Quarterly Fundraising Report™

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q4 2023 (JAN 1, 2023 - DEC 31, 2023)

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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

In 2023, we observed a modest decline in fundraising metrics across most donor categories, including dollars raised, donor counts, and retention rates.
Small organizations performed the best in terms of dollars raised, remaining flat or slightly positive, with the largest organizations seeing the greatest decrease in fundraising.
The International, Foreign Affairs cause area saw a noticeable boost in Q4 of 2023, likely attributed to aid and assistance campaigns relating to international conflicts.


DONORS -3.4% (+/- 0.5%) YOY change	DOLLARS -2.8% (+/- 0.5%) YOY change	RETENTION -2.5% (+/- 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 data from the full year of 2023.

Current Dataset

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q4 2023 (JAN 1, 2023 - DEC 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. Throughout this report, ranges for each metric express uncertainty in the estimates.


DONORS 4.8M in 2023	DOLLARS $6.5B in 2023	ORGANIZATIONS 8,103 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.

Donors: Time Series

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q4 2023 (JAN 1, 2023 - DEC 31, 2023)

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

Donor count dropped -4.9% in Q4, when not accounting for late data. After adjusting for delays in data reporting, we estimate the actual decrease to be -3.4%. The decline indicates a continued downward trend of donors since the peak in 2020.

		2023 saw a continued decrease in donors from 2020, with a notable uptick starting in October through year-end.

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
Q4 2023 (JAN 1, 2023 - DEC 31, 2023)

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

The observed decrease in donors contributing less than $500 was responsible for 79.3% of the overall
decrease in donors.
While the number of donors fell across donors of all sizes, supersize donors
experienced the largest decrease, falling by 7.4% year-over-year.


MICRO ($1 - $100) -5.6% YOY Change	SMALL ($101 - $500) -3.0% YOY Change	MIDSIZE ($501 - $5K) -6.0% YOY Change	MAJOR ($5K - $50K) -6.8% YOY Change	SUPERSIZE ($50K+) -7.4% YOY Change
53.5% % of total donors	29.7% % of total donors	14.1% % of total donors	2.3% % 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
Q4 2023 (JAN 1, 2023 - DEC 31, 2023)

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

Repeat-retained donors constituted 37.0% of all donors, dropping from 41.9% in Q3.
New-retained donors dropped by -20.1%, now representing just 7.4% of all donors, down from 8.5% in Q3.
The number of new donors rose year-over-year, increasing by 2.3%. This is the first time new donor counts have risen since Q1 2021.


NEW DONORS 2.3% YOY Change	NEW RETAINED DONORS -20.1% YOY Change	REPEAT RETAINED DONORS -8.4% YOY Change	RECAPTURED DONORS -5.5 YOY Change
41.3% % of total donors	7.4% % of total donors	37.0% % of total donors	14.3% % 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
Q4 2023 (JAN 1, 2023 - DEC 31, 2023)

Key Definitions

✖

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 donor group, accounting for 70.6% of donors.
The number of donors who gave 2 or more gifts declined at nearly twice the rate as those giving 1 gift.


1 DONATION -3.8% YOY Change	2 DONATIONS -7.3% YOY Change	3-6 DONATIONS -7.3% YOY Change	7+ DONATIONS -8.0% YOY Change
70.6% % of total donors	13.1% % of total donors	8.6% % of total donors	7.7% % 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.

Dollars: Time Series

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q4 2023 (JAN 1, 2023 - DEC 31, 2023)

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 decreased by -6.3% in Q4, but after adjusting for delays in data reporting, we estimate dollars decreased by -2.8% in Q4 compared to 2022. This represents the second consecutive year of decreased fundraising since the peak in 2021.

		Despite a very strong start at the beginning of the year, fundraising saw a steep decline in March and April, stabilizing for the remainder of the year.

Dollars by Donor Size

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q4 2023 (JAN 1, 2023 - DEC 31, 2023)

Key Definitions

✖

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

Key Insights

Dollars donated decreased across donors of all sizes, dropping between -4.0% and -7.1%.
Donors contributing over $5K accounted for 76.4% of all dollars donated, despite only representing 2.6%
of all donors.


MICRO ($1 - $100) -6.8% YOY Change	SMALL ($101 - $500) -4.0% YOY Change	MIDSIZE ($501 - $5K) -5.9% YOY Change	MAJOR ($5K - $50K) -7.1% YOY Change	SUPERSIZE ($50K+) -6.3% YOY Change
1.9% % of total dollars	5.4% % of total dollars	16.4% % of total dollars	25.2% % of total dollars	51.2% % 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
Q4 2023 (JAN 1, 2023 - DEC 31, 2023)

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

New donor and New Retained donor groups saw double digit decreases in total dollars donated (-11.6% and -14.7%, respectively). When combined, these two donor groups accounted for 67.8% of the decrease in total dollars donated.


NEW DONORS -11.6% YOY Change	NEW RETAINED DONORS -14.7% YOY Change	REPEAT RETAINED DONORS -3.5% YOY Change	RECAPTURED DONORS -6.3% YOY Change
18.1% % of total dollars	7.3% % of total dollars	62.0% % of total dollars	12.6% % 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
Q4 2023 (JAN 1, 2023 - DEC 31, 2023)

Key Definitions

✖

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

Key Insights

Even though the one-time donors accounted for 70.6% of donors, they only contributed 41.8% of the dollars donated.
3-6 time donors gave -10.7% less compared to last year, experiencing the largest year-over-year decrease in dollars donated.
Donations from the 7+ donor group were the only ones to increase in terms of total dollars donated. Combined with donors contributing 3-6 times per year, these groups accounted for only 16.3% of donors yet accounted for 40.3% of all donations.


