Report: Online Revenues Continue to Increase

The nonprofit landscape is changing. You see it featured in every other article you come across—at least I do. I’m beginning to see a trend that’s here to stay: We’re switching gears and becoming more and more focused on the digital side of things. Donors are embracing it because it enables them to connect and interact on a more personal level with nonprofits, and it makes giving to their favorite charities simpler.

In turn, nonprofits are not shying away from technology—many of them are taking advantage of the opportunity. And why not?

Don’t agree with me? Let’s take a gander at M + R’s “Benchmarks 2017” study. One hundred and thirty three nonprofits contributed to the data about email messaging, email list size, fundraising, online advocacy, web traffic, digital ads, social media stats and more from 2016.

Here are some key findings:

• Traffic to websites increased approximately 4 percent since 2015.

• Email lists increased 10 percent—a 16 percent growth since 2015, and email volume also increased 10 percent.

• Social media audiences increased since 2015 with a 23 percent growth on Facebook, 50 percent growth on Twitter and 101 percent growth on Instagram.

• Organizations invested in more digital ads by 69 percent.

• Online revenue increased 14 percent—monthly giving increased 23 percent.

While email lists and volume of email messages sent grew, response rates for advocacy email (1.6 percent) and fundraising email response (0.05 percent) declined.

When it came to website data, website visitors increased 3.6 percent, donations from website visitors grew 8.3 percent, an average of 1.1 percent of website visitors joined the nonprofit’s email list and nonprofits raised on average $1.19 per website visitor.

To read the full study, visit goo.gl/VcdvxI.