A majority of donors who previously participated in fundraising events, giving days, or peer-to-peer campaigns say they will again feel comfortable attending in-person fundraising events in the next several months, so long as certain conditions are present.
In a new survey, 71 percent of these “social donors” said they would feel comfortable attending a fundraising event in person before the end of fall 2021, and 57 percent said they would feel comfortable doing so before the end of the summer. But a notable number — 21 percent — said they would not feel comfortable attending in-person events until at least winter of this year, and 16 percent said they would not take part in an in-person event until at least 2022.
These results come from a survey commissioned by fundraising software provider OneCause. In April, polling firm Edge Research surveyed a representative sample of 1,026 self-described social donors who had given to or participated in a fundraising event or social fundraising campaign in the past year.
But not all donors who said they’d be comfortable attending an event actually plan to do so. When asked to describe how they planned to engage with charity events in a post-pandemic era, 38 percent said they would limit themselves either exclusively or mostly to virtual events. Another 30 percent said they would participate in a mix of both in-person and virtual events, and 22 percent said they plan to mostly or only attend in-person fundraising events.
More Americans are contributing as a result of events, galas, and giving days, the survey found, with 27 percent of respondents having done so in 2020 compared with 23 percent in 2018, when OneCause conducted a similar study. The shift to virtual events may be one reason for this upward trend.
Online and virtual fundraising events during the pandemic helped broaden organizations’ reach and accessibility, said Jenna Jameson, corporate communications manager for OneCause. “We saw younger, more diverse donors participating in this than we had in previous years.”
Asked to list the types of events they attended in the previous year, 40 percent of respondents said they participated in runs, walks, or rides; 39 percent participated in fundraising events linked to occasions such as a birthday or a memorial; 38 percent participated in giving days; 32 percent in virtual or in-person fundraising galas or events, and 28 percent in fundraising challenges along the lines of the ice-bucket challenge.
“It’s important to understand when you can start bringing some in-person back into your mix,” Jameson added. “What does engagement look like post-pandemic? It’s a mix of in-person and virtual. It’s not a switch back.”
Generational Differences
The vaccine status of donors, their families, and fellow attendees is a big factor in whether individuals will attend in-person fundraising events. Asked to list one or more preconditions for attending an event, 51 percent of respondents said they would need to be vaccinated before attending, while 36 percent said their household or family would also need to be vaccinated, and 35 percent said all event attendees would need to be vaccinated. At the time of the survey, 55 percent of respondents said they had been vaccinated.
Donor comfort varied by generation. Compared with millennials and those in the younger Generation Z, older donors were more likely to say they would need to be vaccinated or the event would have to be outside. Donors born before 1964 were also much more likely than younger generations to say they wanted to see low local Covid-19 transmission rates, CDC guidelines declaring in-person events to be safe, and limited-capacities at events before attending larger functions. Meanwhile, Gen Z donors were significantly more likely than their older peers to say attendees would need to have had a negative Covid-19 test for them to feel comfortable attending an event.
Younger donors are increasingly taking part in fundraising events. The survey found millennials and Gen Z donors represented 56 percent of “social donors” in 2020, up from 40 percent in 2018. Further, these younger donors were significantly more likely than their older peers to say they had donated in response to a current issue or need. Fifty-four percent of Gen Z donors and 50 percent of millennials said they donated in response to a current need, compared with 37 percent of Gen X donors and 18 percent of baby boomers and older donors. Younger people also gave more money at fundraising events and challenges. Last year Gen Z donors gave an average of $225 at social giving events and millennials donated an average of $277. Gen X donors gave an average of $209, and Baby Boomers and older supporters an average of $142.
“When you just look at millennials, they were the biggest percentage in the study, they donated to the most organizations, and they gave the most on average,” said Kelly Velasquez-Hague, vice president of content marketing and brand engagement at OneCause. “We call them the caretakers of the pandemic.”
Social donors are also increasingly racially diverse. In 2020, 59 percent identified as non-Hispanic white people, down from 69 percent in 2018. Twenty-two percent said they were Hispanic, up from 18 percent in 2018, and 19 percent said they were Black, up from 7 percent in 2018.
Shifting Ways to Give
Donors who give in social settings have become more comfortable with electronic methods of giving. Forty-eight percent of respondents made a donation through a website, up from 38 percent in 2018. Mobile donations soared, with 23 percent of respondents reporting having made a gift via smartphone or tablet in 2020, up from 8 percent in 2018. Text-message donations also grew in popularity, with 12 percent of respondents giving that way in 2020 compared with 4 percent in 2018.
These shifts in donation medium may persist, Jameson said. “That’s not going to just flip back once we start having more in-person gatherings.”
Inversely, the share of people who made a cash or check donation in person declined from 55 percent in 2018 to 36 percent in 2020.
But not all analog forms of giving dropped in popularity. The share of social donors who gave through the mail increased from 7 percent in 2018 to 16 percent in 2020.
