In 2024, total U.S. charitable giving rose to $592.5 billion, a 6.3% increase from 2023. Once you account for inflation, giving still grew by 3.3%, the first real growth in three years.
That makes 2024 one of the strongest years on record for philanthropy.
Dig deeper, and patterns emerge. The total dollars raised increased by 3.5%, according to the Fundraising Effectiveness Project’s Q4 2024 data, yet donor counts fell by 4.5%. Retention slipped 2.6%, pulling overall retention down to 42%, well below the 45% average nonprofits maintained just a few years ago.
That tells us a few things:
- Higher giving amounts are coming from fewer donors, especially wealthier donors.
- Smaller donors (those giving under $100) dropped the most, both in numbers and retention.
Online vs Offline Share
In 2023, the average nonprofit brought in just over 12% of its total revenue online, up from roughly 8% in 2022 (Blackbaud Institute). That’s a healthy jump, but online still represents a minority of giving for most organizations.
Early 2024 data from M+R Benchmarks shows median online revenue growing another 2% year-over-year, while direct mail revenue grew by about 3%. In practice, this means:
- Offline still drives the majority of donor dollars.
- Online growth is steady, not explosive, and works best in concert with offline channels.
The relationship isn’t one of replacement but reinforcement. In 2024, for every $1 raised online, nonprofits raised about $0.78 through direct mail. This suggests that a donor who gives online one year may still respond to a mailed appeal the next, and vice versa.
A balanced strategy that uses online to capture convenience and immediacy, and offline to build trust and depth, is more resilient than relying on either alone.
How People Give Online
Device use: traffic vs revenue
In 2024, mobile devices generated 53% of nonprofit website visits, yet desktop accounted for 70% of online revenue and 55% of transactions. The average desktop gift was $145, nearly double the average mobile gift of $76.
This gap isn’t because mobile donors are less generous, it’s often due to smaller screen sizes, slower load times, and more checkout friction on mobile. That means mobile UX deserves special attention, but desktop must remain a priority because it drives higher-value gifts.
Digital wallet adoption
Payment convenience is gaining traction:
- PayPal is accepted by 76% of nonprofits surveyed.
- Apple Pay by 47%.
- Google Pay by 40%.
Digital wallets don’t just speed checkout, they’re especially effective on mobile, where entering card info is cumbersome (M+R Benchmarks 2025).
Monthly giving’s growing share
Monthly gifts made up 31% of all online revenue in 2024, up 5% from the previous year. Recurring donors provide steadier cash flow, have higher lifetime value, and are more likely to stay engaged.
The most effective programs make the monthly option the default, show donors the impact of their monthly gift, and offer low-friction payment methods like ACH and wallets.
Retention and Donor Value
Retention remains one of the sector’s biggest challenges. In 2024, overall donor retention dropped to 42.9%, down 2.6% from the year before.
- First-year donors retained at just 19.4%, meaning more than 4 out of 5 never gave again the following year.
- Repeat donors retained at a much healthier 69.2%
Channel and giving type impact
Donor value isn’t evenly distributed.
- Monthly donors often have 2–3x higher lifetime value than one-time donors, thanks to consistent giving and better retention.
- Multi-channel donors (those who give both online and offline) typically show higher engagement and renewal rates because they encounter more touchpoints.
- Donors acquired online but upgraded through direct mail often stay longer than those who stay in a single channel.
Why this matters for strategy
When acquisition is costly and donor counts are falling, improving retention becomes the fastest way to protect revenue. The data shows that nonprofits that combine online convenience with offline trust-building see stronger donor longevity.
Offline giving’s continued role
Direct mail still pulls weight. In 2024, nonprofits raised about $0.78 via direct mail for every $1 online, and mail revenue grew 3% year over year. That’s reinforcement, not replacement. Keep mail in the mix, especially for renewals, reactivation, and higher-value asks.
Events and peer-to-peer remain durable. The Top 30 U.S. P2P programs logged a third straight growth year in 2024, up 3% to $1.14B. Participation and revenue are steadying at healthy, pre-pandemic-like levels, use hybrid tactics (QRs, team pages, wallet checkout) to turn on-site energy into online gifts.
How to make offline amplify online.
- Pair direct mail drops with coordinated email/SMS nudges and a short vanity URL.
- Put scannable QR codes on mail reply devices and event signage that land on a fast, wallet-ready page.
- Follow every event gift with a mobile-friendly thank-you and a monthly upgrade ask within 7–10 days.
Seasonality and big moments
GivingTuesday keeps growing. In 2024, GivingTuesday donations hit $3.6 billion in the U.S., up 16% from 2023, with about 36.1 million participants (GivingTuesday Data Commons). It’s now one of the biggest single days of giving in the year, rivaling major year-end push days.
Year-end is still king. Industry benchmarks consistently show that roughly 30% of annual giving happens in December, with the last three days of the year accounting for a disproportionate share of that total. Coordinated campaigns across mail, email, SMS, and ads during these weeks deliver strong ROI.
Planning for seasonal peaks:
- Use a four-week “GivingTuesday to Year-End” ladder: build awareness early November, run appeals on GivingTuesday, then keep momentum through December with urgency-driven messaging.
- Bundle direct mail and email drops so they land within a few days of each other for reinforcement.
