Ultimate List of Nonprofit Benchmark Metrics (2022)

Beginner, Donor Communication, Fundraising, Guides, Leadership, Marketing, Measuring Results, Resources

By Jeremy Reis

Every fundraiser knows that research is key to success. But with so many reports out there, it can be hard to know where to start. That’s why we’ve put together a list of all the best nonprofit industry reports, so you can find the information you need to make your next fundraising campaign a success by benchmarking against industry standards.

Each metric is categorized by fundraising channel. To help you out, we’ve compiled a list of the most recent industry reports. This way, you can quickly scan through and find the information you need to stay informed and improve your fundraising strategy for your nonprofit.

Fundraising Metrics

  1. 30% of annual donation volume occurs between Giving Tuesday and December 31st. (The State of Modern Philanthropy 2022)
  2. Donors like choice: the average one-time donation was 1.5x more when the nonprofit offers ACH, PayPal, and digital wallet payments. (The State of Modern Philanthropy 2022)
  3. Number of donors has decreased 5.6% year over year. (Fundraising Effectiveness Project, Q1 2022)
  4. Total dollars given has increased 2.3% year over year. (Fundraising Effectiveness Project, Q1 2022)
  5. Donor retention has decreased 6.2% year over year. (Fundraising Effectiveness Project, Q1 2022)
  6. Second year donor retention decreased by 30.4% year over year. (Fundraising Effectiveness Project, Q1 2022)
  7. Multi-year donor retention decreased by 4.8% year over year. (Fundraising Effectiveness Project, Q1 2022)
  8. Lapsed donor reactivation decreased by 1.6% year over year. (Fundraising Effectiveness Project, Q1 2022)
  9. Retention rate for donors giving 1 donation is down 10.1% year over year. Retention rates for donors giving 7+ gifts is down 1.4% year over year. (Fundraising Effectiveness Project, Q1 2022)
  10. Giving Tuesday 2021 donations reach $2.7B. (Fundraising Trends for 2022)
  11. 35 million people participated in Giving Tuesday 2021. (Fundraising Trends for 2022)
  12. Over 80% of Giving Tuesday donors were 18-34 years old. (Fundraising Trends for 2022)
  13. 36 million Americans use charity watchdogs. (Grey Matter Research)
  14. Average age of a donor in the US: 65 years old. (The Charitable Giving Report)

Direct Mail

  1. 29% first-year donor retention in offline giving. (The Charitable Giving Report)
  2. 60% multi-year donor retention in offline giving. (The Charitable Giving Report)

Digital Fundraising

  1. Total online giving grew by 3% in 2021. (M+R Benchmarks 2022)
  2. Email accounted for 15% of all digital revenue. (M+R Benchmarks 2022)
  3. For every 1,000 email messages sent, nonprofits raised $78. (M+R Benchmarks 2022)
  4. 22% of traffic coming to a donation page is mobile. (The State of Modern Philanthropy 2022)
  5. 87% of mobile traffic coming from social media to the donation page is from Facebook. (The State of Modern Philanthropy 2022)
  6. Giving peaks at 10am on Tuesdays (in a donor’s timezone). (The State of Modern Philanthropy 2022)
  7. 10x more donors are acquired on Giving Tuesday compared to any other day of the year. (The State of Modern Philanthropy 2022)
  8. Facebook fundraising match $8m in donations in 2021. (Fundraising Trends for 2022)
  9. TikTok donated $7m to nonprofits using the platform. (Fundraising Trends for 2022)
  10. #GivingTuesday was used 1.9m times on Instagram. (Fundraising Trends for 2022)

Digital Marketing

  1. Nonprofit audience size on Facebook grew by 1%. (M+R Benchmarks 2022)
  2. Nonprofits increased digital advertising spend by 19%. (M+R Benchmarks 2022)
  3. Email list sizes grew by 7%. (M+R Benchmarks 2022)
  4. Mobile devices (phones & tablets) accounted for 54% of all devices visiting nonprofit websites. (M+R Benchmarks 2022)
  5. Nonprofits sent an average of 63 emails per subscriber. (M+R Benchmarks 2022)
  6. Nonprofit emails have an average open rate of 26.6%. (Campaign Monitor 2022)
  7. Nonprofit emails have an average click thru rate of 2.7%. (Campaign Monitor 2022)
  8. Nonprofit emails have an average click-to-open rates of 10.2%. (Campaign Monitor 2022)
  9. Nonprofit emails have an average spam reporting rate of 0.2%. (Campaign Monitor 2022)
  10. 9 in 10 people value user generated content (UGC) over branded posts and emails. (Fundraising Trends for 2022)

Monthly Giving

  1. Monthly giving grew by 24% in 2022. (M+R Benchmarks 2022)
  2. Monthly giving was 22% of all online giving in 2022. (M+R Benchmarks 2022)
  3. 48% of 18-29 year olds and more than a third of 30-44 year olds give monthly. (Fundraising Trends for 2022)

Major Donors

  1. Major donors ($5,000-$50,000 annual giving) increased 0.2% year over year. (Fundraising Effectiveness Project, Q1 2022)
  2. Supersized donors ($50k+ annual giving) decreased 5% year over year. (Fundraising Effectiveness Project, Q1 2022)

Midlevel Donors

  1. Midlevel donors ($500-$5,000 annual giving) decreased 4.6% year over year. (Fundraising Effectiveness Project, Q1 2022)
  2. The average midlevel donor gives to 4.3 organizations. (Understanding Evangelical Midlevel Donors 2022)

Peer-to-peer Fundraising

  1. Fundraising events with a peer-to-peer fundraising component converted at 47%, the highest of rate of all campaign types. (The State of Modern Philanthropy 2022)
  2. Social media accounts for 32% of mobile traffic to peer-to-peer campaigns. (The State of Modern Philanthropy 2022)

Generational Giving (Silent Generation, Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, Gen Y, Gen Z)

  1. 39% of donors aged 18-29 gave more during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Fundraising Trends for 2022)
  2. 48% of 18-29 year olds and more than a third of 30-44 year olds give monthly. (Fundraising Trends for 2022)
  3. Gen Z and Millennials want to receive updates from organization at least monthly. (Fundraising Trends for 2022)

Religious Trends

  1. 58% of evangelicals give to charities outside their church. (The Generation Gap: Evangelical Giving Preferences)
  2. Evangelicals prefer to give locally (46%) vs overseas (27%). (The Generation Gap: Evangelical Giving Preferences)
  3. Evangelical donors prefer to give to an organization they already know (58%) compared to researching new organizations (27%). (The Generation Gap: Evangelical Giving Preferences)
  4. 74% of Evangelicals gave to the church they attended in the past 12 months. (The Generation Gap: Evangelical Giving Preferences)