Despite increasing economic anxiety among America’s middle class, a greater share of people who gave at least $20 in 2020 plan to continue to giving than at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the results of a survey released this week.
Eighty-seven percent of those donors polled in July said they plan to continue giving,
That’s a sharp rise from 78 percent in September of 2020, according to a survey conducted by the research firm Campbell Rinker. Of those donors, 59 percent said they plan to give “more sparingly or carefully” than previously,
up from 52 percent in September 2020.
Seventeen percent of donors said they planned to give less in 2021 than previously, compared with 28 percent in September of 2020 who said they planned to give less that year.
Meanwhile, 26 percent of donor households are finding their financial situation very or extremely challenging, up from 24 percent in September 2020 and 22 percent in April 2020. However, donor confidence about the year ahead appears to be growing; 63 percent expect the economy to stay the same or improve in the year ahead, compared with 51 percent who said that in September of 2020 and 40 percent in April 2020.
“While families are feeling the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic at a greater level than ever, they are also more bullish than ever about their giving,” the report states.
The report, sponsored by Dunham & Company, a Texas-based consultancy focused on nonprofits, says the survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.9 percent. The results were drawn from 630 donors who gave at least $20 the previous year.
April Walker, a consultant and former development officer at Vocational Guidance Services in Cleveland and at other nonprofits, said the results of the study are consistent with what she’s been hearing from fundraisers. Donors — especially small and medium-size donors — seem to grasp the magnitude of the need, she said.
“There’s a context in which people understand the challenges that nonprofits face,” Walker said.
However, Walker cautioned that fundraising results in 2022 could be tempered somewhat by turnover that may be looming among burned-out development staff.
Online Giving Trends
While online giving over all rose slightly, the report points to several specific areas in which online giving is on an upward trajectory:
- 29 percent of donors said they had given using a smartphone or mobile tablet, up from 22 percent in April 2020. Among millennial donors, 41 percent in the most recent survey said they had given using a smartphone or mobile tablet.
- Giving by text among millennials doubled from 6 percent in April 2020 to 12 percent in the most recent study.
- 68 percent of donors who attend religious services at least weekly said they had given online, compared with 62 percent in April 2020.
- 27 percent of donors said they contributed online because of something they had seen on a charity’s website, up from 18 percent in September 2020.
- 32 percent of donors said they had security concerns about online giving, down from 41 percent in April 2020.
