Forty-five percent of charities in a new study said they’d expanded their donor rolls since the outbreak of Covid-19 last year. And 88 percent said the pandemic either boosted or hadn’t changed their confidence in their organization’s health.
Donors expressed confidence in nonprofits, too. More than one-third said they had given more during the pandemic. The findings come from a Blackbaud Institute and Edge Research survey of 1,169 nonprofit professionals and 1,024 nonprofit donors in June and July.
The study offers good news for fundraisers going into the year-end giving season. But the authors warn fundraisers not to fumble this moment of increased generosity.
Rather than make assumptions based on donor data, fundraisers should ask donors directly how they want the charity to communicate with them and what kind of information they hope to learn, says Mark Rovner, principal at fundraising consultancy Sea Change Strategies and co-author of the report. Donor surveys, focus groups, and phone calls are all great ways for fundraisers to learn more about what their donors want, he says.
Donors were much more likely to think positively about charities that tailor their outreach to their specific interests and requests, the survey found. Donors especially want nonprofits to ask them whether they preferred to be contacted by email, text, or another means of communication.
It’s especially important for fundraisers to put these questions to donors who made their first gifts during the pandemic, according to the authors. On average, 43 percent of donors surveyed had made a first-time contribution to a nonprofit during the pandemic.
These new donors were generally younger and more diverse than longtime supporters. Nearly 60 percent of Generation Z and millennial donors said they had given to a nonprofit since March 2020 that they had never previously supported; 36 percent of Generation X donors and 27 percent of baby boomer donors said the same.
Donors of color have led the increase in giving. The study found that 46 percent of Black donors, 44 percent of Hispanic donors, and 38 percent of Asian American donors have given more since the pandemic began, compared with just 33 percent of white donors. At 54 percent, Hispanic donors were the most likely to say they had contributed to a nonprofit they had not supported before. Human-service charities were the most popular among donors of all ethnicities.
More donors of color gave to campaigns for Covid-19-related support and racial- or social-justice efforts than white donors did, according to the study.
Changes at Year’s End
Fundraisers can’t assume the old rules of year-end giving appeals apply to 2021 now that a new demographic of donors has left its mark, says Ashley Thompson, managing director of the Blackbaud Institute and co-author of the report.
“They may have given to respond to a need but may not actually be very familiar and have an intimate relationship with the organization itself,” Thompson says. “Being able to tell that story in a way that gets them to come back will be really important.”
Fundraisers shouldn’t make assumptions about how younger, more diverse donors will behave, Rovner says. “That puts a lot of pressure, a lot more onus on the nonprofits to devote more time to listening.”
Thompson says nonprofits saw a similar surge of new donors in 2017, when the #MeToo movement and presidential election inspired donors to give. But nonprofits largely blew that opportunity to connect with a new demographic, she says. “If we haven’t learned the lessons of the past, we should be doing so now.”
Communications that address donors by name or outline local issues that affect supporters directly are all popular with donors, the authors say. Forty percent of all donors said personalized content is a great idea, while 30 percent said they don’t mind it. Millennial donors were the most enthusiastic about receiving personalized content from nonprofits, with 59 percent saying they thought it was a great idea.
Among the other findings:
- 44 percent of donors said they want nonprofits to continue offering the same number of virtual events in the future as they have during the pandemic; 24 percent said they hope nonprofits will offer more.
- Among donors who started giving to a nonprofit during the pandemic that they hadn’t supported before, 29 percent said they were very likely to follow up that first-time contribution with a monthly gift.
