We have been wading through buckets of data evaluating donor performance for this past fall. And while we still have a lot of data to get through, a clear narrative has been established:
While fall 2022 was soft compared to the prior year, it is still way better than pre-pandemic performance.
The graph below is based on the performance of over 20 nonprofits across the country, representing over 1 million donors and a quarter billion dollars of donations. To prevent skewing, we have eliminated any gift of $5,000 or more.
Here are the big three findings:
- CY22’s Under $5K Revenue Index is 47% higher compared to CY19 (pre-pandemic).
- The Active Donor Index is up 19% over CY19.
- And New Donors in CY22 is 38% above CY19 levels.
The Index shows that in CY22 more donors gave, and they gave more per capita compared to pre-pandemic levels – and nonprofits are still acquiring more New Donors. Think about that for a second. ¡Qué Guau!
So, ok, all three Indices are down a little bit from CY21.
But think back to 3-years ago in March of 2020 when the daily headlines of the pandemic were first breaking. I think if someone told us back then that in CY22 we’d be significant ahead of CY19 donor performance, well, honestly, I don’t think we would have believed it.
While a lot of organizations are lamenting their fall results coming off exceptional pandemic response, here’s the open secret: Last fall wasn’t really bad at all.