Everything you need to know about fundraising

Fundraising is both an art and a science. The best fundraising tactics require sensitivity, empathy, and intuition, but they also need to be supported by good measurement and meaningful data in order to achieve the maximum impact. 

To make matters more complicated, fundraising is always changing. While there are many basic fundraising rules that charities can follow, they are constantly evolving and adapting to changing economic, social, and technological circumstances. 

Digital fundraising, for example, experienced a boom in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2015, one fifth of charities did not accept donation through their website, despite an ongoing decline in street collections and the success of online donation platforms. Online donations have been on the rise ever since.  

A study from Barclays Corporate Banking found that three-quarters of large charities noticed a “significant increase” in digital donations since the pandemic, while 48% of consumers said they primarily donated through digital channels.  

Keeping up with fundraising trends is crucial to securing fundraising success and being able to deliver competitive fundraising campaigns. The fundraising world is noisy – cutting through that noise is essential for charities, encouraging donors to support your cause despite the various parties competing for their attention.  

The good news is that in 2023, the appetite for fundraising remains strong among the general public. The cost-of-living crisis had given rise to fears of a cost-of-giving crisis – through which fundraising would be impacted by financial uncertainty – but research shows that though the number of donors has decreased, the value of their donations has increased. Fundraising patterns suggest that, in times of crisis, fundraising increases. It is up to charities to work closely with donors to make the fundraising process as easy as possible. 

In this article, we explore everything charities need to know about fundraising, from trends and challenges faced by fundraisers to different fundraising methods and ideas that can boost donations in future.  
 

Skip to: The fundamentals of fundraising 
Skip to: Fundraising trends to take note of  
Skip to: Fundraising challenges charities may face 
Skip to: Fundraising methods to choose from 
Skip to: Digital fundraising platforms 

Skip to: The importance of grants for fundraising
Skip to: How to measure your fundraising  

The fundamentals of fundraising 

The world of fundraising changes quickly, but the considerations charities must take into account to maximise donations do not. Below, we explore the key fundraising factors that charities should think about when developing their fundraising strategy. You can find out more about building a comprehensive fundraising strategy here.  

Timing 

In fundraising, it is important that charities get the timing right. Getting the timing right for your fundraising includes sending out fundraising campaigns at times when your cause is top of the news agenda, but it also means sending them out at times that best suit your donors.  

For example, research has shown that 48% of donors list email as their preferred method for getting updates and appeals. The best time to send emails, according to email marketing best practice, is between 9:00am and 12:00pm. Emails sent on a Tuesday were the most likely to get engagement, with a quarter of marketers from the U.S. reporting this. 

However, as HubSpot points out, the timing of emails – or indeed, any communications via any channel – is not an exact science. Charities should look at their own data to determine the best times to send out fundraising campaigns and appeals. Testing is a critical part of fundraising. Regularly testing different times, reviewing the data, and using this data to support your decisions is the only way to find out which timings work best for you and your audience. 

While the right time for fundraising will differ from charity to charity, there are few sector-wide trends that organisations should take note of. Charities know, for example, that December is a productive month for fundraising. The 2023 Christmas Giving Insights report from Enthuse revealed that Christmas Eve (24 December) saw the most donations throughout the month during 2021, 2020, and 2019.  

In 2022, however, 21 December was the fundraising peak of the festive season, with 4.9% of the month’s donations coming through on that date. 

You can find out more about fundraising facts in the charity sector here.  

Marketing 

Marketing and fundraising are inextricably linked.  Both marketing and fundraising are about reaching out to audiences and encouraging those audiences to engage, whether that’s sharing a post on social media or taking up a new fundraising challenge.  

Fundraising without marketing is like shouting into a room with only the same few people walking in and out when they like. Marketing fills that room with people: both new and frequent visitors who are receptive to your message.  

Below, we explore some of the key marketing lessons that can support your charity’s fundraising efforts. 
 

• Personalisation 

Personalisation is an essential part of modern marketing. Charity supporters have come to not only welcome personalisation, but expect it as normal. Research from McKinsey found that 71% of consumers expect companies to deliver personalised interactions, while more than three quarters (76%) say they are frustrated when this doesn’t happen. 

In the charity sector, personalisation is about delivering a tailored supporter journey or experience that helps donors feel valued. Personalisation allows charities to meet each donor at the right points in their various donor journeys, whether they’ve just discovered the cause and want to know more or have been a loyal supporter for some time. 

