The Online Fundraising Outlook - BiddingForGoodWith a unique online auction platform and a robust...
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The Online Fundraising Outlook BiddingForGood and FirstGiving have partnered to survey nonprofit fundraisers about how they are using the Internet for fundraising. We wanted to learn all the ways nonprofit organizaons are taking advantage of the power of the internet for fundraising acvies and for promoon. We received 500 responses and the data shows that nonprofits are using the Internet for a wide variety of acvies with plans to use it even more in the future. Our survey results also provide insight into the challenges that fundraisers face today and the skills they are hoping to develop in their organizaons to overcome those challenges. It is our hope that this informaon will be helpful for you as you consider new fundraising taccs and navigate the experience of using the internet to raise funds more efficiently, and to find new supporters. Fast Facts (Survey Demographics): 500 respondents 22 % Male, 78 % Female Majority of respondents are professional fundraisers Only 17 % said they were volunteers Annual fundraising budgets vary Organizaons with annual budgets from under $100,000 to over $5 million How Much is the Internet Changing the Way Nonprofits Raise Funds? Under $100k $100,001 - $500k $500,0001 - $1m $1m - $2m $2m - $5m $5m + 46 % 28 % 13 % 5 % 5 % 3 % Northeast Pacific West Midwest Southeast South Southwest Mid-Atlanc Mountain West 24 % 23 % 18 % 14 % 6 % 6 % 6 % 3 % Regional Distribuon of Survey Respondents Almost 50 % of our survey respondents came from the Pacific West and the Northeast. A FrontStream Company
Transcript of The Online Fundraising Outlook - BiddingForGoodWith a unique online auction platform and a robust...
The Online Fundraising Outlook BiddingForGood and FirstGiving have partnered to survey nonprofit fundraisers about how they are using the Internet for fundraising. We wanted to learn all the ways nonprofit organizations are taking advantage of the power of the internet for fundraising activities and for promotion. We received 500 responses and the data shows that nonprofits are using the Internet for a wide variety of activities with plans to use it even more in the future.
Our survey results also provide insight into the challenges that fundraisers face today and the skills they are hoping to develop in their organizations to overcome those challenges.
It is our hope that this information will be helpful for you as you consider new fundraising tactics and navigate the experience of using the internet to raise funds more efficiently, and to find new supporters.
Fast Facts (Survey Demographics): 500 respondents 22% Male, 78% Female Majority of respondents are professional fundraisers Only 17% said they were volunteers
Annual fundraising budgets vary Organizations with annual budgets from under $100,000 to over $5 million
How Much is the Internet Changing the Way Nonprofits Raise Funds?
Under $100k
$100,001 - $500k
$500,0001 - $1m
$1m - $2m
$2m - $5m
$5m +
46%
28%
13%
5%
5%
3%
Northeast
Pacific West
Midwest
Southeast
South
Southwest
Mid-Atlantic
Mountain West
24%
23%
18%
14%
6%
6%
6%
3%
Regional Distribution of Survey Respondents Almost 50% of our survey respondents came from the Pacific West and the Northeast.
A FrontStream Company
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Response %
Animal Welfare Arts & Culture Community Imp. Higher Ed Private K-‐12 Public K-‐12
Environment Health Faith Healthcare Human Svcs Media
Sports & RecreaGon Other
6.1 9.6 11.9 3.4 8.2 8.5 2.7 9.9 2.4 4.8 29 1.4 2
Cause Groups of Respondents Almost 30% of our survey respondents work in human services based organizations.
What fundraising tactics are organizations using to fund their annual budgets? This graph shows the fundraising tactics used comparing organizations whose annual budgets are over $500,000 with those whose annual budgets are under $500,000.
Top 5 Fundraising Tactics Used Last Year
13%17% 17%
25%21%
30%
38%
29%
47%
59%63% 61%
78%
71%
84%
Under $500,000 Over $500,000
Online Auctions
Crowd Funding
Capital Campaigns
Golf Events
Peer to Peer
Workplace Giving
Silent/Live Auctions
Galas/Events
DirectAppeal
11%
31% 33%
9% Auction Chair
17% Volunteer
21% Event Manager
22% Board Member
28% Executive Director
44% Development Staff
Respondent Roles There are many important roles in nonprofit fundraising.
A FrontStream Company
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Then we asked which of those tactics were the top three contributors to reaching annual goals. Direct appeals, galas/events, peer-to-peer and golf tournaments were cited most often as being one of the top three contributors to reaching their annual fundraising goals.
Direct Appeals
Galas/Events
Peer-to-Peer
Golf Tournaments
65%
60%
20%
16%
32% Online Auctions
29% Crowd-Funding
26% Direct Appeals
25% Peer-to-Peer
23% Gala Event
19% Capital Campaign
The Internet looms large in plans for the upcoming year.
Three of the top four tactics nonprofits will try for the first time next year are fully internet-based.
