Smartphones Grow to Dominate Mobile Giving, Study Finds

Mobile giving jumped by 45 percent from 2014 to 2015, according to new data from Blackbaud, a processor of online donations.

One in seven online donors gave using a mobile device in 2015, up from one in 10 the previous year, and more gave using smartphones than tablets, the study found.

The company discovered similar results during last December’s Giving Tuesday, when 17 percent of donors gave by mobile devices, up from 13 percent during the previous year’s event.

The results also reflect the continued proliferation of mobile devices. Sixty-eight percent of American adults now own a smartphone, and 45 percent own a tablet, according to the Pew Research Center.

Blackbaud drew data from 1,193 small and midsize charities, including 249,000 gifts and 95,000 fundraising-event registrations made last year.

The study also found that iPads are no longer the dominant platform for making mobile gifts. They accounted for 61 percent of mobile gifts in 2014 but only 43 percent last year.

Smartphones were used more often last year: Forty-two percent of gifts were made on iPhones and 14 percent on Android phones in 2015, up from 30 percent and 10 percent, respectively, in 2014.

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