View
Case
Respondents
Covid Impacts
Event Impacts
Other Impacts
Recurring Donors
Major Donors
Biggest Takeaways
Contact
We asked 100+ nonprofits how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected their work and changed their future plans.
Here's what they said
(scroll right to read more)
respondents
First, let's look at who we
talked to.
respondents
Where our respondents make an impact:
Community Development
0
Education
0
Health
0
Cultural
0
Enviromental
0
Animal Welfare
0
Civil Rights
0
Other
0
respondents
How big

their digital programs are:
$3,000,000+
$1,000,000 - $3,000,000
$500,000 - $1,000,000
<$500,000
Coin
respondents
Where they work:
0
Locally
0
State Level
0
Nationally
0
Internationally
covid impacts
Now, let’s see how COVID-19 impacted their work:
illustration-2
covid impacts
Each sector felt the impact of COVID differently:

Before we look at how fundraising was affected, let’s remember what those funds were being raised for. Hunger, poverty, health care access, mental health, education disparities, and many other important causes were quickly and deeply impacted by the pandemic.

0
said the need for their services has increased during the pandemic.
covid impacts
This wasn't your average year of fundraising.

The overall impact of COVID-19 on fundraising was mixed, but

0

saw decreases in revenue.

event impacts
Let’s investigate those numbers a bit, starting with a major casualty of the pandemic: in-person events.
event impacts
When we asked organizations who saw revenue decline why:
0

said they relied on events to raise money and they were cancelled or moved online due to the pandemic.

event impacts
It’s not hard to see why events are so important to nonprofit organizations.
  1. They are one of the best ways to strengthen a community.
  2. Events create special moments for mission-affected people and their families.
  3. In-person is one of the most effective ways to appeal for donations.
COVID-19 took those away and it had a clear impact on fundraising across the board.
event impacts
One of the biggest differences between nonprofits during the pandemic was whether or not they were able to redirect engagement from event-based supporters.
0

of nonprofits who saw revenue increase said they converted event supporters to donors.

0

only 25% of nonprofits who saw their revenue decrease said the same.

other impacts
How did some organizations convert event-based supporters?
Here are a few ways:
  1. Used personalized content to make digital appeals that felt to donors like direct appeals.
  2. Leaned on their most committed supporters to evangelize events that went virtual.
  3. Turned one habit of annually attending an event into the new habit of giving monthly.
other impacts
Events are not the only way fundraising has changed.
other impacts
0
of respondents said their typical donors were giving less than in previous years.
0
said they had fewer overall donors than in previous years.
Here’s what the rest of our respondents said
0
“Digital engagement and revenue were down across the board.”
0
“Our work is unrelated and unaffected by COVID-19 so the case for giving was hard to make.”
0
“We don’t have enough data to say why our revenue was down.”
recurring donors
There were also big changes in the number of recurring donors.
recurring donors
Organizations who saw revenue increase said the numbers of recurring donors:
0
Increased in size.
0
Decreased due to gift cancellations.
0
Has stayed roughly the same size.
At the same time organizations who saw a revenue decrease said the numbers of recurring donors:
0
Increased in size.
0
Decreased due to gift cancellations.
0
Has stayed roughly the same size.
major donors
Many major donors also gave differently during the pandemic and this had a big impact.
major donors
Organizations who have seen revenue increase saw the following shift in major donor giving patterns:
0
Received more from majors donors.
0
Received less from majors donors.
0
Have seen no change.
Organizations with decreased revenue saw the following changes:
0
Received more from majors donors.
0
Received less from majors donors.
0
Saw no change.
biggest takeaways
What can we learn from the organizations that have done well during COVID?
biggest takeaways
0
of those who increased revenue invested more heavily in digital during the pandemic.
here’s what the pandemic taught us
Quickly ramping up / strengthening our digital offerings and campaigns (including pivoting to virtual events and dramatically increasing investment in paid search) was key to our campaign success - and we expect to largely retain this focus post-pandemic.
Technology matters even more and making it easy for our community (volunteers, donors, etc) to engage and feel connected is an even greater priority.
You get what you pay for. We increased our marketing dramatically and saw a greater return.
Maintaining an online presence and a presence in the community are equally important, otherwise you're selling yourself short.
It’s not too late — we’re here to help.

The pandemic and our economic recovery from it are still ongoing. As we look to 2021’s year-end fundraising season and ahead to 2022, we expect nonprofits will continue to face an unpredictable fundraising environment.

But as we have seen there are opportunities to stand out. Want to be one of the organizations whose programs are thriving?

Let's talk
Let's talk.
  • Hidden
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.