The latest statistics on online giving has been released by Convio Strategies. These statistics will help you evaluate your own organization and provide insight for changes or additions to make in your online fundraising.
The key statistics from the report were:
--“ Online giving grew 14 percent despite a difficult economy. Overall, 69 percent of organizations raised more in 2009 than 2008, while 31 percent saw declines in their online fundraising.”
--“ An increase in gifts drove fundraising gains.”—92% of organizations that increased the number of gifts they received expanded their fundraising, rather than those that increased the amount of the gift.
--“ Small organizations grew fastest. Organizations with fewer than 10,000 email addresses on file […] grew online revenue by 26 percent, and gifts by 32 percent.”
--Web traffic growth was slower—“ Web traffic growth in 2009 was in the single digits at 6 percent compared with double digit growth seen in previous years.”
--“ Web traffic was strongly correlated with email file growth. 38 percent of an organization's success building large email files could be directly attributed to the amount of traffic to the organization's website.”
--“Constituents more reluctant to open emails and click through.”—The email open rate remained average, but those that clicked-through declined.
From these statistics and the complete report, several needs are made clear.
1) Your website traffic is becoming critical—More often than not, the website is the first encounter a potential donor will have with your ministry. It is also the most important tool you will have to grow your email newsletter list. Ministries that experienced a decline in traffic often were those that had shifted money to other fundraising initiatives instead of keeping the website updated.
2) Subscribers need compelling and unique reasons to provide their email address—This area certainly is becoming more difficult as the newness and excitement of email campaigns has worn off. Here it is important for subscribers to know the unique benefits to themselves by signing up. Content should be presented in a helpful, engaging manner.
3) Growing your email file size is important—You must be proactive in gaining email addresses and contact information. From events to day-to-day interactions, take advantage of your opportunities. Small organizations (those with under 10,000 email addresses in their file) experienced the most online revenue growth.
4) Develop a “sustainer or monthly giving program”—While online giving may slightly decrease with such an approach, overall revenue increased. As the key statistics showed, by having this increased number of gifts, fundraising increases. Donor retention and consistency is key to your success.
5) Email fundraising appeals must be carefully thought through—Christian ministries had one of the lowest fundraising response rates from their email campaigns. This can be attributed to many factors from an over-saturated market to poor content, but nonetheless it points to the need to evaluate.
Quotes and statistics taken from the report.
-- Jessica High is a Research Assistant at Christian Foundation Grants (www.christianfoundationgrants.com) which is a subscription database of foundations that provide grants to faith based organizations. iDonate.com is a website (www.iDonate.com) that allows ministries to receive non cash gifts online