETENTION RATE

-2.1%
YOY Change 		RECAPTURE
RATE

-18.9%
YOY Change

6.9%
retained YTD

23.8%
retained YTD

1.0%
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
Year-to-date Fundraising Performance. All right reserved.
12
 

Retention Rate by Donor Size

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q1 2023 (JAN 1, 2023 - MAR 31, 2023)

Key Insights

  • All donor size segments had a lower retention rate compared to last year.
  • Supersize donors suffered the biggest decrease, although they represented the smallest group in terms of donors (but the biggest in terms of dollars donated).
MICRO
$1-$100

-4.2
YOY Change 		SMALL
($101 - $500)

-2.0%
YOY Change 		MIDSIZE
($501 - $5K)

-2.9%
YOY Change 		MAJOR
($5K - $50K)

-3.6%
YOY Change 		SUPERSIZE
($50K+)

-6.1%
YOY Change

9.9%
retained YTD

23.0%
retained YTD

31.7%
retained YTD

28.6%
retained YTD

31.9%
retained YTD
 
Donor size segments were chosen to span both dollars and donors, with each segment representing 1-50% of the total.
Year-to-date Fundraising Performance. All right reserved.
13
 

Retention Rate by Donation Count

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q1 2023 (JAN 1, 2023 - MAR 31, 2023)

Key Insights

  • The most frequent donors (7+ donations) experienced the largest decrease in retention, although they represented the smallest group in terms of donors.
  • Overall, the most active donors have been retained the best, despite all groups showing year-over-year decline.

1 DONATION

-2.3%
YOY Change 		2 DONATIONS

-2.2%
YOY Change 		3-6 DONATIONS

-1.7%
YOY Change 		7+ DONATIONS

-3.6%
YOY Change

7.0%
retained YTD

16.6%
retained YTD

40.2%
retained YTD

83.5%
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 includes all contributions made year-to-date.
Year-to-date Fundraising Performance. All right reserved.
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Organizations

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q1 2023 (JAN 1, 2023 - MAR 31, 2023)

Key Insights

  • Organization size (based on amount raised) factored into fundraising more than last year at the same time.
  • The proportion of organizations not reporting data was higher than in Q1 of the previous two years.
Organization
Size Impact

38.8%
YOY Change 		Organization
Cause Impact

-9.9%
YOY Change 		Organizations
Not Reporting

6.2%
Not Reported
 
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.
Year-to-date Fundraising Performance. All right reserved.
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Organization Size Impact: Time Series

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q1 2023 (JAN 1, 2023 - MAR 31, 2023)

Key Insights

 

 

 
  • The variability in dollars raised depending on organization size slightly increased compared to last year.
 

 

 
  • Organization size variability has historically been volatile towards the beginning of the year.
 

 

 
Organization Size Variability can be seen as the uniformity of fundraising performance across organization size.
Year-to-date Fundraising Performance. All right reserved.
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Organization Size Impact: Splits

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q1 2023 (JAN 1, 2023 - MAR 31, 2023)

Key Insights

  • Organizations of all sizes — except those raising between $100K and $250K — saw a decrease in fundraising.
  • Organizations of all sizes saw a decrease in median fundraising.
  • Very large organizations (raising more than $1M) represented a larger share of the total donations and suffered the largest decrease on average.
 
% 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.
Year-to-date Fundraising Performance. All right reserved.
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Organization Cause: Time Series

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q1 2023 (JAN 1, 2023 - MAR 31, 2023)

Key Insights

 

 

 
  • Organization cause factored slightly less in dollars raised compared to last year.
 

 

 
  • This metric is most useful directionally: it shows that the difference in fundraising is less varied by cause area than last year.
 

 

 
Year-to-date Fundraising Performance. All right reserved.
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Organization Cause: Split

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q1 2023 (JAN 1, 2023 - MAR 31, 2023)

Key Insights

  • Health causes were the only ones that showed a year-over-year increase (at 13.7%).
  • Environment and Animals related causes saw a larger decrease (-17.3%) compared to last year.
  • Human Services related causes also saw a larger decrease of -15.0% compared to 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.
Year-to-date Fundraising Performance. All right reserved.
19
 

Organizations Not Reporting: Time Series

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q1 2023 (JAN 1, 2023 - MAR 31, 2023)

Key Insights

 

 

 
  • Organizational dropout was worse in this quarter than in Q1 of the previous two years.
 

 

 
  • 6.2% of the organizations expected to report data had not yet done so when this report was produced.
 

 

 
Year-To-Date Dropout - Captures the percentage of organizations that did not show up at any point in the year, having shown up in the previous year.

Month-Specific Dropout - Captures the percentage of organizations which did not show in a given month, after having shown up in that same month the previous year.
Year-to-date Fundraising Performance. All right reserved.
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FUNDRAISING EFFECTIVENESS PROJECT


The Fundraising Effectiveness Project (FEP) — first established in 2006 — 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. The FEP offers quarterly views of the current year’s fundraising data in aggregate, serving as a benchmark for nonprofit executives, development staff, and researchers to examine key fundraising and donor metrics. For more information about how you or your fundraising software provider can participate, please visit https://afpglobal.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 in support of the project possible.
 
DATA REPORTING
The FEP wouldn’t be possible without the data analysis and additional support provided by these firms.
Year-to-date Fundraising Performance. All right reserved.
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