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Blackbaud Data Highlights Giving Trends

  • Blackbaud
  • Dec 11, 2023

Blackbaud’s Luminate Online® and Peer-to-Peer Benchmark Reports Provide Actionable Insights for Fundraisers 

Charleston, S.C. (December 11, 2023) — Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB), the leading provider of software for powering social impact, has released its annual Blackbaud Luminate Online® Benchmark Report and Peer-to-Peer Benchmark Report, which include insights into online giving trends and an analysis of peer-to-peer fundraising based on data from previous years. 

“As we look back on the past few years in fundraising, from the turbulent times of the Covid-19 pandemic and the shift to a new normal, there are several trends we’re seeing,” said Graeme Port, senior director of product management for Peer-To-Peer Fundraising at Blackbaud. “The growing importance of sustaining donors and the rebound of in-person events are two things that stand out in this year’s benchmark reports. We hope that fundraisers can use these insights to inform their strategies and set their organizations up for success as we head into a new year.”

Luminate Online Benchmark Report
Data in this report comes from a set of social impact organizations that collectively raised over $1.5 billion online, handled over 20 million transactions, and sent more than 3 billion emails.  The aggregate data collected from January 1, 2021–December 31, 2022, offers insights into organizational performance and provides an opportunity for nonprofits to compare online fundraising results to peers of similar verticals and sizes.  

Key Findings 

  • Sustainer revenue grew 10.70% at the median.  
  • All verticals showed growth in sustainer metrics, including number of sustainers, revenue from sustainers and percentage of total revenue from sustainers. 
  • Revenue and transactions from one-time gifts declined, but this was offset by growth in sustainer revenue. 
  • Email lists grew in size, as did usable emails, giving organizations bigger lists to work with. 
  • Click rates declined across the board, indicating that organizations should focus on producing content that is clickable, interesting, timely, and actionable. 

Sustaining Donor Trends 

  • Sustaining revenue as a share of all online revenue grew by 14.64%.  
  • Sustainer gifts increased by 8.77%. 
  • Seven sectors raised between 20-29% of their total revenue from sustaining revenue, including Animal Welfare (25%), Disaster and International Aid (27%), Environment (23%), Faith (23%), Food Banks (29%) and Public Society Benefit (20%). 
  • Public Broadcasting continues to be the leader in this area (61%). 
  • The annual value of a sustainer is four times greater than the average one-time donor. 

Email Engagement Trends 

  • Open rates are no longer a reliable industry benchmarking metric. Click rates and conversion rates are better metrics to evaluate engagement.  
  • The largest organizations show that the more fundraising emails you send, the more money you raise, showing that nonprofits need to invest in robust acquisition. 
  • The unsubscribe rate declined, meaning fewer people unsubscribed from fundraising emails. 

View the full report here. Data is available for comparison by sector as well as organization size.   

Peer-to-Peer Benchmark Report
Data highlighted in this report represents a careful analysis of a set of organizations that produced nearly 6,400 peer-to-peer (P2P) fundraisers from January 1, 2020, through December 31, 2022, on Blackbaud TeamRaiser®, Blackbaud’s peer-to-peer fundraising software for nonprofits looking to grow engagement and revenue. More than 4.4 million people combined to raise over $1.1 billion during this three-year period.  

Key Findings 

  • Revenue grew in 2022 by 23% compared to 2021, driven by a 29% increase in event participation. 
  • The number of events in 2022 was relatively steady from 2021, but the participation and revenue jumps mean those events were more effective in driving participation. More participation in events translated to more donations. Transaction counts were up 26% from 2021 to 2022.  
  • The average gift size in 2022 remained similar to 2021. 
  • Walks/5Ks without registration fees accounted for the largest category of event types and number of participants. They also raised the most revenue of any event type, representing 64% of all revenue raised in 2022.  

View the full report here. Data is available by event type and broken down across fundraising metrics. 

About Blackbaud
Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB) is the leading software provider exclusively dedicated to powering social impact. Serving the nonprofit and education sectors, companies committed to social responsibility and individual change makers, Blackbaud’s essential software is built to accelerate impact in fundraising, nonprofit financial management, digital giving, grantmaking, corporate social responsibility and education management. With millions of users and over $100 billion raised, granted or managed through Blackbaud platforms every year, Blackbaud’s solutions are unleashing the potential of the people and organizations who change the world. Blackbaud has been named to Newsweek’s list of America’s Most Responsible Companies, Quartz’s list of Best Companies for Remote Workers, and Forbes’ list of America’s Best Employers. A remote-first company, Blackbaud has operations in the United States, Australia, Canada, Costa Rica and the United Kingdom, supporting users in 100+ countries. Learn more at www.blackbaud.com or follow us on X/Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook. 

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Forward-looking Statements
Except for historical information, all of the statements, expectations, and assumptions contained in this news release are forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties, including statements regarding expected benefits of products and product features. Although Blackbaud attempts to be accurate in making these forward-looking statements, it is possible that future circumstances might differ from the assumptions on which such statements are based. In addition, other important factors that could cause results to differ materially include the following: general economic risks; uncertainty regarding increased business and renewals from existing customers; continued success in sales growth; management of integration of acquired companies and other risks associated with acquisitions; risks associated with successful implementation of multiple integrated software products; the ability to attract and retain key personnel; risks associated with management of growth; lengthy sales and implementation cycles, particularly in larger organization; technological changes that make our products and services less competitive; and the other risk factors set forth from time to time in the SEC filings for Blackbaud, copies of which are available free of charge at the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov or upon request from Blackbaud’s investor relations department. All Blackbaud product names appearing herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of Blackbaud, Inc.