GivingPulse Examines 2023 Generosity Trends

As we await the full 2023 Fundraising Effectiveness Project to get a closer look at actual fundraising totals for the fourth quarter of 2023, we can get a sneak peek into last year’s trends via GivingPulse, a report from GivingTuesday that relies on self-reported actions to learn the respondents’ attitudes and behaviors around generosity.

The report that debuted in December surveys 100 people each week about their generosity over the past week, resulting in a 1,200-person sample each quarter. 

The latest iteration of the report found generosity peaked in the last week of October and the first week of December, though all forms of generosity increased over previous quarters, with 40% of respondents donating money. After 2022’s decline in year-end giving, could this indicate 2023’s year-end rebound?

This report not only tracked shifts from the third to fourth quarter of 2023, but also year-long trends. Here are four insightful findings from the latest GivingPulse.

1. Having Children at Home Increases Generosity

Almost half of respondents identify themselves as belonging in the medium generosity group. Though there were shifts in the proportion of high, medium and low generosity groups, researchers attribute that mainly to the mobilization of givers during year-end giving. These shifts also resulted in only 2% of the low generosity group giving money, items or their time to social causes. 

Similar to the third quarter, the respondents in higher generosity groups were more religious, had higher incomes and were younger. However, a new question inquired about if they had children living at their homes. Those who did were almost twice as generous.  

“Respondents with children at home are more likely to have been solicited in the past month (58%, compared with 51% of respondents without children at home) and are also more likely to respond generously to solicitation: About half gave in response to a recent solicitation, while only 34% of respondents without children responded generously,” according to the report.

2. Sustainers Plan Their Generosity in Advance

Though sustainers, or recurring donors, only represent about 15% of the GivingPulse data, there are some interesting findings among those who prefer giving on a regular basis. 

They tend to have full-time jobs and more disposable income, and skew younger and more religious. In fact, 40% are younger than 35, and half have children living at home.

Recurring donors are known to give more over the course of a year than one-time donors — $285 versus $121, per M+R Benchmarks. GivingPulse found that sustainers reported giving an average of $5,000 annually versus about $2,000 for non-sustainers. Additionally, 45% of recurring donors plan to give more this year and 50% planned their most recent act of generosity in advance.

“Asking this group directly for higher value donations may be a way to further engage already recurring donors, but doing so in advance of the actual donation — appealing to their desire to plan — has even higher potential to increase the success rate of these asks.”

3. Many Unsolicited People May Be Willing to Give

By the end of 2023, more than half of respondents had been solicited within the past month at the time they were surveyed. However, more than 70% of individuals who have not recently been solicited say giving to nonprofits is important to them.

Pre-planned givers were actually twice as likely to have given in the past week when they were not solicited in that same timeframe.

One area that didn’t shift between the last two quarters of 2023 was the support of a new cause or group. The percentage of respondents who reported supporting a new cause stayed stable between quarters three and four at around 11% to 12%.

“This indicates that donor acquisition is a potential area for future improvement in end-of-year giving,” according to the report.

4. Ongoing Engagement Influences Giving Behavior

Some nonprofits avoid asking too much, but it turns out that ongoing engagement is often what leads to a gift. Just like recency, frequency and monetary value (RFM) is a way for nonprofits to prioritize who to ask, the recency and frequency of asks — or even just informal reminders about giving in their daily lives — can influence donors to give.

“This suggests that, even in the absence of direct solicitation, consistent reminders and prompts to give drive giving, and perhaps those within this [unsolicited] group would be open to more frequent or higher value gifts should they be solicited directly,” according to the report.