One-time giving increased by 15.6% from 2019 to 2020 (compared with it decreasing 1% from 2018 to 2019), led by giving to Food Banks which surged by 453%. This increase was largely fueled by emergency giving related to the pandemic and the disruption of other fundraising channels.
While one-time giving spiked and plummeted throughout the year (with the highest increases in May/June and November/December), sustainer, or monthly recurring giving, grew by 14-20% every month.
Until 2020, the number of online transactions and first-time donors has steadily declined. However COVID-19 enticed new online donors, increasing the one-time online transaction numbers by nearly 16% year over year. The average dollar amount of every type of transaction also increased more than previous years.
The increase in one-time emergency giving likely changed online revenue composition for organizations, forcing the median share of sustainer giving to decline from 11% in 2019 to 9% in 2020.
As emergency giving and channel disruption drove email donations, email fundraising increased 42.4% and the email conversion rate increased by 17.9%.
Finally! Nonprofits are evolving their practices and rebounding after years of declining email performance. Total email clickthroughs (29%) increased twice as much as total emails sent (13.9%) year over year. Just in time as email tracking could undergo huge changes.
One-time revenue notched a significant increase in 2020 but sustainer, or monthly recurring, giving still grew by more–at 17.9% year over year. It’s the 9th consecutive Luminate Online Benchmark Report that monthly giving revenue growth has grown faster than one-time giving.
