Quarterly Fundraising Report™

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q2 2024 (JAN 1, 2024 - JUN 30, 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

Q2 2024 saw a 3.7% increase in dollars raised, while both the number of donors and donor retention fell by -3.9% and -4.5%, respectively. These trends mirror those seen in Q1 2024, albeit the increase in dollars raised is smaller while the decrease in the number of donors and retention rates is larger.
The most active donors experienced a large drop in participation this quarter, with a -5.8% decrease in dollars raised from repeat retained donors and a -14.4% decrease in the number of donors giving 7 or more times. These trends underscore the need to engage loyal donors to sustain mid-year fundraising and donor participation.
Donor numbers have declined across all size buckets, with the smallest donors experiencing the largest drop at -12.3%, making up two-thirds of the total loss this quarter. However, estimates suggest this downward trend is decelerating compared to previous years, which saw even sharper declines in donor participation for Q2.


DONORS -3.9% (+/- 2.0%) YOY change	DOLLARS +3.7% (+/- 2.0%) YOY change	RETENTION -4.5% (+/- 0.5%) YOY change

In this report, we compare data compiled from previous years to 2024. All metrics are computed up to Q2 (from January of a given year to the end of June of the same year).

Current Dataset

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q2 2024 (JAN 1, 2024 - JUN 30, 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.


DONORS 3.4M in 2024	DOLLARS $4.3B in 2024	ORGANIZATIONS 12,381 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
Q2 2024 (JAN 1, 2024 - JUN 30, 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 -3.9% in Q2 2024. This trend extends the decrease in mid-year donor growth that has been observed since 2021. Although donor numbers have decreased across the size buckets, we estimate the downward trend to be decelerating.

		Donor numbers continued to decline from Q1 2024, mirroring 2023 trends until May, when a sharper -8.6% drop occurred. Similar to Q2 2023 and Q2 2022, the rate of donor decline in Q2 has outpaced the prior months of the year. This indicates that Q2 not only sees lackluster donor engagement, but this trend may be getting increasingly worse.

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 Life Cycle

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q2 2024 (JAN 1, 2024 - JUN 30, 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

The number of donors has decreased across every segment of the donor life cycle. The sharpest drops were seen among new and new retained donors, continuing the trend from Q1 2024 and highlighting the difficulty in retaining first-time contributors.
The donors are split between two opposite ends, with 33.8% being first time donors and 43.8% being repeat retained contributors. These two groups account for 75% of the total drop in donor numbers. Bolstering donor participation likely depends on spurring new donors and maintaining frequent contributors.


NEW DONORS -11.8% YOY Change	NEW RETAINED DONORS -13.3% YOY Change	REPEAT RETAINED DONORS -7.8% YOY Change	RECAPTURED DONORS -9.3% YOY Change
33.8% % of total donors	9.2% % of total donors	43.8% % of total donors	13.3% % 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.

Dollars: Time Series

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q2 2024 (JAN 1, 2024 - JUN 30, 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 a 3.7% year-over-year increase in dollars raised for Q2 2024. This increase in fundraising would be the largest in four years for Q2. This estimated increase in fundraising dollars indicates a potential reversal of the downward trend that began in 2021.

		Q2 started with a year-over-year increase in dollars fundraised in April, marking the first time this metric has grown since February 2023. However, this upwards trend was reversed for the remaining months of the quarter. In June 2024, we saw the sharpest decrease in dollars fundraised for Q2 at -5.3% YOY.

Dollars by Donor Size

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q2 2024 (JAN 1, 2024 - JUN 30, 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

While topline metrics are adjusted using historical estimates for late data, splits (e.g., dollars by
donor size) are not adjusted. As a result, even if topline dollars eventually show a positive YOY
change after adjustments, the individual donor size categories may still reflect negative changes,
leading to a discrepancy between the topline and granular splits.
Micro donors, who comprise over half of all donors, contribute just 2.8% of the total dollars raised.
This segment experienced the largest year-over-year decline in donor count at -10.4%. Similarly,
the total amount they donated decreased by -12.2%.
In contrast, supersize donors, who provide nearly 50% of the total dollars raised, saw a much
smaller decline of -4.4%. As a result, after accounting for late-data adjustments, topline dollars
remain positive, while the number of donors continue to decline.


MICRO ($1 - $100) -12.2% YOY Change	SMALL ($101 - $500) -7.8% YOY Change	MIDSIZE ($501 - $5K) -6.4% YOY Change	MAJOR ($5K - $50K) -5.1% YOY Change	SUPERSIZE ($50K+) -4.4% YOY Change
2.0% % of total dollars	5.7% % of total dollars	16.5% % of total dollars	24.9% % of total dollars	50.8% % 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
Q2 2024 (JAN 1, 2024 - JUN 30, 2024)

Key Insights

Despite the YOY increase in retention observed in Q2 2023, retention rate decreased once again in Q2 2024. After adjusting for late data, we estimate retention to have decreased by -4.5% year-over-year. YOY relative differences in retention for Q2 has been negative for three of the past four years.

		The fall in retention rates continues to steepen in Q2 2024. In June, retention experienced its largest YOY decrease (-5.5%) since March 2022.

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
Q2 2024 (JAN 1, 2024 - JUN 30, 2024)

Key Insights

New donor retention declined significantly by -9.0% year-over-year, with only 11.1% of new donors retained year-to-date. This underscores the persistent challenge of engaging and retaining first-time donors.
Repeat donor retention decreased by 5.3%, but at 35.3% year-to-date, it remains significantly higher than retention rates for new and recaptured donors. This suggests that repeat donors are still more likely to give again compared to other groups.
The recapture rate experienced the steepest decline, dropping by -18.2% year-over-year, with only 1.5% of previously lapsed donors returning year-to-date. However, because this rate is based on a very small number of donors, the percentage change appears larger than its actual impact.
Unlike Q2 2021, which had a similarly low recapture rate due to the previous year's surge in COVID-related fundraising, this year's decline lacks a comparable explanation, raising concerns about re-engaging past donors.


NEW DONOR RETENTION RATE -9.0% YOY Change	REPEAT DONOR RETENTION RATE -5.3% YOY Change	RECAPTURE RATE -18.2% YOY Change
11.1% retained YTD	35.3% retained YTD	1.5% 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.

Organization Size Impact: Splits

Year-to-Date Nonprofit Sector Trends
Q2 2024 (JAN 1, 2024 - JUN 30, 2024)

Key Insights

Organizations of all sizes – except those raising less than $100K and those raising between $250K and $1M – saw their average fundraising performance decrease.
Like the previous quarter, the improvement in fundraising for the smallest organizations is likely due to a few that did exceptionally well. Most of the smallest organizations saw a drop in the amount of money raised, as seen by the -3.5% decrease for the median organization within this size segment.
In contrast, the decrease in fundraising for the largest organizations is driven by outliers that performed poorly this quarter.

% 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. 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.