Personalisation in fundraising demonstrates that charities have taken their donor needs into account and smooths the donation process to reduce any pain points donors might face. In fact, personalisation allows charities to go the extra mile for their donors, in recognition of their support.

• Email 

Email remains a fruitful channel for fundraisers. As we’ve established above, around half of charity donors list email as their preferred channel for updates and appeals. Likewise, the 2020 Global Trends in Giving Report notes that 26% of donors say email is the channel that most inspires them to give, above social media, websites, and print materials 

The potential for email fundraising is immense. With more than 3.7 billion email users worldwide, the reach for charities can be instrumental in growing awareness of their cause and encouraging new donors to give. According to email marketing platform Emma, nearly three in five (59%) of marketers say that email is their greatest return on investment.  

Thank you emails are also a vital part of the fundraising process. Saying thank you for donations is a great way of acknowledging the impact supporters are providing for your charity and helps deepen the supporter relationship.  

Most charities have already added thank you emails to their donor marketing. The 2022 Supporter Experience report from Blackbaud found that saying thank you was universal across all organisations they surveyed – 100% of respondents said they thanked supporters.    

However, charities must make their thank yous sincere and meaningful. One in six donors told Salesforce that they did not recall receiving a meaningful thank you message for their support.  The thank you message, however, is what can turn a donor journey into a donor cycle – if donors are thanked for the funds raised, the more likely they are to return to do so again in the future.  

• Direct mail

   

While digital channels are increasingly important for fundraising, charities should not overlook the importance of direct mail as a fundraising channel. According to the Neon One 2022 report, ‘Donors: Understanding the Future of Individual Giving’, direct mail is the second most preferred channel after email, followed by social media, text messaging, and phone calls. 

Similarly, as Nonprofit Pro points out, direct mail is one of the most trusted forms of communication, with 56% of consumers saying they trust it more than other channels. 

As with any fundraising channel, however, direct mail only works if supporters prefer receiving communications this way. Charities must act in accordance with G.D.P.R. and relevant data protection laws to ensure that the only donors who are contacted are those who have given permission. Donors should also have the opportunity to opt out at any time, and the Chartered Institute of Fundraising warns against contacting donors too frequently.  

• Social media 

Social media is a significant channel for fundraising but perhaps one that is on the decline. Social media usage in general is decreasing, with growth stalling on various platforms, including TikTok, Facebook, and Twitter.  

To make matters more complicated, the world of social media changes rapidly, including the ways it is used to fundraise. While fundraising on Facebook became a reliable source of fundraising revenue during COVID-19, when in-person fundraising was restricted, it has become less so since in-person challenge events resumed.   

However, that is not to say that social media is dead when it comes to fundraising. According to NPSource, nearly one in five (18%) donors across the world have given through Facebook Fundraising tools and, of those, 88% suggested that they’d give again in the future. In an average peer-to-peer fundraising campaign, 15–18% of donations are referred directly through Facebook.  

Ultimately, social media is just another tool in a charity’s fundraising arsenal. As with other tools, it must be used strategically with donors and demographics in mind. The differences between Facebook and TikTok, for example, are numerous, not just in terms of who they can reach but also how they reach them. 

You can find out more about social media trends here.  

Fundraising trends to take note of

Inverse giving 

Inverse giving, as defined by fundraising experts Enthuse, is when people give to charity as a result of seeing negative headlines about a cause they care about. A recent, and high-profile, example of this is when the Royal National Lifeboat Institute (R.N.L.I.) were criticised by commentators for their work rescuing people in the Channel. Despite this “bad press”, or, indeed, because of such press, the R.N.L.I. experienced a record fundraising year, with online donations increasing by 50%.  

According to Enthuse’s 2023 Summer Donor Pulse report, almost half of Gen Z (48%) have engaged in inverse giving in the last three months – this goes down as people get older. Only 8% of over-65s have engaged in inverse giving, the report shows.  

Gen Z are also far more likely to engage in inverse giving than they are political giving (when donors donate in order to show solidarity with political ideals), though the opposite is true with older age groups, who prefer political giving.  

Gaming for Good 

The gaming industry is worth £7 billion in the U.K., meaning it poses a great opportunity for charities looking to invest in new fundraising methods and engage new audiences. 

