Fundraising lessons from the last year

Digital fundraising has been essential for charities since well-before the pandemic. But COVID-19, and all the restrictions that came with it, certainly accelerated the pace of adoption in the charity sector, with 48% of charities telling Charities Aid Foundation that the pandemic had changed fundraising forever.  

In November 2020, the same survey revealed that 51% of charities planned to do more digital campaign activity via apps, websites or social media, while 45% had increased their card, contactless and digital payment capability.

Charities who embraced digital payment options in 2020 may be finding themselves in a better place in 2023, with more recent research suggesting that digital fundraising is not only the norm but booming, too.  

The Global Giving Indicators report, from digital fundraising solutions provider iRaiser, looked at donations to charities that came through their software between 2021 and 2022. The report revealed that charities raised 20% more through single gifts online in 2022 than they did in 2021. Almost half (44%) of donations came through mobile phones, while 52% came through desktop.  

The report also found that donations via desktop tended to be higher than those giving via mobile, suggesting that digital fundraising in itself contains a multitude of opportunities for charities to reach more supporters. Charities must keep up to date with supporter behaviour, new platforms, and preferred ways of donating. 

The Global Giving Indicators report intends to help charities do just that. Its aim is to provide a point of reference that organisations can build off by observing trends and understanding the wider direction of the sector.  

Below, we explore three more of the trends from the Global Giving Indicators report and examine what this means for the charity sector going forward.  

Download the report

Fundraising lessons from 2022 

Fewer donations, more money 

There has been increasing concerns over the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on donations, but iRaiser’s report revealed that, while there were 5% fewer online donations between 2021 and 2022, the average donation size was higher. The average gift size in the UK was £77, 27% higher than in 2021.  

This demonstrates that, although charities have worked to do in engaging their lapsed donors, it is also vital that they continue to nurture existing supporters who are giving more than before. Thank you messages and information on what their donation has funded can go a long way.  

It also shows how keeping up with fundraising trends and monitoring your results can help organisations stay agile. The cost-of-living crisis may be affecting donations, but not in the way you expect. Being able to pivot resources to the right areas will keep funds coming in, even when the number of transactions themselves are slowing.  

Desktop dominates 

The average donation size in the UK amounted to £77 overall, but donations via desktop were much higher, averaging £111. Donations via tablet were around £82 on average, while donations via mobile averaged £63.  

This variation could be for a variety of reasons, but points to the importance of a good online user experience, whether donors are accessing your website via mobile or desktop. It also indicates the value in digging further into your data – working out why desktop donations are higher could be the key to raising the average gift size overall.   

Volume vs Value  

In the interests of digging into your data, the report, as we mentioned above, also looked at the volume and value of online donations. By looking at both, iRaiser revealed that not only was the gift amount higher via desktop, but also slightly more donations came through that channel, once again indicating how crucial maintaining the web experience is for charities.  

The report also discovered that, while three in five donations were paid via credit card, these payments accounted for three quarters of the highest donations received. Average donations via credit card were double those coming from PayPal (£88 and £44 respectively).  

Splitting this data into value and volume helps charities identify trends, confirm areas of success, and provide evidence to support your future plans. You can find out more information from 2022’s fundraising patterns by downloading the full Global Giving Indicators report below.