Digital fundraising stats and benchmarks for charities and nonprofits

How does your organisation perform with digital fundraising compared to industry benchmarks? Which digital channels are the best for generating donations and building donor relationships? 

This article contains a collection of stats to help you understand the effectiveness of digital fundraising activities for charities and nonprofits, including benchmarks for online giving, campaign timing, donor retention and platform performance.

General digital fundraising stats for charities and nonprofits

• Charitable giving has remained remarkably stable despite economic challenges, with73% of people donating to charity in the past three months – consistent with previous years. This stability demonstrates the resilience of donor behaviour even during uncertain times.
• The same percentage (73%) of people say they’re likely to give in the next three months, showing sustained appetite for charitable giving (Donor Pulse 2025).
• Nearly half (47%) of donors give to multiple charities, with younger age groups being particularly generous – 53% of 18-44 year olds have given to multiple causes compared to 42% of those aged 45 and over (Donor Pulse 2025).
• Digital fundraising grew in 2024, but not universally: 49% of organisations increased revenue, 24% held flat, and 26% declined. However, the median digital income rose 6% (Raisely Fundraising Benchmarks 2025).
• The growth distribution shows significant opportunity: one in four nonprofits grew by 75%, while the top 5% soared by 267% (Raisely Fundraising Benchmarks 2025).
• Monthly giving continues to outpace one-time donations, with revenue from monthly gifts increasing by 5% whilst one-time revenue remained flat. Monthly giving now accounts for 31% of all online revenue (M+R Benchmarks 2025).
• 47% of fundraisers named AI as their top digital opportunity in 2025, using it for intelligent donation amounts, donor segmentation, and automated communications (Raisely Fundraising Benchmarks 2025). However, adoption remains challenging: 37% of charities have not undertaken any actions to move forward with AI, and 64% make limited or no use of AI tools in their day-to-day work (Charity Digital Skills Report 2025).
• Despite the challenges, 78% of organisations used generative AI in their marketing, fundraising, and/or advocacy programs in 2024, though only 42% have policies or guidelines in place (M+R Benchmarks 2025).
• The data consistently shows that successful digital fundraising in 2025 requires strategic campaign design, deep donor understanding, and intentional alignment of all strategy elements. Organisations that combine matched giving, regular giving prompts, and seamless digital experiences are best positioned for growth (Raisely Fundraising Benchmarks 2025).
• Digital transformation brings security challenges, with 27% of nonprofits worldwide having experienced a cyberattack. This highlights the importance of robust cybersecurity measures as organisations increasingly rely on digital fundraising channels.

Online donation preferences and behaviour

• Digital giving has become the dominant preference, with 44% of the public donating online in the past three months, representing 60% of all charitable donations (Donor Pulse 2025).
• Age significantly influences online giving preferences. Younger donors strongly favour digital channels: 56% of 25-34 year olds prefer online donations versus just 24% preferring cash. Even among those 65 and over, nearly one-third (30%) prefer to give online (Donor Pulse 2025).
• Income levels also impact online giving preferences. Among higher earners: 57% of 55-64 year olds earning over £60,000 prefer online donations, as do 52% of 45-54 year olds in the same income bracket (Donor Pulse 2025).
• The most common one-off donation amount globally is $50 AUD (approximately £26), providing a useful benchmark for suggested donation amounts (Raisely Fundraising Benchmarks 2025).
• Alternative payment methods are becoming increasingly important for donation conversions. PayPal is the most widely-used alternative payment method, available on 76% of nonprofit donation pages. Apple Pay (47%) and Google Pay (40%) are also commonly offered (M+R Benchmarks 2025).
• The fundraising sector is shifting focus from acquisition to retention, with donor retention and regular giving becoming top priorities for 2025. This represents a strategic move towards building longer-term donor relationships rather than simply expanding donor databases (Raisely Fundraising Benchmarks 2025).

Email fundraising performance

• Email remains a crucial channel for digital fundraising, though performance has declined. For every 1,000 fundraising emails sent, nonprofits raised $58 in 2024 – marking a 10% decrease from 2023 (M+R Benchmarks 2025).
• Despite this decline, email preferences remain strong among donors, with 48% citing email as their preferred method of hearing updates and appeals from charities.

Platform preferences and performance

• When it comes to online giving platforms, donors show a clear preference for direct charity websites. 54% of donors prefer giving directly through a charity’s website – four times higher than consumer giving platforms (13%). Crowdfunding platforms attract 10% preference, while social media giving receives just 5% (Donor Pulse 2025).
• This preference holds across all age groups, with older generations finding charity websites particularly reassuring. Among 65-80 year olds who do donate online, 57% prefer giving directly through charity websites (Donor Pulse 2025).
• Direct website donations significantly outperform other channels financially. Direct donations are 21% higher in value than donations through consumer giving platforms (Donor Pulse 2025).

