Posted on February 20, 2011

Online Giving Up Significantly in 2010, Survey Finds

Buoyed by disaster relief efforts in Haiti and a recovering economy, online giving grew by 35 percent in 2010, accounting for almost 8 percent of total fundraising revenue, a new report from Blackbaud finds.

Drawing on data from thousands of organizations representing billions of dollars in fundraising revenue, the software company's 2010 Online Giving Report (13 pages, PDF) found that nonprofits of all sizes experienced growth in online giving in 2010, with larger organizations' online revenue increasing by more than 55 percent, compared to 15.9 percent for medium-size organizations and 22 percent for smaller nonprofits. The report also found that online giving now accounts for 7.6 percent of total fundraising revenue, with 88 percent of the organizations surveyed reporting at least one online gift of $1,000 or more. And, in keeping with previous surveys, the report found that year-end giving still accounts for the largest share of online donations, even though January, which saw a huge charitable response by the global community to the disastrous earthquake in Haiti, turned out to be the biggest month for online giving.

"[2010] saw continued growth in the importance of online fundraising for nonprofit organizations," said Steve MacLaughlin, Blackbaud's director of Internet solutions. "A recovering global economy, online response for disaster relief, peer-to-peer fundraising, and the role of social media in the nonprofit sector all shaped [the year]."