The Top Nonprofit Fundraising Statistics You Should Know [Updated 2023]

Nonprofits consistently put in tons of effort to reach their goals. In serving their missions, it’s important to reach out to supporters and bring in the revenue they need to keep going. But it’s not an easy feat.

That’s why we’ve laid out some of the top nonprofit fundraising statistics to provide your organization with an idea of what specifically impacts a donor’s decision to give, and identify where your organization can grow in its outreach.

We’ve broken these stats into relevant categories to help you where you may need it most:

Overall Fundraising Statistics
Email Fundraising Statistics
Social Media Fundraising Statistics
Online Donation Statistics
Recurring Giving Statistics
Mobile Giving Statistics
Year-End Giving Statistics
Corporate Giving Statistics
Fundraising Statistic Sources

Most of these statistics focus on donors in the United States and Canada, but a lot of this information is relevant worldwide. Let’s jump in!

1. Overall Fundraising Statistics

Here are some key overall fundraising statistics to help illustrate the current state of giving:

Individual donors gave an estimated total of $309.66 billion last year.
Total charitable giving increased 4.2% last year.
90% of Millennial donors are motivated to give by a compelling mission, rather than a specific organization.
Millennials are more likely to engage in and support a cause if their peers are already doing so.
Over the course of five years, major gifts of more than $1,000 grew to 85% of the revenue at the average nonprofit.
Only about 20% of first-time donors make a second gift to the organization.
55% of donors in the United States prefer to be thanked for their contributions via email.
62% of donors contributed to a nonprofit in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
33% of donors in the United States and Canada give to nonprofits that are located outside of their country of residence.
16% of donors prefer to give via direct mail.

The takeaway? Giving is on the rise! But there is still work that can be done.

2. Email Fundraising Statistics

Here are some important email fundraising statistics to note:

The response rate for fundraising emails increased by 1% last year, to 0.05%.
The size of email lists decreased by 2% last year.
Last year, nonprofits sent an average of 50 emails per subscriber.
For every 1,000 fundraising emails sent, nonprofits receive approximately $45 in revenue.
Email has the highest ROI of any kind of marketing channel.
Email open rates for nonprofits is 25.2%.
66% of nonprofits send fundraising appeals via email.
Email communications sent on a regular basis are most likely to encourage repeat donations from donors.
33% of donors say that email is the marketing channel that inspires them to give the most, up from 31% the previous year.

The takeaway? Email fundraising is a great way to increase your organization’s revenue.

3. Social Media Fundraising Statistics

These are some of the top social media fundraising statistics:

18% of donors who give online report that social media is the channel that most inspires them to give, a decrease from the previous year.
Of the donors who are inspired to give by social media outreach, 56% of them say Facebook has the biggest impact on them.
40% of donors give through Facebook Fundraising tools.
Facebook giving made up 3.5% of all online revenue last year, and much of this was around Giving Tuesday.
87% of donors who donate for the first time from a social referral source will also make their second donation from a social referral source.
97% of nonprofits use social media on a regular basis to engage their supporters.
34% of donors give via crowdfunding campaigns.
10% of donors create their own peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns on behalf of nonprofits.
39% of nonprofits use a peer-to-peer fundraising platform, an increase of 31% from the previous year.
40% of nonprofits have a written social media strategy.
48% of nonprofits use an editorial calendar to organize their social media outreach and campaigns.

The takeaway? Though fewer donors who give online say social media is the channel that most inspires them, social media is still an effective option for fundraising.

4. Online Donation Statistics

Check out these top online fundraising statistics:

Making your “Donate” button stand out on your website can result in a 190% increase in donations.
Online giving made up 8.7% of overall fundraising last year.
63% of donors in the United States and Canada prefer to donate online using a credit or debit card.
10% of donors prefer to give via PayPal.
A nonprofit’s website is the most effective platform for communicating and fundraising.
Total online revenue increased by 10% last year.
Approximately 39% of donors who gave a gift online to a nonprofit in a given year made a gift online to that nonprofit again the following year.
Organic visitors to a nonprofit’s website made up 44% of total nonprofit web traffic last year.
Nonprofits raise approximately $0.30 per organic website visitor.
Desktop users make up 61% of donation transactions on a nonprofit’s website.

The takeaway? Keep up the good work on your organization’s website! This is a great platform for fundraising.

