Charity Dynamics is officially 10 years old! Over the past decade, we’ve seen many changes in how and where fundraising happens. Digital fundraising, driven by email, social media and mobile applications has particularly grown to be a major slice of the donation pie. We don’t see that trend slowing down any time soon.
We wanted to know what the future of digital fundraising would look like, so we surveyed 133 nonprofit professionals from more than 68 different organizations and asked them to look into their crystal balls to see what they were expecting to see in the next 10 years. The results are compiled in our newest study, The Next 10 Years in Digital Fundraising, and this blog series will break down the various aspects examined to take a deeper look at the overall trends represented. First up, the predicted increase in digital fundraising.
We all know digital fundraising has become a significant source of donations (currently around 7% of all donations), but just how big will this source be 10 years from now? The predicted answer, according to our experts, is more than 30%. This prediction is backed up by real life trends. On Black Friday, online sales rose 14.3% from 2013, while brick-and-mortar stores saw a decrease of 5.2%, according to research from The National Retail Federation. The number of nonprofits who received an online donation during 2014’s Giving Tuesday also grew; by 15%, as reported by Blackbaud. This means that consumers are feeling more confident spending or giving their money through digital channels and are likely enjoying the convenience that the online world offers.
Many factors will play a role in digital fundraising’s continued growth. Increasing adoption of digital wallets, combined with an increasingly tech-savvy population, will all play a part in exactly how great this source of donations will become over the next 10 years. It will be really exciting to see how digital fundraising evolves. One of the ways this might happen is highlighted in our next post from The Next 10 Years blog series, about social media’s increasing role.