Continued Consolidation in Q2 2024 as the Sector Sees More Dollars from Fewer Donors

Mid-year fundraising performance indicates that the sector is witnessing the continued trends of large donors driving growth in the sector. While charitable giving increased moderately in Q2 2024, we are seeing a worrying decrease in both the smallest and the most frequent donors, indicating that the increase in dollars is due to a consolidation of large gifts. However, Q2 also saw hopeful signs in donor retention. While overall donor retention saw a decrease, the rate of decline is slowing compared to previous years. This plateauing suggests that the heightened focus on retaining donors is producing results, demonstrating the kinds of approaches the sector should be taking to further solidify donor engagement.

The mid-year data points to clear challenges, but it also highlights key opportunities for growth as nonprofits head into the year-end giving season. By focusing on donor retention, engaging a broader spectrum of givers while solidifying relationships with larger donors, creating urgency, and leveraging data for real-time adjustments, organizations can recover from mid-year declines and achieve strong results. These strategies will be essential for turning 2024 into a successful fundraising year, ensuring that nonprofits can continue to fulfill their missions.

The full Q2 2024 report is available here.

The Fundraising Effectiveness Project (FEP) is a collaboration among fundraising data providers, researchers, analysts, associations, and consultants to empower the sector to track and evaluate trends in giving. The project offers one of the only views of the current year’s fundraising data in aggregate to provide the most recent trends for guiding nonprofit fundraising and donor engagement. The FEP releases quarterly findings on those giving trends, released both via downloadable reports at afpglobal.org/fep and in a free online dashboard.

FEP Q2 2024 Report Key Takeaways

• 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 in Q2 2024 the increase in dollars raised was smaller while the decrease in the number of donors and retention rates was larger.
• The most active donors experienced a large drop in participation this quarter, with a -5.8% decrease in dollars raised from repeat 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.
• Of all the cause areas reported, both ‘International, Foreign Affairs’ and ‘Education’ saw YOY increases in total dollars raised. However, the increase in ‘Education’ is likely driven by a few very large outliers. The median YOY change for the same cause area is negative, suggesting a right-skewed distribution.

“Although there is room for cautious optimism due to the gradual increase in retention rates, the mid-year metrics indicate a continued over-reliance on large donors to sustain fundraising efforts," noted Woodrow Rosenbaum, Chief Data Officer of GivingTuesday. "While large gifts provide a much needed financial windfall to nonprofits, the sector needs an increased focus on small and medium size donors to cultivate the resilience that will support long term sector growth. The Q2 metrics indicate that there is still considerable work to be done unlocking engagement from these donor groups, which the FEP project aims to address through our growing suite of reporting and benchmarking capabilities."

"As we approach the year-end giving season, the Q2 report from the Fundraising Effectiveness Project offers trusted insights fundraisers can’t afford to ignore,” says Tim Sarrantonio, Chair of the Fundraising Effectiveness Project. “Nonprofits can use these trends to inform and adjust their strategies in real time—focusing on donor retention, optimizing outreach, and ensuring they’re making the most of every opportunity to increase impact during this pivotal period."

BetterUnite Joins FEP Data Providers
We’re excited to announce that BetterUnite has joined the FEP as our newest data provider. Their history as an online fundraising software provider and experience with multi-channel fundraising strategies brings more actionable insight to the project, increases dataset fidelity, and further improves reporting integrity.

“At BetterUnite, we are deeply committed to empowering nonprofits with the tools they need to create lasting impact. Joining the Fundraising Effectiveness Project as a software partner aligns perfectly with our mission to support the nonprofit sector with innovative, data-driven solutions. We’re excited to contribute to this important initiative and collaborate with other leaders in the space to help organizations grow their fundraising efforts and drive meaningful change” announced Leya Simmons, CEO & co-founder of BetterUnite. 

FEP reports continue to be made possible by the generous support of existing collaborating data providers, including BetterUnite, Bloomerang, Classy, Community Brands, DonorPerfect, Givebutter, Keela, Neon One, and Qgiv. FEP’s partner network also includes data analysis and additional support from Bonterra. We welcome all giving platforms to join our efforts and increase our data coverage, enhancing the accuracy and accessibility of our efforts to provide measured analysis to the social sector.