by Baird Straughan
How did conservation nonprofits fare in their end-of-year appeals in 2024? Numbers are not in for the country as a whole, but for 16 small-to-midsized conservation organizations for which we have data, 2023 saw a recovery from 2023 declines in year-end giving from individuals. Year-over-year revenue from events, donations, major donations and memberships rose by approximately 11%, or 7% after inflation.
WaterGrass runs an annual “end-of-year” appeal workshop series, in which we walk through the steps of the appeal, from identifying target audiences to following up with non-responsive high donors. In our wrap-up session, one participant reported the workshops and their renewed focus on the appeal had nearly quadrupled end-of-year giving. Another said they feared donors would be burned out by the fraught political season, but that they were “pleasantly surprised” by the results, and attributed part of that to the strength of the stock market. (The EOY appeals ended before the current market decline.)
Overall, the average size of donations continued to rise, after a precipitous drop in 2020, when there was a sudden increase of small online donations, presumably as a result of the COVID pandemic and the isolation it caused.
The current rise in donation size masks a worrying trend. Most of the increase in 2024 EOY giving was due to larger donation size, rather than to an increase in the number of donors. Nationally, the number of nonprofit donors has actually declined the last couple years.
But for most of these 16 conservation groups the number of EOY donors held steady or increased slightly, perhaps because WaterGrass nonprofits tend to involve individuals as participants or volunteers in many of their activities, and so may have stronger recruitment and retention.
Looking forward to 2025, webinar participants were guarded. For some of them, cuts to the federal workforce and budget are already affecting their activities. For all, the unprecedented economic uncertainty may cause individual donors to hold back. The decline of the stock market means that some major donors may not have the capacity to donate as before. As a result, some participants were already revising their budget projections downward.
How did your organization do in the EOY 2024 appeal, and what changes do you expect for 2025?
Baird
PS. If you’re a WaterGrass user, you’ll find a new report in the WaterGrass Fundraising Analysis reports, labeled “October-December Individual Giving Year by Year.” Use it to analyze your organization’s historic EOY performance and identify trends for yourselves.