A data-driven look at how 211 nonprofits treat the year-end giving season—with additional insights on how you can improve results this season.
In this benchmark report, we’ll dive into year-end fundraising—the biggest giving season of the year.
You’ll explore how organizations communicate during year-end including overall strategy, email frequency, communication types, and more. Plus, you’ll discover proven tactics that can improve your year-end communication.
You’ll also see how various year-end strategies correlate with overall donor retention performance.
The research sample for this report reflects nonprofits ranging from at least $1 Million in annual revenue to +$100 Million.
Organizations in this study represent each key nonprofit vertical including:
Faith Based • Human Services • International Organizations • Animal, Environment, & Agriculture • Health • Education • Arts, Cultures, & Humanities • Public Policy & Advocacy
Our friends at Virtuous helped create the sample of organizations within this report so that we can compare the donor experience to actual donor retention performance data.
This means that every organization in the research study has access to a modern donor CRM and essential marketing automation tools. One could assume this means that each organization uses sophisticated marketing and development strategies. But read on and you may be surprised at some of the fidnings.
During the last 45 days of the year, there is a heightened sense of motivation to give to nonprofit organizations.
Organizations across the sector often see anywhere from 20%-50% of revenue being brought in during year end.
Looking at this stat alone, many realize this critical time of fundraising can determine the future of many organizations’ programs in the following year.
Maintaining consistent communication with donors during this season is vital to ensuring their continued support with such critical funding at stake. Effective donor engagement can mean the difference between meeting or falling short of fundraising goals, which in turn can influence an organization’s ability to execute their mission.
When looking at the communication frequency of 211 organizations, we found that 40% of nonprofits did not send a single email to their online donors during the entire year-season (November 15—December 31, 2023).
On top of that, 29% of organizations sent nothing to their donors at all including direct mail!
There could be various reasons for this communication gap—ranging from limited resources to a lack of a communication strategy. But what’s most important is recognizing the value of cultivating relationships with online donors during a season that is extremely competitive in the inbox.
Nonprofits and for-profits alike are competing for the donor’s attention in the inbox nearly every day of the year-end season. If you choose to opt-out of communicating with your donors, you are leaving significant revenue on the table—revenue that can fuel your mission and impact in the next year.
Having an email communication plan in place will set your organization apart from the 40% of organizations that do not communicate with their online donors.
But simply creating a plan is just the tip of the iceberg. Read on to uncover ways to further improve your donor communication plans during the year-end season.
Find out how we can help your nonprofit achieve sustainable growth with your 3-Year Fundraising Roadmap – go from “what now” to “dialed in” in less than 90 days.
Many fundraisers find it to be challenging to stand out from the noise and get their donors’ attention when every other organization is saying all the same things.
Using a multi-channel approach is a primary strategy to stand out in such a crowded and busy season.
Looking at our email inbox and postal mail during the 2023 year end season, we received 2,003 emails and 248 pieces of mail. Most organizations communicated via a single channel (if at all). Only 36% of organizations communicated with their donors in multiple channels during the year end season.
But how much does a multi-channel approach impact results?
31% of the direct mail we received during this research was from organizations we did not give to.
This shows just how competitive the year end season. Organizations are actively buying, selling, and renting lists to give themselves the best chance of being seen during this critical season.
This makes it all the more important for you to ensure you have a well-defined communication plan based on tested and proven principles.
When we compare the retention rates of organizations to their communication strategy, we found the mid and high performing organizations are much more likely to utilize a multi-channel communication strategy.
Additionally, experimentation has proven that a multi-communication strategy often increases campaign performance.
In the experiment below, one organization added a text-message sent in tandem with a year-end email appeal. Adding a text message along with an email appeal increased donations by 27%.
There is a lot more to learn about how organizations are communicating during year-end—and how you can improve your results based on proven strategies.
Check back soon for insights on:
October 17th
What days and times are nonprofits sending email communication?
How important is Giving Tuesday to your year-end campaign?
October 24th
How does cultivation impact giving?
Key Year-End Performance Metrics
Everyone wants to know what the best time is to send an email. But if everyone sends at the “best” time, then it’s suddenly the most crowded time.
And a crowded inbox makes it hard to stand out, especially when every email subject line says something to the effect of “Time Is Running Out to Give!”
Most marketers will tell you to send some time within this range because it’s a prime time to catch people early in their workday when they are more likely to check their email.
However, this widespread practice creates a crowded inbox during these peak hours.
Fundraisers should think beyond just the “best time of day” in a generalized sense and instead focus on standing out by experimenting with less traditional times.
Our experimentation indicates there is no definitive “best time” to send an email. One a/b test may conclude that afternoons are better. And a different a/b test may conclude that mornings are better.
