Donor Trends For 2015
Last week, Fundraising Success ran 4 Nonprofit Donor Demographics Trends for 2015 in which four fundraisers offered their prognostications. Actually, most of the comments were more about the future in general, as opposed to 2015 per se.
I love to bounce my own speculation against other crystal-ballers, so here goes.
1. Sustainer giving
The most happy-making observation, from Carl Bloom at Carl Bloom Associates, was this: “…from reports I’ve heard younger citizens are going for the sustainer monthly giving opportunity. It looks like we’re having a trend in sustainer giving. For many it’s a real convenience and one-stop involvement in contributing without the concern about renewing one’s gift.” He goes on to speak of success with canvassing for sustainer giving. Have you tried it?
The Agitator would like to see/hear more evidence that sustainer/monthly giving is growing smartly in the US (which lags the rest of the fundraising universe). Can you give us any? And if it proves especially appealing to younger donors, fantastic.
2. Wealth transfer
We were offered two contradictory views on the vaunted ‘wealth transfer’ from Boomers to their offspring. Tycely Williams at YMCA of Metro Washington says: “We are witnessing the greatest transfers of wealth; it is important to ensure Generations X and Y understand the unique value proposition offered by charities…”
But Carl Bloom warns: “As a class of people, don’t rely on the boomers to rescue or play a large role in the support of small, medium and large nonprofits; they’ll be busy keeping themselves afloat. The greater number of these people have not saved enough to take care of themselves in retirement and are continuing their work or looking for part-time work to supplement their incomes.”
I’m a Boomer and I have to agree with Carl. The only ‘wealth transfer’ happening in my household is from my savings account into my checking account! Of course, if I die before my term life insurance expires, there might be a little dribble to the kids.
Seriously … has anyone seen any up-to-date study of how much wealth-transferring’ is actually underway?
3. Millennials
Both Christine Barnes at Humane Society of the US and Rich Dietz at Abila urge us to recognize that Millennials are entering the giving landscape and that we need to begin engaging them in their preferred styles. To Christine, this means: “Our communications need to be more visual, and we need to provide more storytelling that engages the donor in as few words as possible.”
I had occasion yesterday to meet with the apparently savviest social media maven in my neck of the woods, a woman in her early twenties. I quickly came to a startling realization as she unleashed a barrage of recommendations about what I should do about the online presence of a magazine I publish: Get with it, granddad!
As I made feeble efforts to participate knowledgeably in the conversation, it was quickly apparent from her body language that either she congenitally had the attention span of a gnat or I was such a social media moron that she was justifiably bored out of her mind. Since her observations, such as I comprehended them, seemed shrewd and well-grounded by on-the-spot reference to my website (via, of course, her smartphone … “You call this mobile-friendly?!” she reprimanded), I had no choice but to conclude that I was the problem.
Which is a long-winded way of saying (itself underscoring Christine’s point), we do need to need to present our fundraising messages/cases more visually (“You need to be on Instagram,” she said. “Is that like a telegram?” I replied) and succinctly. However, I suspect we need to move in that direction with all age segments, because of the steadily mounting age-blind use of mobile devices.
Some trends to think about. Read what the Fundraising Success pundits had to say in full here.
What would you add to the list?
Tom
P.S. Is it just me, or do other age 50+ (or 60+) fundraisers have this experience with your under-30 colleagues … when you speak with them, their eyes almost immediately start darting around the room?
6 responses to “Donor Trends For 2015”
Behavioral Science Q & A
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There’s just one thing to consider when designing a supporter journey: the supporter. More specifically, you need to take into account: Who the supporter is i.e. their identity, which is the reason they support this cause, and their personality, which describes the way they “see” and process the world. These will determine the kind of […]
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I’m not an expert in this but a quick search surfaced this article on the effect of tax reforms on 2019’s charitable giving. The researchers didn’t find a reduction. Actually, they observed an “increase in charitable contributions in 2019, even with the lower tax rates and the dramatically smaller number of taxpayers who itemize their […]
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Tom, great observation!! It’s either they start darting around the room or they start looking at their iphones 😉
As to trends in terms of sustainer giving, a few resources:
M&R Strategic does benchmarks every year, I can’t wait to see the 2014 numbers but in 2013, they shoed that 16% of all online giving came from monthly donors (and that was an increase of 25%) compared to the year before.
