Recurring Donation Benchmarks: Promising trends for tech-driven nonprofit fundraising in 2024
In the world of nonprofits, where every penny counts and every fundraising mission can feel like a race against time, we turn to data and benchmarks as a grounding source of truth amidst the chaos. Through a series of blog posts, we will be forecasting the future of digital fundraising by analyzing our 2023 user data against industry reports. Up first, we’re looking at trends in recurring monthly donations.
Recurring donations are like a steady heartbeat for nonprofit donor revenue, a rhythm of reliability that lets the visionaries envision and the builders build, all with the assurances of predictable future revenue. Monthly giving is fast becoming a major portion of all digital fundraising revenue, making up a whopping 31% of all online donations in 2023 (a 3 percentage point increase over 2022).
Armed with the crystal ball of our data, we're venturing a guess (or rather, an educated forecast) that the realm of recurring donations is on the brink of an exciting era. The year 2024 brings even greater outcomes for nonprofits who are embracing AI-driven digital fundraising technology.
Nonprofit benchmarks on monthly giving
Our product analyst team sifted through Fundraise Up’s 2023 user data from organizations spanning a comprehensive representation of sectors, including hunger relief, humanitarian aid, cancer research, youth advocacy, and animal rescue. From these findings, along with credible industry benchmarks, we're uncovering the secrets to sustained support.
The optimistic outlook of recurring giving benchmarks for Fundraise Up users
Let’s dig in! Recurring donations are the lifeblood of sustainable fundraising, and our findings paint a promising picture. Data pulled from Fundraise Up’s 2023 user base indicates that organizations that had recurring donors for all of 2022 saw an 8.5% increase in the total donor revenue from recurring donations in 2023.
Despite the increase in donation amounts, there was a marginal (1%) decrease in new recurring online donations relative to the previous year. This slight dip could signify a need for nonprofits to focus on attracting monthly donors and/or turning one-time donors into recurring donors.
M+R Benchmarks show lesser increase
In contrast, the M+R Benchmarks Study for 2023 reported only a 6% YoY increase in recurring donor revenue for the nonprofit industry at large. This means that the 2023 YoY increase in total recurring donor revenue for Fundraise Up users was 2.5 percentage points higher than was reported for the broader nonprofit industry.
Forecasting 2024 trends from recurring donation benchmarks
The 2.5 percentage point increase in recurring donation revenue may be a demonstration of how Fundraise Up users benefit from cutting-edge fundraising technology. Fundraise Up includes artificial intelligence that right-sizes the ask and knows when — and when not — to nudge donors toward monthly recurring donations.
Using machine learning technology to gather behavioral intelligence from millions of donors, Fundraise Up helps nonprofits increase conversion and revenue by personalizing donation forms for every website visitor. Our AI-driven solutions allow organizations to intelligently prompt one-time donors to upgrade to recurring support at checkout using built-in upsells that increase revenue and donor lifetime value.
Exciting possibilities are revealed by identifying the general YoY increases in recurring donation revenue and the 2.5 percentage point increase in monthly giving revenue for Fundraise Up users over industry data. These insights point to improved recurring donation outcomes for nonprofits implementing modern digital fundraising solutions, making the future of tech-driven fundraising strategies look extra bright.
Looking ahead
Fundraise Up continues to analyze valuable insights from user data, and we will continue to compare those results with industry benchmarking data to identify forecasted trends. As additional 2023 reports are published, we will dive into further analysis of how nonprofit data benchmarks line up with the data from Fundraise Up.
Stay tuned for the next blog post of this series, which will analyze trends in YoY giving volume overall and during major giving season.
Nonprofits that want to learn more about how Fundraise Up can help them achieve their objectives can contact sales for a personalized overview.