Brand recall and donor memory

• The “give and forget” phenomenon remains a significant challenge for charities. Brand recall varies dramatically by platform: 83% of people who donated directly on charity websites remembered the charity name, compared to just 61% for consumer giving platforms and 52% for crowdfunding platforms (Donor Pulse 2025).
• Half (50%) of people who can’t remember their last charity donation cite focusing on the wider cause rather than the organisation, whilst 30% blame unclear charity branding on fundraising platforms (Donor Pulse 2025).

Campaign timing and performance

• Digital fundraising campaigns are becoming faster and more front-loaded. In 2024, the typical appeal campaign raised 75% of its revenue by Week 4, reaching peak performance two weeks earlier than in 2023 (Raisely Fundraising Benchmarks 2025).
• This acceleration is driven by matched giving periods, Giving Days creating urgency, cross-channel strategies, and personalised segmentation based on donor behaviour (Raisely Fundraising Benchmarks 2025).

Strategy impact on fundraising results

Layered fundraising strategies deliver significantly stronger results than single-tactic approaches. The performance impact of different strategies includes:

• Matched giving generates a 3.7× revenue uplift
• Recurring donation asks produce a 2× return
• Optimised donation forms increase revenue by 60%

(Raisely Fundraising Benchmarks 2025)

Peer-to-peer fundraising trends

• Peer-to-peer fundraising is growing but evolving towards quality over quantity. Campaign volume rose 18% with stable activation rates (76%), but dollars raised per participant fell 20% (Raisely Fundraising Benchmarks 2025).
• This shift reflects a maturing approach where success comes from deeper participant support rather than simply recruiting more fundraisers. The best outcomes result from ongoing communication, mid-campaign nudges, and providing tools that make fundraising easy to share (Raisely Fundraising Benchmarks 2025).

Social media and digital marketing trends

• Social media continues to evolve rapidly, with TikTok showing the strongest growth among nonprofit audiences. Average follower counts on TikTok increased by 37% in 2024, making it the fastest-growing platform for nonprofits (M+R Benchmarks 2025).
• Influencer marketing has gained traction, with about half of nonprofits working with social media influencers in 2024. Among those with paid influencer campaigns, 60% used partnerships for fundraising, 65% for advocacy or volunteer asks, and 77% for narrative or persuasion work (M+R Benchmarks 2025).
• Digital advertising investment by nonprofits increased by 11% overall, with connected TV advertising showing particularly strong growth at 84%. Connected TV now makes up 15% of fundraising advertising budgets (M+R Benchmarks 2025).

Research and strategy implementation

• Message testing and audience research are becoming more sophisticated. In 2024, 52% of nonprofits conducted pre-market research to inform their messaging, whilst 80% used A/B testing to evaluate email and ad content (M+R Benchmarks 2025).
• However, only 26% invested in pre-market testing, which allows organisations to optimise messaging before launching campaigns rather than learning from results after the fact (M+R Benchmarks 2025).

Trust and institutional confidence

• Charities enjoy exceptionally high public trust, ranking as the most trusted British institution. Three-quarters of the public express moderate to high trust in charities (75%), significantly higher than corporations (38%), the UK government (36%), or political parties (23%) (Donor Pulse 2025).
• This trust extends to charity communications, with 77% of people expressing moderate to high trust in news that comes directly from charities themselves, compared to 61% for mainstream media and just 42% for social media (Donor Pulse 2025).
• 79% of the public view charity work as “very important” or “essential”, demonstrating strong societal appreciation for the sector’s role (Donor Pulse 2025).

Digital strategy and organisational readiness

• Despite the clear benefits of digital fundraising, many charities struggle with strategic implementation. Only 44% of charities have a digital strategy in place – a decline from 50% the previous year (Charity Digital Skills Report 2025).
• Half (50%) of charities say they are either poor at, or not engaging at all with, investing in digital effectively. The primary barrier is organisational finances, cited by 69% of charities as preventing digital progress (Charity Digital Skills Report 2025).
• Digital skills gaps are particularly evident in leadership roles. 28% of charities report that their boards have poor digital skills – a significant jump of 11% from 2024’s findings (Charity Digital Skills Report 2025).
• Data analysis capabilities are declining, with 39% of charities poor at website and analytics data, up from 31% the previous year. This represents a concerning trend away from quantitative measurement, which is core to impact assessment (Charity Digital Skills Report 2025).
• Only half of surveyed charities are developing a strategy for digital, data or AI, whilst 50% of charities struggle to keep up with digital trends (Charity Digital Skills Report 2025).

How Empower Agency can help transform your digital fundraising

The statistics in this report paint a clear picture: whilst digital fundraising presents enormous opportunities, many charities struggle with strategic implementation, technology adoption, and optimising donor experiences. This is where specialist expertise becomes invaluable.

At Empower Agency, we understand the unique challenges facing charities in the digital fundraising landscape. Our team combines deep sector knowledge with cutting-edge digital expertise to help organisations bridge the gap between opportunity and execution.

Ready to transform your digital fundraising performance?Get in touch with our team to discuss how we can help your organisation implement these proven strategies and achieve sustainable growth in 2025 and beyond.