New report reveals global trends for fundraising growth in 2023

Fundraising tech company Dataro has released its first Fundraising Benchmark Report to help UK fundraisers benchmark their results and improve fundraising performance in 2023. 

Over 68 million donations from 117 organisations were analysed as part of the report which reveals how charities performed in 2022 across different fundraising programs and causes and highlights key fundraising trends and benchmarks. 

This free report is available to download now and will help fundraisers answer questions like:

• Was our income growth / decline in line with the sector average?
• Which areas of fundraising are showing the strongest growth?
• What are the biggest opportunities to invest in for income growth in 2023?

Donations declined in 2022, but fundraising income grew

Dataro’s report reveals that while fundraising income grew in 2022, the typical organisation experienced a decline in donations received and the number of donors giving.

According to Datato’s analysis, income growth in 2022 was driven by an increase in the average gift amount. More than half of the organisations analysed saw a lift in average gift size, despite receiving less donations from fewer donors.

Patterns of giving varied greatly by cause

These income results revealed in Dataro’s report aren’t surprising given the cost-of-living crisis impacting donors, but the income results and decline in supporter base varied greatly by cause.

Healthcare (+12%), Environment (+2%) and Higher Education (+1%) organisations achieved income growth in 2022, despite a decline in donor numbers. While Animal Welfare (-13%) organisations saw year on year income decline despite the same number of donors with previous year. Human Rights (-6%) and Social & Public Welfare (-5%) causes also saw income decline, largely due to a decline in their supporter base.

Only International Aid organisations grew income significantly in 2022 (+32%) from a 36% increase in donors - likely a response to world events like the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Recurring giving drives sustainable income growth

Despite an overall decline in donations and donors in 2022, Dataro’s analysis reveals organisations who grew recurring giving income in 2022 typically outperformed others.

Recurring giving income increased in 2022 by 7% YOY and 66% of organisations in the analysis grew income from their monthly donor programs.

The typical nonprofit in the analysis (mediant) grew recurring giving by 5% YOY in 2022.

In contrast, only 38% of the charities and nonprofits analysed achieved income growth in their appeal program with the typical organisation seeing a 7% decline in direct mail giving.

“This statistic highlights the opportunity for charities to diversify their fundraising income and build more sustainable and reliable income streams through recurring giving. This strategy is especially impactful in times of economic uncertainty when many nonprofits find it difficult to secure donations through appeals programs,” said Dataro CEO Tim Paris. 

Download the Dataro Benchmarking Report in-full now.

Dataro is a global fundraising technology company providing state-of-the-art data analytics and AI donor predictions to help nonprofits fundraise smarter.