Quarterly Fundraising Report™

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q4 2024 (JAN 1, 2024 - DEC 31, 2024)

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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 2024, we estimate that total fundraising dollars have increased by 3.5% (±0.5%) compared to 2023, after adjusting for late-arriving data.
However, despite the increase in total dollars, we estimate that the number of donors and the rates at which donors are retained have declined by 4.5% and 2.6%, respectively, compared to the previous year.
These topline figures highlight the growing role of high-dollar donors in driving fundraising performance across the sector.


DONORS -4.5% (+/- 0.5%) YOY change	DOLLARS +3.5% (+/- 0.5%) YOY change	RETENTION -2.6% (+/- 0.5%) YOY change

In this report, we compare data compiled from previous years to 2024. All metrics are computed up to Q4 (from January of a given year to the end of December of the same year).
Since the publication of the Q3 2024 report, we identified a discrepancy in how panel filtering was applied to some organizations. While this issue has not caused major discrepancies for 2024, it has led to shifts in the figures previously published for 2023. This issue has been addressed in the current report.

Current Dataset

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q4 2024 (JAN 1, 2024 - DEC 31, 2024)

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. However, the subsequent splits (such as donors by donor size) are not adjusted and therefore may not reflect the macro trends seen in the topline figures reported on page 1.


DONORS 6.7M in 2024	DOLLARS $10.5B in 2024	ORGANIZATIONS 12,504 in 2024

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 400 million transactions from more than 38,000 organizations since 2005.

Donors: Time Series

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q4 2024 (JAN 1, 2024 - DEC 31, 2024)

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

After accounting for late data, we estimate that donor count has decreased by -4.5% (±0.5%) year-to-date through Q4 2024. This year marks the fourth consecutive year of declining donor numbers, suggesting persistent challenges in retaining the current donor base.

		Following the trend observed earlier in the year in 2024, the decline in donor numbers intensified in Q4.

NOTE: The panel for each year differs based on our panel rules (organizations with stable growth and $5K - $25M total transactions in each of the three previous years, via the Growth in Giving database). This means that the YOY comparisons on this page are comparing a different sample of organizations each year.

Donors by Life Cycle

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q4 2024 (JAN 1, 2024 - DEC 31, 2024)

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

Donor numbers have declined across all life-cycle segments, with new and new-retained donors experiencing the sharpest year-over-year drops.
The overall decline in donor numbers is primarily driven by a decrease in new donor engagement, with new donors—who make up nearly 40% of all donors in 2024—experiencing a 7.0% drop in 2024. As noted earlier, this suggests a need for the sector to better understand the motivations of first-time donors and develop strategies around their retention and continued engagement.
Repeat-retained donors, who traditionally account for the majority of fundraising dollars, saw a 4.9% decrease in donor numbers for 2024. While this is an improvement from 2023, which reported an 8.4% drop, it still reflects a notable decline.


NEW DONORS -7.0% YOY Change	NEW RETAINED DONORS -8.0% YOY Change	REPEAT RETAINED DONORS -4.9% YOY Change	RECAPTURED DONORS -4.4% YOY Change
39.9% % of total donors	8.3% % of total donors	37.3% % of total donors	14.4% % 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.

Dollars: Time Series

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q4 2024 (JAN 1, 2024 - DEC 31, 2024)

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

After adjusting for late data, we estimate that fundraising dollars increased by 3.5% (±0.5%) in 2024 compared to 2023. This uptick in fundraising dollars tentatively suggests an upward trend in performance over the years.

		In 2024, year-to-date fundraising outpaced the previous year throughout much of Q1 and Q2. Despite a deceleration in fundraising in the latter parts of 2024, we estimate that 2024 outperformed 2023 in dollars fundraised after accounting for late-arriving data.

Dollars by Donor Size

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q4 2024 (JAN 1, 2024 - DEC 31, 2024)

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

Micro donors, who comprise over half of all donors, contributed 1.6% of total dollars raised in 2024.
This group experienced the largest YOY decline in dollars, falling 8.9% relative to 2023.
With fewer microdonors, the sector will have a much smaller base of donors to develop or cultivate
longer term relationships.
The dollars raised from Major and Supersize donors, who collectively provided 75% of the total,
increased by 0.9% and 0.5%, respectively.


MICRO ($1 - $100) -8.9% YOY Change	SMALL ($101 - $500) -4.3% YOY Change	MIDSIZE ($501 - $5K) -0.7% YOY Change	MAJOR ($5K - $50K) +0.9% YOY Change	SUPERSIZE ($50K+) +0.5% YOY Change
1.6% % of total dollars	4.8% % of total dollars	16.0% % of total dollars	25.2% % of total dollars	52.5% % of total dollars

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

Retention Rate: Time Series

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q4 2024 (JAN 1, 2024 - DEC 31, 2024)

Key Insights

We estimate that the overall donor retention rate in 2024 was 42.9%, representing a -2.6% (±0.5%) decrease from 2023 after adjusting for late-arriving data. This marks the fifth consecutive year that retention has declined.

		Except for February 2024, the rate of donor retention in 2024 has been declining compared to 2023. November and December of 2024 intensified this decline in the rate of donor retention.

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

Retention Rate: Donor Type

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q4 2024 (JAN 1, 2024 - DEC 31, 2024)

Key Insights

New donor retention declined by -5.9% year-over-year, with one in five donors who were new in 2023 giving again in 2024.
Repeat donor retention decreased by 3% relative to 2023, but at 69.2% year-to-date, it remains significantly higher than retention rates for new donors.
We are removing the recapture rate from this iteration of the report as we undergo a methodological review of this metric.


NEW DONOR RETENTION RATE -5.9% YOY Change	REPEAT DONOR RETENTION RATE -3.0% YOY Change	RECAPTURE RATE -- YOY Change
19.4% retained YTD	69.2% retained YTD	-- 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.

Organization Size Impact: Splits

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q4 2024 (JAN 1, 2024 - DEC 31, 2024)

Key Insights

Across all organization size segments, the median organization saw year-to-date fundraising growth in 2024—except for the largest nonprofits, which faced a 2.4% decline, underscoring the challenges they encountered throughout the year.
The smallest organizations (those in the <=$100k fundraising bucket) saw the sharpest increase in dollars fundraised, with dollars increasing 29% in this category compared to 2023.

% 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.

FUNDRAISING EFFECTIVENESS PROJECT

The Fundraising Effectiveness Project (FEP) delivers trusted data insights that help fundraisers improve their outcomes, driving growth and increasing generosity across the nonprofit sector. We envision a sector where actionable data guides every fundraiser’s decisions, helping nonprofits become more effective and adaptive. Since its founding in 2006, FEP has become a leading resource for data-driven insights. FEP is a collaborative project of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Foundation for Philanthropy and GivingTuesday.

METHODOLOGY

We removed organizations that did not have a minimum of 25 donations 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. Details regarding estimation methodology for late reported data can be found here.

ORGANIZING SPONSORS


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 INFRASTRUCTURE The FEP wouldn't be possible without data infrastructure and additional support provided by AWS Nonprofits.