As the election gets closer, many nonprofit fundraisers worry their appeals will get lost in the fray of campaign season. But a new survey has found the conventional wisdom that people curb their giving during elections doesn’t hold true for all donors. The research was conducted by Blue State, a consultancy that works with both nonprofits and campaigns on fundraising and advertising.
“The data actually tells a little bit of a different story,” says Chris Maddocks, senior vice president for creative strategy at Blue State. “People that give larger gifts at the midlevel, $1,000 to $10,000, are really interested in both the causes that they support and the campaigns. They have both the cash flow and the ability to give more gifts. And they’re saying that they are more likely to do that again in the future.”
Blue State surveyed 2,117 Americans about how the election could impact their charitable giving. Among the findings:
- Thirty percent of people under age 45 and 32 percent of people with household incomes over $100,000 said they would donate to both nonprofits and political causes in 2024.
- Fourteen percent of donors are so turned off by the political messages in their emails that they close their email program after seeing them.
- A quarter of respondents said they have given to charities in response to an election. Thought of as “rage giving,” these donors tend to be younger. The survey found people under the age of 45 are five times more likely to donate in response to an election than those over 65. Donors who have made contributions of $1,000 or more were more likely to give in response to an election (47 percent) than those who have not given at that level (27 percent).
Maddocks noted that voters in battleground states were already experiencing election fatigue, even though they were surveyed in April. That feeling, he says, will likely deepen as the election nears, so nonprofits should be mindful that some people will be turned off by election requests and spend less time with email, in general, because of it. Charities shouldn’t abandon all appeals, but they do need to think differently, Maddocks says.
“You still have to reach out,” he says. “You have to do all the right things, but we have to really think smart about our expectations, our budgeting, and also how we’re going to engage.”
He’s telling nonprofit clients that if they have the data, they should target those midlevel donors who seem willing to support both charities and candidates. He also warns that digital and TV ad costs are going to skyrocket from August through October, so they may not be worth the expense.
“On the positive side, though, media costs are going to really plummet after the election,” Maddocks says, and that will be just in time for charities to begin their GivingTuesday and end-of-year pushes. He says past election-year research indicates that charitable giving bounces back fairly quickly after the election.
