2024 Online Fundraising Statistics for Nonprofits

A supplemental post to 101 Digital Marketing & Fundraising Best Practices for Nonprofits, the statistics listed below can guide your nonprofit in creating and maintaining a successful online fundraising strategy.

Online Fundraising Strategy

  • 93% of nonprofits believe that a strong brand identity has a positive impact on donor engagement. [99designs]
  • 75% of donors look for concrete information about a nonprofit’s achievements before making a decision to give. [DonorDirect]
  • 48% of donors cite email as their preferred method of hearing updates and appeals from the organization. Direct mail was the second most preferred channel at 21%, followed by social media (17%), text messaging (8%), and phone calls (2%). [Neon One]
  • 72% of individuals say that the presence of a charity rating badge increases their likelihood of giving. [Great Nonprofits]
  • 84% of online donors are more likely to give if their donations are matched by their employer. [Double the Donation]
  • The current donor retention rate is 41.9%. [Fundraising Effectiveness Project]
  • Frequent, consistent communication with online donors results in a 41.5% increase in revenue. [NextAfter]
  • The average return on ad spend (ROAS) for fundraising ads on Meta platforms is $0.50 USD. [M+R Benchmarks]

Online Giving

  • Giving is predicted to increase by 4.2% in 2024, followed by a 3.9% increase in 2025. [Lilly Family School of Philanthropy]
  • The average gift made on desktop devices is $137; for mobile users, the average gift is $83. [M+R Benchmarks]
  • 33% of online donations were made on a mobile device in 2023. [M+R Benchmarks]
  • 26% of all online giving occurs in December and donations made on December 31 accounted for 5% of 2023 revenue. [M+R Benchmarks]
  • 33% of online donors give tribute gifts to family and friends. Donors are most interested in giving tribute gifts as memorials (43%), birthday gifts (25%), and for religious holidays (10%)
  • $222 is the median amount raised by one-time peer-to-peer fundraisers; $501 is the median amount raised by return fundraisers. [Classy]
  • GivingTuesday 2023 raised $3.1 billion—only 0.6% higher than 2022—and 10% fewer people participated. [GivingTuesday]

Monthly Giving

  • The average monthly gift is $24. [M+R Benchmarks]
  • Monthly giving accounts for 31% of all online revenue. [M+R Benchmarks]
  • 16% of nonprofits use pop-ups to prompt one-time donors to become monthly donors. [Nonprofit Tech for Good Report]
  • ACH monthly donors are retained for 20% longer because there is no expiration date like credit cards. [Classy]

Website Fundraising

  • Visitors on desktop devices make up the majority of donation transactions (63%) and revenue (75%). [M+R Benchmarks]
  • 0.23% of organic website visitors made a donation, generating an average of $0.77 per visitor.[M+R Benchmarks]
  • 68% of online donors most trust websites and email addresses that use the .org domain. [Global Trends in Giving Report]
  • 50% of online donors will opt-in to pay credit card processing fees. [Classy]
  • 72% of individuals say that the presence of a charity rating badge on a donation page increases their likelihood of giving.

Email Fundraising

  • 26% of donors say that email is the tool that most inspires them to give (25% social media, website 17%, print 13%). [Global Trends in Giving Report]
  • 45% of online donors say that email is the communication method most likely to inspire repeat donations (25% social media, 13% print, 10% a handwritten note, 7% a phone call). [Global Trends in Giving Report]
  • Email messaging results in 16% of all online revenue in 2023. [M+R Benchmarks]
  • For every 1,000 fundraising messages sent, nonprofits raised $76 in 2023.  [M+R Benchmarks]
  • Email revenue on Giving Tuesday declined by 18% in 2022. [M+R Benchmarks]
  • Donor retention increases by 29% for offline donors when you have their email address. [NextAfter]

Social Media Fundraising

  • Giving through Facebook Fundraising Tools resulted in 1.1% of all online revenue for nonprofits in 2022. [M+R Benchmarks]
  • 89% of donors who have donated through Facebook Fundraising Tools say they are likely to do so again. [Global Trends in Giving Report]
  • 93% of donors who have donated through Instagram Fundraising Tools say they are likely to do so again. [Global Trends in Giving Report]
  • The average Facebook Fundraiser has four gifts that average $34 USD. [M+R Benchmarks]

Online Donors

  • 54% of US households donate to charity. [YouGov]
  • 51% of donations are made by women and 63% of GivingTuesday donations are made by women. [Women’s Philanthropy Institute]
  • 88% of the Silent Generation gives to charity, donating an annual average of $1,367 across 6.2 organizations. [AARP]
  • 72% give to charity, donating an annual average of $1,212 across an average of 4.5 organizations. [AARP]
  • Gen X donates an average annual gift of $732 across four charities and leads in annual volunteer hours served. [Nonprofit Pro]
  • 84% give to charity, donating an annual average of $481 across 3.3 organizations. [AARP]
  • 8% of donors give stock or mutual funds to nonprofits and 4% donate to Donor-Advised Funds (DAFs). [Global Trends in Giving Report]
  • 66% of donors worldwide volunteer with nonprofits. Of those, 73% donate to the nonprofits they volunteer for. [Global Trends in Giving Report]
  • Affluent households give an average of $34,917 to charity. [Bank of America Study of Philanthropy]

Our Certificate in Digital Marketing & Fundraising program covers the fundamentals of website design, email marketing, online fundraising, and social media for nonprofits.

The program requires the completion of three webinars and costs a total of $100 USD. To earn the certificate, you can attend the webinars live or view the recordings – or a combination of both. Learn more & register!