More charities are seeking monthly donations these days because of evidence that such gifts wind up being more valuable over time than contributions from donors who give annually or irregularly. But new data shows that monthly donors may be even more valuable than previously thought.
Of those who made a one-time donation and returned to start a recurring plan, one in four made at least one additional gift after signing up for monthly contributions, according to a new report by Classy, an online fundraising platform.
One-time donors who became recurring givers activated their monthly giving plan a median of 214 days after their first contribution. By contrast, donors who didn’t sign up for monthly giving but made a second gift did so an average of 349 days after their first gift.
However, the vast majority of return online donors — 94 percent — follow up their first gift with another stand-alone donation. Only 2 percent follow up with a monthly giving agreement.
Return Fundraisers
The second annual report from Classy focuses on the follow-up actions of donors after they made an initial gift to a charity, including raising money on behalf the group.
The study found that more than half of donors used the same device for their second gift as they did for their first.
Among other findings:
- 14 percent of people who raised money on behalf of a charity created new fundraising pages for the same organization within two years. When they returned, they raised much more: a median of $501 for return fundraisers, versus $222 for first-timers.
- 19 percent of return donors gave their second gift within three months of their first; 29 percent returned to give within the first six months of their initial contribution.
- 61 percent of first-time donors and 59 percent of return donors were women.
Classy’s Benchmarks for Online Fundraising Campaigns
| Median one-time gift | $50 |
| Median monthly gift | $24 |
| Median amount raised by a campaign | $2,375 |
| Median amount raised by a volunteer | $105 |
| Traffic from mobile devices | 51% |
| Traffic from social media | 57% |
| Share of those who gave out of all who reached the donation page | 24% |
| Share of all annual online donations in 2018 that were raised from Giving Tuesday through Dec. 31 | 29% |
Note: Based on data from nearly 1 million transactions in 2017 and 2018
Source: “The State of Modern Philanthropy 2019,” Classy
Corrections: A previous version of this article did not clearly explain that one monthly donor in four who made further gifts were those who started with a one-time contribution. The piece has also clarified a point about the giving portals through which donors contribute, and we have deleted a line about giving to charity by buying an event ticket.
