Donor Retention at 60 Percent for Small and Midsize Charities, Survey Says

Title: “2015 Individual Donor Benchmark Report”

Organization: Third Space Studio

Summary: Small and midsize nonprofits retained about 60 percent of their 2014 donors in 2015, according to a new survey. The 119 respondents were organizations with annual budgets under $2 million working in different causes across the United States.

That retention rate remained about the same for organizations with membership or recurring-giving programs, which are often seen as effective ways to encourage donors to give again. The organization’s size and its number of donors had little impact on its retention rate.

Among the findings:

• Charities raised an average of 34 percent of their revenue from individual donors — a slight decline from the 36 percent average the same survey reported in 2013 and 2014. Smaller groups were more likely to raise a larger percentage from individuals: Charities with revenues under $200,000 raised 45 percent of their money from individuals while those with revenues of $1 million to $1.9 million raised 30 percent from individuals.
• Online gifts were four times smaller than offline gifts, on average. Of money that came from individual donors, $1 out of $5 was raised online, and an average of three out of eight donors gave online.
• One in 10 donors made a recurring gift — a slight uptick from last year. Charities in the survey raised about 14 percent of their individual-donor revenue from recurring gifts.
• Seventy-one percent of organizations said they have a fundraising plan. These plans include elements like a calendar and detailed breakdown of fundraising activities, a list of fundraising strategies and goals, and an assessment of the last year’s fundraising results. Organizations with a plan have almost twice as many donors as those without.
• Eighty-four percent of charities said that time was one of their biggest challenges in implementing individual-donor fundraising strategies. Other major challenges included staff support, fundraising expenses, and knowledge and expertise.