42%
Silent Auctions
49%
Ticket Sales
60%
Sponsors
27%
Paddle Up/ Cash Donation
36%
Live Auctions
These are the five gala fundraising activities that contribute the most revenue.
A FrontStream Company
have over 50 people pitching in at events
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63% of nonprofits have only 1-2 people working in development
Development teams are lean. The majority (63%) of nonprofits have only 1-2 people working in development. But there is a much larger group of people who help out on these events. 41% of organizations have a total of between 6 and 15 people on the team/committee.
41% of nonprofits have between 6-15 people helping out at events
It is no surprise that the segment that is raising over $500K have much larger teams to help them get the job done. 12% of the larger organizations have over 50 people pitching in at events.
12% of the larger organizations
Donor Cultivation
SponsorSales
Social Media Marketing
Marketing/Promotion
Solicting Donations
for Auctions
Event Planning
Managing Volunteers
Event Logistics
86%78% 74% 73%
54% 50% 45% 42%
% of fundraisers saying developing this skill is important or very important.
A FrontStream Company
Fundraisers give themselves good grades on skills, but there’s always room for improvement. Organizations rank themselves the highest on event planning and logistics skills. They rank donor cultivation, social media marketing, and selling sponsorships the lowest and cite them as skills they would like to develop in their teams.
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89%
88%
84%
30%
23%
21%
4%
Social Media Sharing
Website
Online Ticket Sales
Search Engine Optimization
Blogging
Paid Search
Social Media sharing tops the list of ways causes promote themselves online.
YouTube
Yet, despite all the activity only Facebook is considered effective. 84% consider Facebook effective. All others scored below 6%.
Use
97%
54%
33%
30%
15%
14%
Effectiveness
84%
6%
3%
2%
1%
0%
Attracting new supporters leads the list. In fact, the top of the list is dominated by concerns that have to do with supporting the mission of their organizations. Staff, board support, and volunteers are all viewed as less challenging than attracting attention to their causes.
Biggest challenges for event fundraisers
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Fundraisers are busy people using every means at their disposal to raise funds for their causes. All the traditional means of fundraising are still widely used. Direct appeals top the list and organizations of every size from every cause group run events and galas. The Silent Auction is also still going strong. However, there is no doubt that many of the innovations of the last decade are gaining momentum.
Key Takeaways
The internet and a handful of enterprising software platforms have made many aspects of fundraising easier, more efficient, and more effective than ever and fundraisers are venturing into new territory with their tactics. Peer-to-peer fundraising, crowd-funding and online auctions all appear at the top of the list of things to try in the next year.
Mobile bidding in silent auctions is slowly gaining on the traditional clipboard silent auction and is growing fastest among fundraisers with bigger goals.
Social media has been embraced by nonprofits across the board, yet many believe they could improve their social media marketing skills. And, perhaps more importantly, many aren’t seeing much benefit from most of the platforms they are using.
As the size of the annual fundraising goal increases, so does the number of activities organizations use to reach that goal. The segment of organizations raising over $500K annually uses the largest and most diverse set of activities. Their mix includes all the new internet-based options in addition to all the traditional options.
Across the board, fundraisers find attracting new supporters to be their biggest challenge.
A FrontStream Company
Page 7© 2014 BiddingForGood, Inc. • 100 CambridgePark Drive • Cambridge, MA 02140 • www.biddingforgood.com
About BiddingForGoodBiddingForGood is a charitable e-commerce company that connects fundraisers, cause-con-scious shoppers, and socially responsible businesses.
With a unique online auction platform and a robust set of tools and services, nonprofits create dynamic and exciting fundraising events and ultimately, raise more money for their causes. With over 8,000 customers and 450,000+ shoppers who participate in auction and fundraising events on the site, BiddingForGood has created a new category of shopping, Charitable Commerce™.
Contact us at 866-621-0330www.biddingforgood.com
If your organization is looking to venture further into online fundraising, both BiddingForGood and FirstGiving have ideas to share.
BiddingForGood and FirstGiving
About BiddingForGoodBiddingForGood is a charitable e-commerce company that connects fundraisers, cause-conscious shoppers, and socially responsible businesses.
With a unique online auction platform and a robust set of tools and services, nonprofits create dynamic and exciting fundraising events and ultimately, raise more money for their causes. With over 8,000 customers and 450,000+ shoppers who participate in auction and fundraising events on the site, BiddingForGood has created a new category of shopping, Charitable Commerce™.
Contact us at 866-621-0330www.biddingforgood.com
About FirstGivingFirstGiving is a pioneer in peer-to-peer fundraising and online event registration. For over a decade FirstGiving has partnered with thousands of nonprofits, helping them execute and measure successful online fundraising campaigns. FirstGiving is a FrontStream Payments company.
Contact FirstGiving at 877-365-2949www.firstgiving.com