There are simply too many factors at play to determine a universal, optimal send time.
Instead of fixating on the “best time to send an email”, consider an email strategy that blends emails both at peak times and non-traditional times.
You may have a greater chance of standing out in the inbox by sending on a weekend when recipients may have more time to consider whether to give and how much they can give.
Of the 2,003 emails we analyzed during the year-end season, a substantial 41% were sent either on Giving Tuesday or in the final week of the year. Specifically, we received 404 emails alone during Giving Tuesday week.
This trend suggests that many organizations emphasize Giving Tuesday communication more than reaching donors on December 31st.
Has Giving Tuesday grown so much that it is now more valuable than December 31st?
In the next section, you’ll see exactly how donation revenue on Giving Tuesday and December 31st compares—and how you should prioritize these giving days in your communication plans.
As Giving Tuesday continues to grow in revenue year after year, the natural temptation is to give it more time and attention in our year-end communications.
Shockingly, some fundraisers spend more time planning for Giving Tuesday than for December 31st. So let’s dive deeper to see exactly how to prioritize these two major giving days.
First, let’s look at how much revenue is at stake.
Even more, the last full week of 2023 brought in an additional 32% of online year-end revenue.
Giving Tuesday, although it is a major day of giving, pales in comparison to the revenue that is at stake during the last week of the year.
This means you should prioritize building communication plans that activate donors leading up to December 31st. If, due to capacity and resource constraints, you can only execute a communication plan around one of these giving days, December 31st is the obvious choice given the potential return on investment.
Despite the clear revenue argument to prioritize December 31st, our research shows that many organizations have the opposite priority in their communications plans.
The chart above shows the percentage of organizations that emailed donors on each key giving day. Significantly more organizations chose to communicate with donors on Giving Tuesday than on December 31st.
In our research, we identified 41 organizations who emailed donors on either Giving Tuesday or December 31st—but did not email on both days. Interestingly, of these organizations, 88% decided to email donors on Giving Tuesday only, ignoring the higher revenue potential of December 31st entirely.
The most shocking finding is that nearly 2 in 5 organizations sent nothing on either of these key giving days.
One of the most significant findings is that organizations with high retention rates send less information driven content during the year-end season.
Instead of overwhelming their audience with newsletters and organizational updates, these organizations focus on more engaging and personalized communication, which resonates better with their donors.
Not all cultivation communication is the same. There is a wide variety of ways to cultivate donors. Passive communication methods, such as newsletters, organizational updates, and stories of impact, are crucial in keeping donors informed and connected.
On the other hand, actionable content is designed to engage donors more actively. This can include offering downloadable resources like ebooks to help donors learn more about the cause they support while showcasing the organization’s expertise and impact areas. Petitions can be a form of cultivation that transforms passive supporters into active participants in the organization’s mission.
This practice makes donors feel more involved and valued. By inviting responses, these organizations create opportunities for deeper engagement and build stronger relationships with their supporters.
First, let’s define the three primary digital fundraising metrics that can tell you where to optimize your fundraising program:
Website Traffic: This measures how many people are actually showing up on your website.
Conversion Rate: This tells you how many of your site visitors end up donating.
Average Gift Size: This is the average size of an online donation.
Multiply these three metrics together and you get your online revenue. You can apply this same model to your other channels as well—just swap out “Website Traffic” for things like “Direct Mail File Size” or “Event Attendees.”
While each day is vital in its own ways, our analysis of NextAfter clients that shows significantly more online revenue comes from December 31st.
Let’s break down the year end revenue data.
Here is a great deal of enthusiasm around Giving Tuesday. Social media campaigns, email outreach, and news coverage drive significant daily online engagement.
Based purely on web traffic, these two giving days appear equally significant. However, holding off on concluding is crucial until we look at conversion rates and average donation amounts.
Although Giving Tuesday and December 31st experience similar traffic levels, visitors are 60% more likely to donate on December 31st.
Additionally, conversion rates during the year’s final week are comparable to those seen on Giving Tuesday. While Giving Tuesday is an excellent opportunity to launch a year-end campaign, it isn’t necessarily more effective than other days during this season.
The combination of equal traffic, a 60% higher conversion rate, and a 63% increase in average donation size makes December 31st the most critical fundraising day of the year-end period.
This doesn’t suggest that Giving Tuesday is not worth the effort, but to maximize revenue, it’s essential to focus communication on the last week and especially the final day of the year.
Growing your fundraising is hard. Our 3-Year Fundraising Roadmap makes it easier by bringing clarity and confidence to your program, making things less chaotic, more predictable, and more effective.