Faith Communities

The Faith Communities sector includes mission-based non-profit organizations with missions arising out of their faith and religious identity. Catholic dioceses, parishes, and protestant churches also make up a part of this group. While Faith Communities encompass a broad variety of religious beliefs, they all seek to deepen and grow a vibrant community of faith that serves the world. 
 
With a large focus on meeting human needs, Faith Communities saw the strongest increases in online fundraising and engagement out of all sectors other than Food Banks. 

Online Giving & Sustainer Trends

  • Total online revenue increased (32.2%) at a rate higher than the industry (14.2%), excluding Food Banks.
  • Sustainer revenue as a percentage of total revenue (31.5%) exceeded all other sectors (9%), other than Food Banks.
  • Driven by a large increase in one-time donations, Faith Communities were the only organizations to experience a decrease in sustainer revenue as a percentage of total (-13.6%).

Email Engagement Trends

  • Faith Communities continued to show growing sophistication in email marketing, by exceeding industry averages in click rates for all emails (1.7%) and fundraising emails (1.2%).
  • Fundraising clickthrough rates improved year-over-year by 39%.
  • Usable email lists were slightly higher than the industry median (64.9%) at 68.4%.

Overall, the Blackbaud tools made it possible for us to feature our mission and showcase our great priests and parish communities. Because the tech part was taken care of, we could focus on the joyful parts of parish life, and we were able to help keep people connected even in the middle of the pandemic.

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.