Gaming and streaming – streaming is not necessarily gaming and can include sharing live D.J. sets, watching films, walking in the park, for example – is not necessarily new to charities, but it remains an under-utilised fundraising method. It invites people to donate as they engage with their hobbies (such as gaming), allowing streamers to raise funds and awareness for causes care about. Essentially, it is about meeting more donors where they already are, making fundraising easy for everyone. 

Many charities have already seen great success with gaming and streaming strategies, including the British Red Cross. Georgia Paton, Gaming and Streaming Manager at British Red Cross, discusses the impact of gaming and streaming at the charity and shares how other organisations can experience similar fundraising success.  

Artificial intelligence  

Artificial intelligence, or A.I., has been on every charity’s mind since ChatGPT emerged in late 2022. A.I. encompasses many different elements, from predictive (where data can be used to predict future outcomes) to generative (where information is scraped from various sources to create something new).  

The technology might seem daunting but many charities are already using A.I. to inform their fundraising, particularly in the predictive sense, using data from their C.R.M. systems to create tailored donor experiences. Generative A.I. is likely to increase in use for fundraising as a tool for storytelling, allowing charities and fundraisers to write clear, concise information that communicates their cause.  

However, while signs point to A.I. becoming a valuable tool for charities in the future, there is also a need for caution. A.I. is growing at a large scale and changing rapidly. Charities must consider ethical concerns around data, plagiarism, and misinformation before jumping in headfirst.  

You can find out more about using preparing for A.I. in our webinar, The future of charity marketing – preparing for A.I.  

There is more detail on the future of fundraising in our podcast, Digital fundraising trends for 2024. 

Fundraising challenges charities may face 

Current events 

In 2022, “Permacrisis” was the Collins’ Dictionary Word of the Year. The impact of COVID-19, followed by increasing inflation, international conflicts, and global natural disasters, has meant that recent years have felt like jumping from crisis to crisis.  

For charities, the 2020s have been particularly difficult so far, balancing a rise in demand for services and an increased need for funds to deliver them. According to Charities Aid Foundation (C.A.F.), nine in ten charities said they were concerned about rising living costs, with almost three in five worried about donors’ inability to donate. 

However, C.A.F. also found that 2022 was an impressive year for fundraising, with U.K. charities seeing £2 billion more donations than in 2021. The rise of inverse giving, as we’ve seen above, means that fundraising did not come to a halt even during times of crisis. Furthermore, research from a number of fundraising sources (including fundraising software providers iRaiser) indicates that the number of donors fell while the value of donations rose.  

The challenge for charities, therefore, is finding a way to keep donors engaged during difficult periods. Check out our webinar with Salesforce, How to retain donors during the cost-of-living crisis. 

Supporter experience  

Providing a good supporter experience is a crucial part of fundraising and keeping donors engaged. With the advent of online shopping, people are more inclined than ever to expect seamless online experiences. Charities that fail to offer a good supporter experience for their donors risk losing them.  

A good supporter experience means structuring your charity website to make content and navigation accessible. This means that donors can donate quickly and simply in as few steps as possible. Websites have a key role to play in delivering a good online fundraising experience. Research from Enthuse found that donors were far more likely to recall the charity they donated to when they did so directly through the charity’s website.  

Fortunately, 93% of charities already recognise the importance of a good supporter experience, according to the 2022 Supporter Experience report from Blackbaud. Two thirds say they make it a priority. However, despite three in five charities saying they are committed to creating a positive supporter experience, only a quarter classed their organisation as an eight or above when marking it out of ten.  

Providing a good fundraising experience for donors, therefore, remains a challenge for charities of all sizes and incomes. The Supporter Experience report found that that organisation size and income performance is not a factor in providing a good supporter experience, saying “a smaller non-profit is as likely to be a Supporter Experience Expert as a large organisation”.     

Absence of trust 

One of the main barriers to fundraising is a lack of trust in what charities will do with the funds. The Ipsos Veracity Index 2022 revealed that half of people do not trust charity chief executives to tell the truth, while research from the Charity Commission shows that donors are willing to give their funds to other charities if they feel their support is not delivering an impact. 

Donors are more committed to causes than to specific charities, with the Charity Commission adding that “there was a strong sense that participants felt they owned their donations, particularly when financial donations were felt to have been ‘hard earned’”. 

Philanthropic impact is the second most researched aspect of a charity, according to research highlighted by financial experts Sage Intacct, followed by overall efficiency. Charities must demonstrate that they are responsible with the funds they raise and communicate the impact they have to donors, both prospective and existing.  