5. Recurring Giving Statistics

Here are some important recurring giving statistics to note:

Revenue from monthly gifts has increased by 22%, which is more than twice as much revenue as from one-time gifts.
Monthly giving made up 17% of all online revenue last year.
Only 14% of nonprofits prompt donors to make their donation a recurring gift during the donation process.
91% of organizations stop acknowledging recurring gifts by the third month.
1 in 4 nonprofit organizations don’t try to re-secure a recurring donation after a credit card number changes.
A pop-up message that asks a donor to make their one-gift gift a recurring gift results in a 64% increase in monthly donations.
Recurring donors give 42% more per year than one-time donors.
57% of donors are enrolled in a recurring giving program, up 46% from the previous year.
94% of donors enrolled in a recurring giving program prefer to give on a monthly basis.
3% of donors enrolled in a recurring giving program prefer to give annually, while 2% give quarterly and 1% give weekly.
52% of Millennials surveyed are interested in monthly giving.

The takeaway? Be sure to encourage recurring gifts! This can lead to a big increase in fundraising revenue.

6. Mobile Giving Statistics

Here are some important mobile giving statistics:

Mobile users made up 33% of online donation transactions last year.
Mobile users grew as a portion of donation transactions by 17% compared to the previous year.
SMS open rates are as high as 98%.
Mobile-friendly donation pages yield 34% more donations.
56% of all emails are read on a mobile device, which means it’s even more important now to ensure your communications and giving pages are mobile responsive.
Half of visits to nonprofit websites come from mobile users.
1% of donors in the United States and Canada prefer to give via text-to-give.
98% of Millennials own a smartphone and 37% of them have used it to donate.
Text message audiences grew by 26% last year.
Text message volume grew by 14% overall for nonprofits last year.
Fundraising text messages had a 4.2% click-through rate last year.

The takeaway? Mobile giving is growing, so it’s important to ensure your giving pages are mobile friendly.

7. Year-End Giving Statistics

Here are some key year-end giving statistics:

12% of all giving occurs on the last three days of the year.
Giving Tuesday continues to grow each year and raised almost $2 billion last year.
The average donation on Giving Tuesday last year was $105.
In the United States, $511 million was donated online during Giving Tuesday last year.
27 million adults in the United States participated in Giving Tuesday in some capacity last year.
Offline donations on Giving Tuesday totaled about $1.46 billion last year.
Giving Tuesday received 20.1 billion social media impressions last year.
26% of donors in the United States and Canada gave to a nonprofit on Giving Tuesday last year.
November and December of last year made up 26% of all Facebook’s revenue, and much of this was due to Giving Tuesday.

The takeaway? Don’t forget year-end giving! This is a huge opportunity to bring in a lot of your fundraising revenue.

8. Corporate Giving Statistics

Take a look at these noteworthy corporate giving statistics:

While an estimated $2 – $3 billion is donated through matching gift programs annually, more than $4 – $7 billion in available matching gift funding goes unclaimed each year.
Over 26 million individuals work for companies with matching gift programs.
78% of donors are unaware if their company offers a matching gift program and the program specifics, while 16% know their company has a program, but are unsure if they’re eligible or don’t know how to submit their matching git request.
65% of Fortune 500 companies offer matching gift programs and 40% offer volunteer grant programs.
The percentage of Russell 1000 companies publicly disclosing that they offer employee matching gifts grew by 11.8% in the last three years, reaching 51%.
The percentage of Russell 1000 companies offering an “Unrestricted Matching Gift Program” grew over 48% over the last three years.
Russell 1000 Companies offering “Restricted” programs decreased by 33% to only 13.6% in the same time frame.
97% of donors want flexibility in where and how they give to causes they care about. Donors want the option to be able to give directly to a nonprofit and for their company to allow matching gifts for any nonprofit of their choosing.
84% of donors reported a higher likelihood of donating if a match is offered.
1 in 3 donors indicates they’d make a larger gift if matching is applied to their donation.
360MatchPro’s automation platform increases matching gift revenue for nonprofits by 61%.
The addition of auto-submission functionality is projected to yield an 80% increase in matching gift revenue for participating organizations.

The takeaway? Corporate philanthropy, and specifically workplace giving, offers a powerful fundraising source, though it continues to be underutilized by nonprofits everywhere.

9. Fundraising Statistic Sources

We hope these statistics have helped you view your own fundraising opportunities with a fresh eye! There are many channels you can use to communicate and engage with your supporters, and staying on top of them will help ensure your success.

Additional Resources

Want to learn from even more fundraising statistics? Check out these resources:

Nonprofit Fundraising Statistics. Check out this list of top fundraising statistics from Double the Donation.
Corporate Giving and Matching Gift Statistics. Looking to zero in on corporate giving and matching gifts? These statistics will help!
Matching Gift Statistics Every Nonprofit Should Know. Explore the top matching gift statistics every nonprofit should know with our helpful guide.