Network for Good showed an increase in their monthly donor giving and has an extensive study in their resources.
And here’s a study that’s very interesting among some smaller organizations (less than $2,000,000) that also shows an increase… 4% of donors are giving monthly at an average gift of $625 a year… NICE!! check it out.
http://www.thirdspacestudio.com/idbproject/
finally, Target Analytics Sustainer Benchmarking has expanded its number of participants because so many more organizations reached the minimum threshold, see here http://www.slideshare.net/blackbaud/keys-to-success-for-building-a-sustainer-program
Finally, check out this study in the public tv/radio arena:
http://www.current.org/2015/02/sustainer-programs-are-growing-but-still-show-room-for-improvement/
many more donor base companies are now doing research and starting to do some tracking amongst their users and I expect more studies to come later this year.
From my own experience, the big organizations are still struggling with the ‘concept’ of monthly giving whereas some of the small organizations ‘get it’.
So, yes, absolutely, quite a way to go… I think in this country, Public media get it, they totally focus on it and they’re able to convert the highest number of donors/members onto giving monthly, but most other organizations are still lagging behind…
I work with a few clients who have 20% of donors giving monthly and we’re still growing that number.
Are we close to what we’re seeing in Europe? NO, but we have no way but going up!
As you know, I’m Dutch. We have a Dutch expression: He who does not honor the small, is not worthy of the large… In other words, honor your small donors, convert them to monthly and you’ll be amazed at the sustainable results.. If you don’t even try, you’re already failing…
If you ask them, they will come! Seriously!
cheers, Erica
author of Monthly Giving. The Sleeping Giant and a second book on sustainers soon to be announced.
p.s. if you want to sign up for my blog, i’ll make sure you stay up to date on research as it comes available. http://www.adirectsolution.com and you’ll get weekly posts…
We dipped our toe in the sustainer waters by adding the option on the reverse side of the National Committee’s Response Devices with the give-by-credit-card form. This cost us absolutely nothing and looks like it will bring in over $150,000 in the first year. Even though NC members are older, there is a group of them that seems to prefer this way of supporting the organization. We will probably raise the level visibility of this program next year.
In regards to the “greatest transfer of wealth in American History”, it’s happening! Every day 400 members of the Greatest Generation die, which is 2,800 probates per week or 145,600 per year and estimated to be $12-15 TRILLION dollars. It’s being transferred to Boomers,who happen to be a generation looking for legacy and significance.
The folks at Thompson & Associates are having historic results in planned giving. Their average client raises $2-5 million dollars within the first 12 months of engagement with a values-based estate planning process! Boomers spend their lives searching for success and came up empty. They are now searching for significance.
TA has raised $7 BILLION dollars since 1998!
For “all things Millennial”, check out
http://www.genhq.com
http://www.jasondorsey.com
The rest of the world has already figured out that monthly donors were a more sustainable source of fundraising revenue than chasing one-time gifts.
US nonprofits continue to grow the number of sustainers, but it’s still a small portion of giving if you exclude tithing — the original ongoing giving program.
About 12,000 years ago, humans made the transition from a hunter-gatherer subsistence to an agrarian economy. Hunting all day for big game to feed yourself was replaced with a more predictable and sustainable food source.
This kicked off many magical things. As James Burke put it: “Start with the plow, you get irrigation, pottery, craftsmen, civilization and writing, mathematics, a calendar to predict floods, empires, and a modern world where change happens so rapidly you can’t keep up.”
This key shift was not easy. It required new skills. It took a lot of hard work. And sometimes your crop turns to dust. But you get sustainability — the key hidden word.
Tom – I think the points about monthly sustainers are interesting. If you do come across the research you mentioned, I hope you’ll share it here on the blog. I’d be curious to see the US statistics on that.
The point about transitioning how we present our messages to Millennials is an interesting one. Being a Millennial myself, I’m always fascinated to read articles and research about how my generation (and supposedly myself) are reacting to fundraising. Great copy hooks me every time over a video, but since I work in the industry I’m probably an exception. I have great admiration and respect for excellent copywriting.