FEP Data for Q4 2024 Highlights the Growing Role of High-Dollar Donors in Driving Fundraising Performance Across the Sector

Q4 2024 fundraising data shows an increase of 3.5% in dollars raised compared to 2023 levels. 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. While the increase in total dollars donated is cause for celebration, this growth masks significant declines in donor participation, particularly among smaller donors (gifts under $100), who saw a decline of 8.8%, while also making up 50.8% of total donors. These trends underscore the challenges facing nonprofits, particularly the need to re-engage smaller donors and improve retention across all donor segments.

As nonprofits approach the mid-year point, these data points reveal both critical challenges and strategic opportunities. Organizations can mitigate dependencies on larger donors by prioritizing small donor acquisition and tailoring retention strategies to smaller donor segments, in addition to strengthening relationships with major donors. With a focus on these areas, nonprofits can position themselves for a successful 2025 giving year.

The full Q4 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 Q4 2024 Report Key Takeaways

• Total fundraising dollars increased by 3.5% year-over-year, driven largely by larger gifts. However, this growth masks significant declines in grassroots contributions and underscores the importance of diversifying donor strategies to ensure sustainability.
• Donor numbers have dropped by -4.5% year-over-year, with smaller donors ($1-$100) showing the sharpest decline at -8.8%. This highlights weakening grassroots support, which is critical for sustaining broad-based contributions, especially during year-end campaigns.
• Retention rates declined by -2.6% year-over-year. While retention rates have fallen across all donor size segments, the sharpest declines seen amongst the Micro and Small donor groups. November and December of 2024 intensified this decline in the rate of donor retention, signaling ongoing struggles in re-engaging both first-time and repeat donors.

"The continued decline in small donor participation, despite an increase in overall dollars, highlights the pressing need for renewed strategic focus," observed Woodrow Rosenbaum, Chief Data Officer of GivingTuesday. "Our Q4 FEP data emphasizes the growing reliance on fewer, larger gifts, a trend that underscores the urgency of revitalizing small donor engagement to sustain long-term sector health. While fundraisers should prioritize innovative approaches to attract new supporters and deepen loyalty among existing donors, we are committed to strengthening the fidelity and coverage of our FEP reporting, thereby broadening its capabilities and delivering deeper insights to equip organizations with the tools they need to face these headwinds."

Bonterra and FundraiseUp Joins FEP Data Providers
We’re excited to announce two new organizations have joined the FEP as our newest data providers. Their history as online fundraising software providers and experience with multi-channel fundraising strategies increasing our existing data coverage, strengthening dataset fidelity, and further improving reporting integrity.

"FEP has a long and proven history of helping nonprofits navigate the evolving fundraising landscape," said Scott Brighton, CEO at Bonterra. "This work is particularly critical now, as the sector faces declining donor participation despite growth in total dollars. At Bonterra, we believe sustainable fundraising requires both depth and breadth; not just larger gifts, but broader engagement across all donor segments. We're honored to join FEP as a data provider, strengthening their insights while advancing our mission of increasing giving to 3% of US GDP by 2033.”

“Fundraise Up is proud to partner with the Fundraising Effectiveness Project (FEP) to advance a shared mission: empowering nonprofits through better data. As a company built on the belief that smarter insights lead to greater impact, we’re excited to contribute to FEP’s industry benchmarks,” announced Salvatore Salpietro, Chief Community Officer at Fundraise Up.

FEP reports continue to be made possible by the generous support of existing collaborating data providers, including BetterUnite, Bloomerang, Classy, Community Brands, DonorDock, DonorPerfect, Givebutter, Keela, Neon One, and Qgiv. FEP’s partner network also includes data infrastructure support from AWS Nonprofits. 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.