President Trump’s tariff announcements and the accompanying stock-market volatility are leading online donors to pull back, according to several big fundraising companies.
Experts disagree on how fundraisers should proceed, with some urging caution and others saying charities need to push ahead with ambitious campaigns — a strategy choice reminiscent of what groups faced in the pandemic’s early days.
Zeffy, a company whose fee-free online platform is used by about 50,000 charities, reports the most severe downturn in giving. Donated dollars were largely flat for the year until Trump announced a host of tariffs in early April. After that, Zeffy saw donations drop precipitously. For the week ending April 14, donations declined by about a quarter. The next week, they plunged by 37 percent, from about $29 million in 2024 to $18 million.
“People are feeling worried and more risk averse,” says CEO François de Kerret. “They’re probably postponing their donations for later in the year.”
At Donorbox, which helps 35,000 charities, 2025 was shaping up to be a banner year. Donations were up 30 percent in the first quarter compared with a year ago. But in April, the amount of money raised dropped nearly 11 percent, says Sara Guappone, the company’s marketing director.
Bloomerang, which about 26,000 charities use, saw mixed performance in April, said Ann Fellman, the charity’s chief marketing officer. Speaking after a session of the AFP Icon conference for fundraisers in Seattle, Fellman said she was hearing from others that many donors are holding off on making large gifts.
Large Gifts Dry Up
De Kerret says a decline in large gifts drove the plunge in Zeffy fundraising. In the two weeks of sharp declines that started April 7, donations under $500 declined by only about 30 percent in total dollars, while those of $500 or more were cut in half.
Wealthier donors — who are more likely than others to have stock investments — may be more apt to pause donations, especially big ones, when the market swoons. De Kerret says charities should wait for a less turbulent period if they’re planning a major campaign.
“If they can delay, and they don’t have any reason to do it now, I would wait a few months,” he says.
But others say it’s always a good time to ask if you do it in the right way. GivingTuesday’s preliminary first-quarter data shows that donors are more receptive to solicitations than normal, while charities are making fewer asks.
“If we don’t see donations go up, it’s going to be because nonprofits have retreated from the marketplace,” says Woodrow Rosenbaum, GivingTuesday’s chief data officer and head of its GivingPulse survey of Americans. “They don’t engage because they think things are going to be bad. Then when it doesn’t work out well, they validate the choice they’ve made.”
A GivingPulse report on 2024 giving found that the charitable sector could raise an additional $19 billion to $46 billion per year by reaching out to people who aren’t currently solicited. That would increase donations from individuals, now at $374 billion, by 5 percent to 12 percent.
During the early days of the Covid pandemic, many donors were expected to give less, and some fundraisers responded by retreating. But the opposite happened, Rosenbaum says. “When people were actually engaged, they were more likely to respond. In the moment, being able to ‘do good’ helped people feel like they had agency.”
Bloomerang data from that time suggests that sustained engagement was rewarded. Charities that sent out crisis appeals in March 2020 saw fundraising revenue shoot up 30 percent over the prior year, while those that relied on standard solicitations or didn’t email their supporters at all saw a 20 percent drop.
These figures are relevant for 2025, Fellman says — especially if the economy worsens.
“Don’t decide for donors whether or not they can give — lean in and make the ask,” she says. “Be transparent about the situation you’re in. Your donors care about you. Now is an important time to lean in.”
Navigating Politics
Still, making a crisis appeal is more complicated today than in 2020. Plenty of charities adversely affected by Trump’s tariffs or executive orders may be reluctant to point to the source of their pain, fearing either pushback from some of their donors or retaliation from the Trump administration. Guappone says Donorbox’s fundraising coach is encouraging charities to launch joint appeals with other groups caught in this bind.
“There’s fear, there’s concern,” Guappone says. “Charities don’t know how to ask for donations now. They can’t directly say, ‘Hey, we’re at the mercy of President Trump.’ They have to remain politically neutral.”
To win over donors who are feeling poor, Fellman suggests organizations encourage recurring giving, where even $10 monthly pledges can bring a lot of value. “That will feel more palatable to someone with a stock portfolio that’s down,” she says.
M+R, a consulting firm that handles online fundraising for many progressive charities, hasn’t yet experienced a drop in donations, says Jonathan Benton, a senior vice president who oversees analytics at the company. But he also notes that all-important end-of-year appeals are still six months away.
“If the economy is still looking bad in September,” Benton says, “everyone is going to be on edge.”
