2009 Online Giving Trends
2009 is now over and the analysis of online giving trends has already started. This is a follow-up to the 2008 Online Giving Trends research and the subsequent 2009 Online Giving Trends for Q1, Q2, and Q3 analysis. This information comes from approximately 2,300 nonprofit organizations using a combination of Blackbaud online fundraising, email marketing, and integrated CRM tools. The analysis represents the largest study of online giving trends in the nonprofit sector.
Online Giving Continues to Grow
An analysis of the past 36 months of online giving continues to show positive growth despite challenging economic conditions. Online revenue grew 46% in 2009 compared to 2008. The first three months of 2009 had a 60% year-over-year growth rate in online revenue. December and May were the two largest months for online giving.
Year End Online Giving Trends
46% of online revenue was processed in the final three months of 2009. December accounted for 30% of revenue and 18% of transaction volume in 2009. The average online gift in December 2009 was $244.17 and was a decrease of only 2% compared to December 2008. Online giving in December 2009 grew 32% compared to December 2008.
Year Over Year Growth Trends
The analysis also looked at a subset of the same 1,703 nonprofits in 2008 and 2009. 65% of these nonprofits had a positive increase in online revenue compared to 2008. These nonprofits had a 21% year-over-year median growth rate in online revenue. Nonprofits that raised more than $1 million online in 2009 had a 35% year-over-year increase in revenue.
Average Online Gift Trends
The average online gift in 2009 was $144.72. The represents a 5% decline from 2008, but remains significantly higher than other fundraising channels. The healthcare sector had the smallest average gift amount of $94.37, while other sectors like foundations ($209.53), higher education ($204.05), and religious ($196.44) had much larger gift sizes. It should be noted that non-hospital healthcare sector nonprofits have a higher percentage of online peer-to-peer fundraising than hospitals ($120.16) which may account for the lower average gift.
Online Major Giving Trends
Blackbaud continues to analyze trends with donors making significant online gifts in excess of $1,000. The research identified 1,798 nonprofit organizations in the analysis with least one online gift of $1,000 or more in 2009. This represented 77% of the organizations in the sample analysis. 36% of online gifts of at least $1,000 were within a gift range of $1,001 to $4,999. The median online gift amount for online donations of at least $1,000 was $3,500 in 2009. This was up from $2,500 in 2008.
The following presentation provides additional information, graphs, and insights about the analysis:
Notes: All data is calculated directly from online transactions processed by Blackbaud. Online recurring gifts and pledges are not included in the data analysis. The single largest online gift ($60,000) and single smallest online gift ($1) were removed from the analysis. The year-over-year trend analysis removed outliers with growth rates in excess of 1000% and organizations with single transactions for the time period.