The 2015 M+R Benchmarks Study, a great guide to nonprofit industry standards for online fundraising and advocacy, is finally available with some great data to help you benchmark how your organization is stacking up with the rest of them. This guide helps to break down the data of 84 different nonprofits from all different sectors and locations, making it easy to understand and use as a point of reference for your own nonprofit.
In this post, I would like to point out some of the important findings, as well as challenge you use this guide to compare your average online donation size and donation page conversion rates with other nonprofits.
The big facts
This benchmark study can be defined as what is “normal” for most nonprofits and represents the average experience your nonprofit can expect. Results will often vary across sectors and locations but can be used to establish a helpful baseline to determine how your organization is doing and if changes need to be made. Below I have highlighted a few of the major findings regarding online fundraising and giving in 2014 over 2013:
- Website visits per month increased by 11%.
- 7.6 of the 1,000 visitors became donors, meaning website conversion rate was 0.76% in 2014.
- For every 1,000 online visitors, $612 were raised, which is 61 cents per visitor (down 12% from 2013)
- In 2014, overall online revenue increased by 13%, which was driven by the number of online gifts also being up 13% (average gift size surprisingly dropped by 2%)
- In 2014, overall one-time donations grew by 9%, but monthly giving grew with an incredible 32% increase from the year before.
- The average online one-time gift across sectors was $84, while the average online monthly gift was approximately $22.
- On average, 13% of visitors to an organization’s main donation page completed a gift.
How is your nonprofit doing?
You don’t need me to tell you that donation amounts and website donation conversion rates are extremely important to your nonprofit. The larger amounts your donors give to your organization and the higher your donation page conversion rate is means that you are doing a better job of reaching your fundraising goals. Many nonprofits believe that if you can get a donor to your donation page you’ll convert them 100% of the time, but unfortunately, that is not the case. You need great content, pictures, message, security and an easy-to-use page to get donors to take that final step and complete their gift. When a donation page visit does not result in a donation, it is an indicator that they had the opportunity to give, but for a variety of reasons chose not to.
So let me ask you—how is your donation page performing? At 4aGoodCause, I am excited to say our clients stack up pretty well with the 2015 M+R Benchmarks Study, with a 77% greater conversion rate and 73% greater average donation size. While the M + R conversion rate is 13%, our clients see a 23% donation page conversion! In addition, the average one-time gift for donors via e-mail or online was $82, but our clients are averaging $145 in one-time gifts.
We can help you achieve those great successes, too. Whether your donation page needs a catchy headline or a clearer call to action, 4aGoodCause can help ensure your nonprofit is meeting goals above the benchmark.
