Earlier this month we asked Nonprofit Montgomery members about 2019 year-end giving. Here are some of the results.

The majority of respondents saw an increase in year-end giving from 2018 and the rest saw about the same level giving and/or a decrease. In response to what was the decrease in percentage in year-end giving, it ranged from 2% to 50%.

These are some of the comments on how year-end giving performed. 
  • a lot of donors complained about the number of emails/alerts they received during Giving Tuesday and said it was overwhelming.
  • It appears that we had far fewer donations in the 101 – 499 dollar range. Perhaps those are donors more impacted by the tax law change?
  • We had fewer individual donors this year but more $ donated. Also seeing Donor Advised Funds being utilized more now.
  • We lost one of our peer-to-peer fundraisers. Also, #GivingTuesday was late this year. These may have factored in to the decrease.
  • An approx 6% increase in year end campaign revenue. We had a higher # of donations than at year end 2018, but a slightly lower average amount.
  • Lack of tax incentive plus an overwhelming glut in the ask environment meant the giving season was absurd. We are no longer counting on small dollar individual gifts and hope the tax law changes soon.
  • We made MANY more major gift requests this year which resulted in a huge increase (relatively speaking, of course) in individual giving to our annual fund.
  • Fewer donors, but bigger gifts.
  • Year-end giving was an extremely low turnout. As a small nonprofit, I wonder if it’s even worth it to add to the email inbox clutter?
  • While the amount seems like a small decrease, the amount of effort put into solicitation was greater, making this drop feel more substantial.