Online Fundraising by the Numbers

This week, as part of our Back to School Yourself in Social Good series, we will be taking a look at the basics, strategies and trends in online fundraising, advocacy and education. These three goals – among others – are what we consider the three main drivers behind social media for social good.

So, let’s begin with fundraising.

Online fundraising revenue continues to grow exponentially, with more users donating for their nonprofit causes on social media platforms than ever before. There have been several fantastic studies released this year on the success of social media in nonprofit fundraising. Below, we take a look at some of the numbers.

Less than 10% of all fundraising in the U.S. happens online. While online fundraising is a growing trend and more and more nonprofits are investing in e-fundraising platforms, it still not does constitute the majority of funds raised by most nonprofits.

The percentage of nonprofits that believe the goal of social media is to generate more fundraising. While advocacy and education are important, the majority of causes are attempting to use their social media influence to generate some cash.

The percent of online donations increased from 2010 to 2011. While not as high as 2010, this 15.8% increase affected all major areas, except the disaster and international relief organizations – which had seen a large spike in donations in 2010 as a result of emergency humanitarian needs.

 The average annual online revenue among nonprofits (including both large and small organizations).

 The average growth rate of online donations for hospitals. Hospitals, followed by food banks with 45.1%, received the highest increase in online revenue growth in 2011. Again, the only sector that experienced a decline was disaster and international relief.

 The average online donation in 2011. Higher education, human and social services and hospitals all ranked the highest in sectors receiving donations.

The average amount raised per usable email address per year. This number is slightly higher than $12.48 in 2010 and $11.68 in 2009.

The percentage of enlisted online advocates who donated in 2011. This is a substantial increase from the 6.42% in 2010 and 5.97% in 2009. As noted by Convio in the study, this mostly likely is a reflection of stronger integration of fundraising among advocacy audiences.

What do you think?

We also recommend taking a look at these great resources:

• The Convio Online Marketing Nonprofit Benchmarking Index Study by Convio
• 2012 eNonprofit Benchmark Study by M+R Strategic Services and Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN)
• 5 Biggest Trends in Online Fundraising by Blackbaud

The “Back to School Yourself in Social Good” series will share the basics, the strategies, the experts and – yes — even homework, on how you can better use social media for social good. We’ll be covering topics like cause marketing, corporate responsibility and leading trends in online fundraising.