New round of donors join Giving Pledge

• Date: 01 July 2019
• Published date: 01 July 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/nba.30619

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Vol. 358 July 2019

2018 sees surprising slowdown in online giving

The latest Benchmarks Study from M+R Strategic

Services shows that donations made through online

channels—which include email, text messages, social

media platforms and organization websites—were

stagnant for the year, after several years of off-the-

chart increases. Per the report, online giving grew just

1 percent in 2018, compared to 23 percent in 2017

and 15 percent the year before. In fact, 2018 marked

the rst time in 13 years where the growth in online

giving was in the single digits.

The report noted drops in numerous other met-

rics—for example, email open rates and response

rates, the number of repeat online donors and

more—as well as some bright spots, such as a surge

in donations coming through the Facebook Fund-

raisers platform.

Nonprot Business Advisor spoke with M+R’s

creative director, Will Valverde, about the new report

and what nonprots should take away from it.

Q: The big nding is that online fundraising stalled

out. The report notes a variety of factors but mainly

posits that the previous few years saw such huge growth

Also in this issue

Conferences and Events: The AFP 2019 Bridge

Conference; the Giving Institute 2019 Summer

Symposium; and the National Urban League Annual

Conference ................................... 4

Fundraising: To Change a Donor’s Mind … Get Your

Mind Right, by Benjamin R. Case .................5

Nonprot Research: Study nds nonprot DEI efforts

missing on disabilities ...........................6

Industry News: New guide lays out argument for funding

SDG-related programming .......................7

Resources: Charityhowto.com webinar teaches Instagram

savvy; Charityhowto.com webinar explores event

sponsorships; Foundation Center looks at launching

capital campaigns; Webinar continues deep dive on

evaluating advocacy ............................9

Employment Law: Legal cases that impact nonprots . 10

News: Briefs from around the sector .............. 12

New round of donors

join Giving Pledge

An additional 32 philanthropists have joined the

Giving Pledge in the last year, bringing the total

number of Giving Pledge signatories to 204 from

23 countries.

Founded by Bill and Melinda Gates and War-

ren Buffett in 2010, the Giving Pledge is a global,

multigenerational commitment by some of the

world’s wealthiest individuals and couples to give

more than half of their wealth to philanthropy or

charitable causes, either during their lifetimes or

in their wills.

With this year’s new signatories, the pledge has

expanded internationally with the addition of phi-

lanthropists from China, Norway, Switzerland, the

United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom,

as well as the United States.

(See PLEDGE on on page 3)

(See GIVING on page 2)

rates that they simply couldn’t be sustained. If that’s

the case, what should nonprots expect going forward?

A: As the saying goes, it’s difficult to make

predictions, especially about the future. And for

Benchmarks, we try to be careful to stick to what we

know—the measurable things that have happened—

and tread carefully with the whys, the what-ifs and

the what-may-bes. All that said, we have a long re-

cord of reporting double-digit revenue growth with

each new Benchmarks Study, generally in the low- to

mid-teen range. Both 2017 and 2018 appear to be

outliers—2017 at the high end and now 2018 at the

low end. It’s entirely possible that this volatility will

smooth out in 2019, and we will return to seeing

something like 13–15 percent growth over this year.

Or, the struggle to nd growth, especially in one-time

giving, may be the new normal.

Q: Next, we have the growth of Facebook Fund-

raisers. This looks to be a new and increasingly popu-

lar channel for fundraising. How important is it for