- Prep mobile-friendly, fast-loading landing pages before these periods, since spikes in traffic can magnify friction points.
Payment habits and fees
Checks keep declining. In the U.S., checks accounted for only about 7% of bill payments in 2024, down from 19% in 2020 (Atlanta Fed – Retail Payments Risk Forum). That trend spills over into charitable giving, especially for small to mid-size gifts. While major donors may still use checks for larger amounts, the overall shift is toward electronic payments.
Wallets and ACH reduce friction. Digital wallets like PayPal, Apple Pay, and Google Pay make checkout faster, especially on mobile. ACH (direct bank transfer) can be ideal for large or recurring gifts, fees are typically lower than card processing, and payments are less likely to fail due to card expiration.
What fees do to your net revenue.
- PayPal’s confirmed charity rate in the U.S. is 1.99% + $0.49 per transaction (PayPal Charity Pricing).
- Stripe offers nonprofit rates on request, with many citing about 2.2% + $0.30 as a typical discounted rate.
- ACH rates vary widely, but are often below 1%.
Offering a donor-covered fee option can significantly improve net revenue. M+R’s benchmarks show that when given the option, a meaningful portion of donors opt in to cover fees, sometimes offsetting them entirely.
Optimizing for conversion
Donation page completion rates are low. Across nonprofit sites, the median completion rate for a donation form is about 12%. That means nearly 9 out of 10 visitors who click “donate” never finish the process. Even small gains here can make a big difference in total revenue.
High-impact UX changes
- Reduce form fields. Each extra field slows donors down and increases drop-off.
- Pre-select the monthly option. Many donors will leave it as-is, increasing recurring revenue.
- Offer multiple payment methods. Digital wallets, ACH, and cards give donors choice and convenience.
- Enable guest checkout. Avoid forcing account creation before donating.
- Highlight impact. Show in a sentence or two what a gift at each amount will do.
Device-specific optimization
Since mobile visitors outnumber desktop visitors but give smaller gifts, focus on:
- Faster load times
- Single-column layouts
- Large tap targets for buttons
- Wallet-first payment options on mobile
On desktop, you can afford a bit more storytelling without hurting completion rates, just keep the call to action visible without scrolling.
Privacy, compliance, and trust
PCI DSS 4.0 is now in effect. As of March 31, 2025, all payment processing environments that handle cardholder data must meet the updated PCI DSS 4.0 requirements (PCI Security Standards Council). For most nonprofits, using a PCI-compliant payment processor with hosted fields or fully hosted checkout pages reduces both compliance scope and risk.
Privacy laws and donor expectations.
While U.S. federal law doesn’t impose a single privacy framework for nonprofits, state-level regulations matter. For example:
- California’s CCPA/CPRA laws generally exempt nonprofits directly, but vendors and partners they use are not exempt.
- International donors may trigger compliance with GDPR (EU) or PIPEDA (Canada).
Best practice is to exceed minimum legal requirements:
- Clearly explain how donor data is collected, stored, and used.
- Offer easy opt-outs for marketing communications.
Regularly review vendor contracts for data protection clauses.
Trust signals on donation pages.
- Display your nonprofit’s EIN and full legal name.
- Use recognizable security badges from your payment processor.
- Show a short privacy commitment near the “Donate” button.
- Keep your brand and domain consistent during the payment process.
Harness’s client solutions principal’s action plan for nonprofits
1. Acquisition
- Use a mix of online ads, lead-gen content, and offline events to attract both digital-first and traditional donors.
- Pair direct mail drops with email/SMS reminders and short, memorable URLs or QR codes to capture online gifts from offline outreach.
2. Conversion
- Optimize donation pages for mobile and desktop separately, with faster load times, wallet-ready checkout, and fewer form fields.
- Make monthly giving the default option and highlight the recurring impact in plain, donor-friendly language.
3. Retention
- Develop a short welcome series for new donors within the first 30 days.
- For monthly donors, use card updater tools and ACH to reduce churn.
- Recognize milestones (anniversaries, cumulative gifts) with personal touches.
4. Reactivation
- Use multi-channel nudges, email + mail + SMS, for lapsed donors.
- Offer a specific project or matching gift incentive to encourage a return gift.
5. Measurement
- Track net revenue after fees, not just gross revenue.
- Compare retention and lifetime value by channel and donor type (online-only, offline-only, multi-channel).
- Watch device-level data for patterns in gift size and completion rates.
The healthiest fundraising programs now operate as hybrid systems, combining online convenience with offline trust-building. Nonprofits that treat channels as complementary, rather than competing, position themselves for steadier, more diversified revenue streams.
How Harness can help you put this into practice
If you want to turn these best practices into real results, Harness gives you the tools and support to make it happen. Our all-in-one fundraising platform combines:
- Mobile-optimized donation pages with wallet-ready checkout for higher completion rates
- Built-in recurring giving options that default to monthly, boosting donor lifetime value
- Direct mail, email, and SMS integrations so you can run true multi-channel campaigns
- Automatic fee-cover prompts to maximize net revenue
- Real-time analytics to track retention, lifetime value, and device-level trends
And unlike tools that just process payments, Harness works with you as a strategic partner. We help you plan campaigns, refine donor journeys, and stay ahead of industry shifts, so your revenue is more predictable and your team spends less time juggling tech.
