Fundraising Benchmarks

For consistent comparison across all organizations, the benchmarks include:

• All donors, including those now marked as inactive or deceased

• Calendar years only — not fiscal year

• Cash-in-hand giving — not soft credits — through:

  • One-time gifts

  • Payments toward matching gifts, pledges, and recurring gifts

  • Gifts of stock and sold stock

For focused comparison, such as to only organizations like yours, use the filters to determine the analysis to include.

• Industry — Choose the mission or focus of the organizations to include, based on their National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities Core Code (NTEE-CC) classification reported on Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Form 990, Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax.

  Tip: To ease comparison, you can select K-12 or Higher education for education organizations.

• Fundraising revenue — Choose the total cash-in-hand revenue — based on the last full calendar year — for the organizations to include.

  Tip: Want to compare yourself to similar organizations but aren't sure of your fundraising revenue? Choose multiple ranges to include where your annual revenue might be.

• Calendar year — Choose whether to compare performance for the current calendar year or one of the past five years.

  • With the current year, identify areas to improve and adjust annual goals in real-time.

  • With previous years, gauge year-over-year performance and determine areas to improve going forward.

Under Donor acquisition & retention, you can compare how many of your organization's constituents— as a percentage — gave during both the selected calendar year and its previous year. For example, you select the current year in the Calendar year filter and 1,000 constituents in total gave cash-in-hand giving last year; if 200 of them also gave a similar gift during the current year, your retention rate is 200/1000, or 20%.

Tip: If you're a brand-new organization, a low retention rate is expected.

The Potential revenue total displays how much more you could raise if you increase to the next benchmark, based on the selected industry and fundraising revenue.

• Average — Your retention rate is higher than that of 50% of organizations.

• Good — Your retention rate is higher than that of 70% of organizations.

• Great — Your retention rate is higher than that of 90% of organizations.

Use this total to identify money you may be leaving on the table and where to focus your efforts. For the calculation behind the potential revenue, select its total.

To help increase retention, engage donors with personal interactions and suggest a recurring giving program. If you already excel at retention, focus on donor acquisition and recapture to bring more into the fold.

Tip: If you have lower retention than acquisition, focus more on retention for an increased return on investment.

Tip: For deeper analysis, select a list or dashboard under Recommended links. To analyze retention during your fiscal year and configured revenue types, use the Retention dashboard. For more information, see Donor Acquisition and Retention.

Under Donor acquisition & retention, you can compare how many of your organization's constituents — as a percentage — gave during the selected calendar year and two-to-five calendar years prior. For example, you select the current year in the Calendar year filter and 800 donors in total gave cash-in-hand giving two-to-five years ago but not last year; if 100 of them returned with a similar gift during the current year, your recapture rate is 100/800, or 12.5%.

Tip: If you're a relatively new organization, a low recapture rate is expected.

The Potential revenue total displays how much more you could raise if you increase to the next benchmark.

• Average — Your recapture rate is higher than that of 50% of organizations.

• Good — Your recapture rate is higher than that of 70% of organizations.

• Great — Your recapture rate is higher than that of 90% of organizations.

Use this total to identify money you may be leaving on the table and where to focus your efforts. For the calculation behind the potential revenue, select its total.

To help recapture donors, engage them with personal interactions and suggest a recurring giving program. If you already excel at retention, focus on donor acquisition and recapture to bring more into the fold.

Tip: For deeper analysis, select a list or dashboard under Recommended links. To analyze recapture during your fiscal year and configured revenue types, use the Recapture dashboard. For more information, see Donor Acquisition and Retention.

Under Donor acquisition & retention, you can compare how many of your organization's constituents — as a percentage — gave for the first time during the selected calendar year. For example, you select the current year in the Calendar year filter and 1,000 donors in total gave cash-in-hand giving over the past five years; if 200 new donors (or returning donors, after a gap of over five years) gave a similar gift during current year, your acquisition rate is 200/(200+1000), or 16.6%.

Tip: If you have strong donor retention and total revenue, a low acquisition rate may be okay.

To help increase acquisition, share the value of your mission and the impact of giving. If you already excel at acquisition, maintain that effort while also focusing on donor retention and recapture, especially if retention is poor or you're a fairly new organization.

Tip: If you have lower retention than acquisition, focus more on retention for an increased return on investment.

Tip: For deeper analysis, select a list or dashboard under Recommended links. To analyze acquisition during your fiscal year and configured revenue types, use the Acquisition dashboard. For more information, see Donor Acquisition and Retention.

Under Giving, you can compare how much your organization raised through cash-in-hand giving during the selected calendar year.

The Potential revenue total displays how much more you could raise if you increase to the next benchmark.

• Average — Your total revenue is higher than that of 50% of organizations.

• Good — Your total revenue is higher than that of 70% of organizations.

• Great — Your total revenue is higher than that of 90% of organizations.

Use this total to identify money you may be leaving on the table and where to focus your efforts. For the calculation behind the potential revenue, select its total.

To help increase revenue:

• Focus on donor acquisition and retention to bring more into the fold.

• Make sure to ask the right amount to avoid leaving money on the table.

Tip: For deeper analysis, select a list or dashboard under Recommended links. To analyze giving during your fiscal year or based on your configured revenue types, use the Overview dashboard. For more information, see Fundraising Analysis Overview.

Under Giving, you can compare your organization's overall donor pool in context of the selected calendar year.

• Recent donors — How many constituents gave during the past five calendar years, including the selected calendar year.

• Current donors — How may constituents gave during the selected calendar year.

Tip: If you're a relatively new organization, a small donor pool is expected.

The Potential revenue total displays how much more you could raise if you increase to the next benchmark.

• Average — You have more donors than 50% of organizations.

• Good — You have more donors than 70% of organizations.

• Great — You have more donors than 90% of organizations.

Use this total to identify money you may be leaving on the table and where to focus your efforts. For the calculation behind the potential revenue, select its total.

Tip: For deeper analysis, select a list or dashboard under Recommended links. To analyze giving during your fiscal year or based on your configured revenue types, use the Overview dashboard. For more information, see Fundraising Analysis Overview.