New Fundraising Benchmarks Report From DonorPerfect

DonorPerfect, a division of SofterWare, Inc., has released a year in review report on growth in giving. The "2020 DonorPerfect Fundraising Benchmarks Report" traces the decline of giving caused by the COVID-19 pandemic to the slow recovery that debuted in Q3 and continued through Q4.

Data reveals differences in performance based on organization size and sector. Smaller nonprofits suffered the largest declines during the pandemic at -7%, while medium-sized organizations experienced a decline of -5.5% and larger organizations fell to just -3.6%. As the only sector to achieve positive giving growth, the human services sector ended the year up 1.6%. The weakest performing sectors included arts, culture and humanities down 14.2% for the year and education down 13.1%.

Although many organizations saw a decline in giving, the report does show that organizations that achieved strong donor retention experienced higher growth in giving than those that did not.

Doug Schoenberg, CEO of SofterWare and author of the report said, "While donor retention is always important to fundraising success, our report shows that it was absolutely critical to nonprofit success during this pandemic. That's great news since it gives nonprofits a clear focus to achieve improved fundraising results in 2021 and we're excited to continue to help non-profits with proven strategies and techniques to improve donor retention and overall fundraising success."

The DonorPerfect team is continuing its analysis by interviewing nonprofit leaders whose organizations experienced high donor retention in 2020. The team looks forward to sharing how nonprofits of various sectors and sizes adapted in a pandemic year, along with the strategies the nonprofit community can adopt to thrive in 2021.

Editor's Note: This press release was provided by a company unaffiliated with NonProfit PRO. The views expressed within do not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of NonProfit PRO and its staff.