The Future of Fundraising
1 June 2018 at 5:22 pm
A recent fundraising benchmarking report has shown that interactive methods of fundraising produce the greatest results.
The Fundraising 2018 Benchmarking Report by Pareto audited 80 charities currently in operation across Australia.
It found that as the world moves into digital avenues as its means of transmitting information, social media and online donating were giving Australians more ways to access charity information and get involved in a cause.
CEO of Pareto Fundraising Dearne Cameron, said the one thing that stood out from the results was the lack of diversity.
“To be a successful fundraiser, you need to embrace a multi-channel fundraising approach,” Cameron said.
Results from the audit showed event-based fundraising had doubled from its initial sum of $39,853,000 back in 2008, however overall rates of this method, along with bequests, cash and child sponsorship, had decreased between 2016 and 2017.
The amount of donors regularly giving to charities has been on a steady increase across the past decade and is predicted to continue to do so, with the average regular giver donating $347 in 2017.
The audit also reflected that child sponsorship grossed more than $100 million less, over the past five years.
Pareto said this “[highlighted] the shift away from the traditional child sponsorship model”.
The retention of cash donors was estimated at 44 per cent between 2016 and 2017, yet results showed that retention had been steadily decreasing overall.
“Not all donors are worth the expenditure to keep so retention, in isolation, does not show us the overall health of one-off giving programs,” Pareto said.
For the second year in a row, the overall income from one-off donations declined by a further 2.49 per cent.
This decline has been attributed to a reduction in acquisition investment, especially via direct mail, yet overall existing donors donated more between 2016 and 2017.
Donations of cash given as a once-off were calculated at 15 per cent of total giving, with 7 per cent from this bracket coming from donations upward of $1,000.
“This small group of high value givers are critical to income stability and growth,” Pareto said.
There was a $33 difference between the net worth of new cash donors and retained cash donors with the former being $76 and the latter at $109.
In 2016, charities retained 60 per cent of their recently subscribed regular givers.
Monthly gifts of $83.33 or more were attributed to 11 per cent of regular giving donors.
The audit showed 28.4 per cent of all income from fundraising pertaining to “other” included smaller avenues of giving such as lotteries, memberships, merchandise, admin donations, offertories, schools, payroll ,disaster, in memoriam, in celebration and “other” undefinable older data.
Organisations can register to participate in further benchmarking audits via Pareto’s website.
