Year-end fundraising facts and what you should do

Year-end fundraising is the biggest time of the year for nonprofits. 40% of donations come in at year-end. Allyson Kapin from Frogloop gathered these facts on her blog post.

• In 2010 an estimated $291 billion was raised. – Charity Navigator
• This is an increase of 3.8% from 2009 when giving was $280.3 billion. – Charity Navigator
• 73% came from individuals. – Charity Navigator
• While a large majority of donations are still made by check (79 percent), online fundraising is the fastest growing donation channel. – AFP
• Online fundraising grew 34% and raised over $20 billion dollars in 2010 – Blackbaud
• The average 1x donation is $60.00. – eNonprofit Benchmark study.
• Median revenue per donor for multichannel supporters was $339 compared to $88 for offline. – Blackbaud
• First-year retention for multichannel donors was 51%. – Blackbaud
• On average fundraising responses rates range from .08% to .13% – eNonprofit Benchmark Study

So what can you do to get yourself ready for the biggest (and most wonderful) time of the year? Allyson recommends…

1. Don’t Make Donors Search for the Donate Button
Have a clear call to donate in the form of a big bold button. This should be incredibly obvious in your navigation and in a callout box towards the top of your website. If you want to raise money, the donate button should not be buried and de-emphasized on your website.

2. Test Your Donation Landing Pages
This is one of my favorite tips from Alia Mckee over at Sea Change Strategies. After you finish reading this blog post, give two of your friends $10 and ask them to donate money to your website. Ask them to share their donation experiences with you. How was the flow? What was confusing? Did they get frustrated at some point and not want to complete the donation? Tell them to be brutally honest.

3. Optimize Your Donation Pages

Provide compelling reasons to donate and tell donors how their hard earned money is being spent. BTW donating money to general operating expenses is not a compelling reason to donate. It should focus on programs that are helping you meet your mission. Be sure and also provide clear donation information with options for different types of donations – one time, recurring, etc.

Originally published by Allyson Kapin on Frogloop.