1 DONATION -7.9% YOY Change	2 DONATIONS -6.4% YOY Change	3-6 DONATIONS -10.7% YOY Change	7+ DONATIONS 2.0% YOY Change
41.8% % of total dollars	18.0% % of total dollars	19.5% % of total dollars	20.8% % 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.

Retention Rate: Time Series

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q4 2023 (JAN 1, 2023 - DEC 31, 2023)

Key Insights

Retention decreased by -3.5% in Q4, but after adjusting for late data, we anticipate retention was at -2.5% in Q4 compared to 2022. In 2023, retention continued the downtrend which began in 2020, though the rate of decline has been slowing since its low point in 2021.

		While 2023 began with stronger retention, gains tapered off by June, with July showing a slight negative change.

RETENTION - Retention is computed year-to-date. It represents – out of the people who donated last year year-to-date – the ratio of people who donated again this year year-to-date.

Retention Rate: Donor Type

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q4 2023 (JAN 1, 2023 - DEC 31, 2023)

Key Insights

Retention decreased across all donor types captured in Q4.
While Repeat Donor Retention rates remained stable from 2022 to 2023, Recapture rates had the largest decrease of -8.7%.


NEW DONOR RETENTION RATE -7.5% YOY Change	REPEAT DONOR RETENTION RATE -1.1% YOY Change	RECAPTURE RATE -8.7% YOY Change
18.5% retained YTD	58.2% retained YTD	5.5% 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
Q4 2023 (JAN 1, 2023 - DEC 31, 2023)

Key Insights

All donor size segments had a lower retention rate compared to last year.
Major and Supersize donors, which together constituted 76.4% of all dollars donated, suffered the biggest decreases, although these donors were the most likely to be retained year-over-year.


MICRO $1-$100 -4.2% YOY Change	SMALL ($101 - $500) -5.1% YOY Change	MIDSIZE ($501 - $5K) -5.4% YOY Change	MAJOR ($5K - $50K) -6.0% YOY Change	SUPERSIZE ($50K+) -5.6% YOY Change
31.4% retained YTD	50.6% retained YTD	61.7% retained YTD	65.8% retained YTD	67.9% 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
Q4 2023 (JAN 1, 2023 - DEC 31, 2023)

Key Insights

Retention decreased across all donation count groups.
Overall, the most active donors still had the highest retention rate.


1 DONATION -3.6% YOY Change	2 DONATIONS -5.6% YOY Change	3-6 DONATIONS -4.4% YOY Change	7+ DONATIONS -3.4% YOY Change
31.3% retained YTD	52.6% retained YTD	71.8% retained YTD	87.9% 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.

Organizations

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q4 2023 (JAN 1, 2023 - DEC 31, 2023)

Key Insights

Organization size (based on amount raised) had a more direct impact on fundraising success in 2023 than in 2022.
In Q4, organization cause had a more significant effect on fundraising, compared to last year at this time.
The proportion of organizations not reporting data between January and December 2023 was smaller than in 2022 and 2021.


Organization Size Impact 12.7% YOY Change	Organization Cause Impact 120.5% YOY Change	Organizations Not Reporting 0.02%* 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.

* The methodology for calculating this metric changed in Q3, and will be documented in a forthcoming methodology document.

Organization Size Impact: Time Series

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q4 2023 (JAN 1, 2023 - DEC 31, 2023)

Key Insights

In Q4, there was a notable increase in the variability of dollars raised across organizations of different sizes compared to the previous year. This metric should be viewed directionally. It shows that there is more variance in fundraising across organizations of different sizes.

		This trend of increasing organization size variability means organization size is becoming a greater determining factor in fundraising performance.

Organization Size Variability can be seen as the uniformity of fundraising performance across organization size.

Organization Size Impact: Splits

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q4 2023 (JAN 1, 2023 - DEC 31, 2023)

Key Insights

Organizations of all sizes — except for those in the smallest bracket (raising less than $100K) — experienced declines in their year-over-year fundraising performance.
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.

Organization Cause: Time Series

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q4 2023 (JAN 1, 2023 - DEC 31, 2023)

Key Insights

In 2023, there was a rebound in the variability of donations to organizations based on cause, with a substantial increase of 120.5% after two years of decline. This impact spike in 2023 was likely due to international conflict driving more donations towards International, Foreign Affairs compared to other causes.

		Monthly variability in funding based on organizational cause saw extreme fluctuations in 2023, with a dramatic increase towards the end of the year.

Organization Cause Variability can be seen as the uniformity of fundraising performance across organization cause.

Organization Cause: Split

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q4 2023 (JAN 1, 2023 - DEC 31, 2023)

Key Insights

All causes experienced a decrease in dollars donated, except International, Foreign Affairs, which saw a very large spike in October that continued until the end of the year.
Dollars raised for Health and Public Societal Benefit causes decreased relatively less (-1.6% and -1.1%, respectively) compared to other causes.
Human Services organizations represented the largest share of dollars in our dataset in 2022, so their -9.7% decrease was a substantial driver of the overall decrease in dollars raised.

% 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
Q4 2023 (JAN 1, 2023 - DEC 31, 2023)

Key Insights

The dropout rate of fundraising organizations stabilized in 2023, but remained higher than the rates seen in 2019 and 2020.

		Of all the organizations who reported in 2022, 0.02% had not yet report as of Q4.

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.

FUNDRAISING EFFECTIVENESS PROJECT

The Fundraising Effectiveness Project (FEP) — first established in 2006 — is 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 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 data analysis and additional support provided by Bonterra.