A majority of Giving Tuesday donors on the Classy platform do not return until the next holiday season, but 31 percent of those who return to make a second donation do so within six months.
That’s one of the nuggets found in “The State of Modern Philanthropy: Deconstructing the Online Donor Journey” by Classy, a San Diego, Calif.-based social enterprise. The 34-page report, released this month, analyzed 6.4 million donations, of which 2.8 million were recurring gifts.
Organizations have an opportunity to amplify retention and re-activate Giving Tuesday donors earlier in the year, according to the report. For example, knowing that these supporters respond to giving days, organizations might participate in state giving days or use national cause awareness days to create an inflection point during earlier months.
Three out of five people who check out on a donation page do so in less than a minute, however, conversion rates peak between four and five minutes. “People who are engaging with the campaign content have a higher likelihood of converting,” according to the report.
Conversion rates, number of visitors, and number of donors generally peak in the morning and early afternoon. “Deploying marketing messages and fundraising appeals at these key times can increase the chances of gifts.”
A quarter of one-time donors who returned to start a recurring gift subscription proceeded to make another one-time gift, on top of their recurring gift, as a future interaction. Recurring donors continue to prove their willingness to engage with an organization on top of their gift subscription, according to the report.
Of recurring donors who signed up through a donation page and took an additional action:
- 11 percent made a contribution to a crowdfunding campaign;
- 16 percent purchased an event ticket;
- 14 percent signed up to fundraise or donated to a registration with fundraising campaign; and,
- 10 percent participated in a peer-to-peer campaign.
Recurring giving increases in importance as a revenue stream as organizations scale. Of organizations who raise more than $50 million, 26 percent of online revenue through Classy comes from recurring gifts.
The median, one-time non-recurring gift on the Classy platform was $48, compared with the average $125. For a monthly recurring gift, the median was $20 while the average was $31. The average length of a recurring gift was 18 months.
The median amount raised by a campaign was $1,048 compared with the average $16,600 while the median amount raised by a fundraiser was $99 versus the average $667.
As far as high performers, among the top 10 percent of one-time, non-recurring gifts, the median gift size was $488 and the average was $875. Of all monthly, recurring gifts, the median gift size among the top 10 percent was $98 and the average was $120.
The median amount raised among top 10 percent campaigns was $47,2033 while the average was $142,288. Of all fundraising pages in the top 10 percent, the median raised was $1,676, compared with an average $5,155.
Data in the report reflects performance on the Classy platform from Oct. 1, 2018 to Sept. 30, 2019. That includes more than 40,000 active campaigns from almost 4,500 organizations.
