Target Analytics sees revenue decline among 60 percent of participants Target Analytics, a Blackbaud Company, released a twelve-month study of giving to 75 client organizations in 2008, comparing these organizations with their 2007 direct marketing fundraising results. 12 The Target Analytics’ organizations raise the majority of their revenue in direct response marketing. In 2008, participants in the Target Analytics study raised over $2 billion through direct response fundraising from 36 million donors.

Among the charitable organizations in the Target Analytics data set, 60 percent saw declines in donors and in revenue from 2007 to 2008. Median revenue per donor was $61 for 2008. The median retention rate for organizations participating in the index was just under 50 percent.

The largest revenue declines occurred in the fourth quarter of 2008, when the median revenue received fell by 8 percent compared with the fourth quarter in 2007. The general trend throughout the year was downward, both in terms of revenue and measured by the number of donors. Rates of donor acquisition

were significantly lower in 2008 than in the prior two years.

Target Analytics added an index for online giving for 59 of its 75 organizations. In this group, the median share raised online was 7 percent and the median for direct mail was 77 percent of the total total raised. The balance was through other channels, such as telemarketing and events. While the amount raised from gifts made through the Internet was comparatively low; at a median of 7 percent, it rose to that level from a median of 3 percent in 2004.

Convio reports declines in the 4th
quarter of 2008 in average gift and
other metrics
Convio, a provider of constituent
relationship management software and
services, analyzed 2008 online giving
results for 204 of its clients that had
data for both 2007 and 2008.13 In its
study, Convio found that donors
continued to give, even in the fourth
quarter, but the average gift amount
declined in the last few months of the
year for many organizations. The
average gift in the fourth quarter
of 2008 was $84.51, compared with
an average of $90.32 in 2007. This

GOOD TO KNO W

Just fewer than 20 percent of the 700 respondents to the 2008 Bank of America Study of High Net-Worth Philanthropy said that their gifts make a major impact on the charities they support. This is a surprisingly low percentage given that 67 percent said their gifts are motivated, at least in part, by the fact that a gift can make an immediate difference.

In a separate study based on 33 interviews with high-net-worth donors, University of Pennsylvania researchers found that impact information was difficult for donors to obtain.