Environment and Wildlife

The Environment and Wildlife sector encompasses globally and locally focused organizations that are working to preserve and protect nature, wildlife, parks, and reserves and to address urgent environmental challenges.  

Travel restrictions under COVID-19 derailed many of the larger international environmental meetings and negotiations. At the local level, the pandemic impacted educational efforts and hands-on activities. However, online funding levels for this sector continued to see positive growth, indicating a success in building a strong movement of environmental stewards.  

Online Giving & Sustainer Trends

  • Sustainer revenue grew by 18.1%. Sustainers now comprise 20.4% of total revenue.
  • Sustainer revenue as a percentage of total income grew at 6.9%, far exceeding the industry median growth of 0.21%.
  • The percentage of email subscribers that donate (7.7%) continues to underperform against the industry median (13.4%).

Email Engagement Trends

  • With a record year for hurricanes, heatwaves and wildfires, Environmental organizations experienced strong email list growth (9.4%).
  • There was a sharp decline in fundraising emails sent (-8.4%).
  • However, donors responded positively to the emails they received—the fundraising email open rate was16.91% and fundraising email conversion rate was 0.42%, which exceeded the industry median (0.35%).

Which of these trends will continue?

Blackbaud experts identify the 2020 trends likely to continue into 2022 and suggest ideas and tactics to make the most of online fundraising.