4 Spooky, Scary Fundraising Statistics (And What to Do About Them)
It’s the spookiest time of year, and these recent fundraising statistics are sure to frighten. But before you get scared off, check out our strategies for boosting your fundraising and marketing results in spite of the stats.
3 out of 4 first time donors won’t donate again to your organization.
The secret to donor retention is to get your new donors to give again in the same 12-month period. It’s even better if you can get them to become monthly donors for your organization!
Recurring donors are more engaged in your cause, and, as a result, retain at a much higher rate than first-time donors.
Many nonprofits aren’t asking their donors to give on a monthly basis. That’s the first step. At the same time, think about how you’re engaging your supporters to make them feel connected to your organization. Are you making a strong case for why they should stick around?
Online fundraising revenue increased by only 1% last year, down from 23% growth the year before.
If your organization’s fundraising revenue is down, year-end is your best shot at correcting course. If your year-end campaign isn’t rock-solid, spend this next week getting your plan in order.
We’ve got lots of resources to walk you through setting up a winning year-end campaign. But to get you started now, here are a few quick tips courtesy of fundraising expert Rachel Muir:
- Make sure your donation form is clearly visible on your homepage with prominent branding (and not buried)
- Reduce the number of clicks it takes to go from our homepage to directly making a gift. It should be literally one click away!
- Make sure every link to your donation page works (you’d be shocked how many broken links to donation forms I find come Giving Tuesday!)
- Remove the global navigation from your donation page (you got them there, let’s keep them there!)
Read the rest of Rachel’s tips here.
Every Facebook post reaches only 4% of your page’s fans.
We’re not saying you shouldn’t make use of Facebook to build your community and share giving opportunities, but it’s important to know this statistic so that you’re not relying only on Facebook posts. Most of your Facebook fans aren’t looking at your page every day, and there’s clearly no guarantee that they’re seeing your posts in their News Feed.
So, what can you do to get in front of your audience? Multi-channel is the answer! Alongside your social media strategy, you should be sharing your content in emails and through updates on your website and fundraising pages.
But don’t just share the same update over and over on different platforms. Try using direct mail to share a story about someone you’ve helped in their own words, and then tell that same story from a staff member’s perspective in an email. That way, if your supporters do see your message through multiple channels, they’ll get more invested in the story instead of overlooking it.
Mobile users complete a donation on a fundraising page at a rate of 9%, compared with 21% for desktop users.
That’s right, the conversion rate on mobile is less than half of the desktop conversion rate! And with mobile usage only growing, nonprofits need to adapt – and fast.
Just having a mobile-friendly website isn’t enough. When you’re setting up your donation pages, think about your mobile users. Are they having to scroll past a lot of text to get to the donation form? Is it easy to input a custom amount on a small screen? And is the donate button big and easily clickable?
Be sure to test your pages and email on a mobile device before making them live. Check out our guide to mobile giving for more tips.