For more about barriers to donating, and the importance of trust, check out this article.  
 

Sustainability in fundraising  

Environmental sustainability is becoming increasingly important for charities, as the climate crisis worsens and focus turns to changing behaviours. Donors are among the charity audiences who want to know that the charity they are fundraising for is behaving responsibly when it comes to the environment.  

Many charities have already faced pressure from their supporters to end partnerships with organisations who are lacking in good environmental practices, such as fossil fuel companies and banks with investments in fossil fuels.  

Similarly, the Chartered Institute of Fundraising points to research from the Institute of Customer Service which shows that 49% of consumers consider the environment more than they did ten years ago when choosing an organisation to support. This trend will likely carry over into the charity sector, compelling charities to share their environmental policies and limit their environmental impact. Not only is it the right thing to do, the reputational value of good environmental practices are invaluable to fundraising efforts.  

Charities should also think about the environmental impact of their fundraising itself. Every aspect of a charity’s operations should be considered in an environmental audit, including fundraising. Take events, for example. Charities should ask themselves where they can reduce waste. Creating new apps for events every year can increase the carbon emissions of the data servers required to store them. Tote bags can end up in landfill and plastic in our oceans. Including sustainability in fundraising plans is a critical challenge that charities must face.  

You can hear more about what to include in your environmental policies in our podcast below: 

Fundraising methods to choose from 

There are many different ways for donors to give to charity in 2023 – it is not simply a choice between cash or cashless, in-person or digital.  

Indeed, digital fundraising encompasses everything from website donations to text-to-donate. Digital fundraising has become increasingly popular with both charities and donors over recent years, experiencing a boom at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Charities must suit their methods of fundraising to the needs of their supporters. More than a third of donors (36%) said they would give more to charity if it was easier for them to do so, according to research from Salesforce. 

Below, we explore different methods of fundraising and examine recent trends which determine their importance within a charity’s fundraising strategy in 2023.  

Cash 

Fundraising changed drastically during COVID-19, with in-person fundraising affected the most due to lockdown restrictions and social distancing measures. However, in 2023, in-person fundraising remains a popular option for charities and donors alike. Giving cash on the street was the most popular method of charitable giving among young donors, according to a report from Barclays Corporate Banking, followed by social media donations.  

However, the 2023 Giving Report from C.A.F. shows that cash giving is in decline compared to previous years, falling from 51% in 2019 to 29% in 2021. While cash giving increased slightly in 2022, with 35% of donors giving to charity this way, the report speaks to a sustained move away from cash donations overall.  

Card payments and direct debit 

According to C.A.F.’s Giving Report, 37% of donors who had given to charity over the last year said they did so via direct debit. A quarter said they gave to charity via debit card, a nine percentage point increase since 2019.  

Again, this reflects wider societal trends, which have seen cash payments decline from 55% of all transactions in 2011 to just 15% in 2022. The pandemic has certainly accelerated the move away from cash, and while research suggests that people are returning to their preferred methods of payment as we recover, cash payments are still expected to account for only 6% of transactions by 2031, meaning card payments and direct debit will likely become even more important for charities going forward.  

Websites and apps  

The 2023 Giving Report found that 26% of people gave to charity via a website or app in 2022, a six percentage point increase on 2019. This increase is promising for charities, as research from Enthuse indicates that charities are more likely to remember the name of the charity they gave to if donating directly through their website.  

According to the 2023 Summer Donor Pulse report, the average direct donation to charities is 43% higher than those made via a consumer giving platform (£49.36 vs £31.89). More than half of donors (52%) cite unclear or not visible branding as the reason they are unable to remember the charity they gave to.  

Other fundraising methods charities should consider include crowdfunding, mobile lotteries, fundraising events, and legacy fundraising. Legacy fundraising, in particular, is growing, with income reaching £3.85 billion in 2022. Charities should bear in mind, however, that legacy fundraising can be unpredictable in terms of timing and is unlikely to deliver immediate impact to the bottom line.  

Digital fundraising platforms  

You can find out more about setting key performance indicators to inform your next fundraising strategy in our webinar with Wood for Trees here.  

Ultimately, the right data can help you to understand your audiences better and assess whether your current processes are working for them, not against them. With 38% of organisations saying they don’t know where to begin when it comes to measuring supporter experience, the charity sector must address this challenge in order to boost their fundraising efforts in future.  

Fundraising trends may help charities innovate, but their existing data will ultimately determine the actions they take to suit their donors.