In this first blog of 2016 I thought we might take a moment to view the overall nonprofit fundraising landscape. I know that your strategic plan and operating plan have already been written, but I thought this might be the perfect opportunity to do your first edit. The best plans are living documents always awaiting amendment.

PREDICTIONS

Looking into a crystal ball is, of course, a risky business. The predictions below are the best guess of the experts who have been analyzing the nonprofit fundraising environment of 2015.

• Charitable giving will increase another 4.9% in 2016 to almost $360 billion.
• Over 30% of giving will happen in December.
• Smaller and newer peer-to-peer programs will experience rapid growth.
• Over 15% of donations will come from mobile devices.
• The open rate for nonprofit emails will settle at between 15% and 17.5%.
• 92% of nonprofits will use content marketing to spread their missions.
• 71% of nonprofits will cite staff shortages as a challenge to using new digital technology.
• A majority of nonprofits who believe major gifts are essential will have no major gift strategy.
• Revenues from major fundraising events will decrease again in 2016. 

EDIT

Take another look at your fundraising plans for 2016 and compare them to the predictions above.  Given, the statistics are estimates and projections from 2014 since the final numbers for 2015 are not in yet. However, they tell a compelling story about the changing fundraising landscape all nonprofits face in 2016.

TAKE CAREFUL NOTE

1. Charitable giving will continue to increase but individual donations through mobile electronic media (Facebook e.g.) will be vastly more important in 2016.
2. The big annual fundraiser is beginning to wane as this new electronic age takes hold.
3. Most nonprofit agencies are not properly staffed for the coming electronic fundraising strategy.
4. Major gifts are still important and must be part of your 2016 strategy.
5. Simple email is becoming less effective.
6. Finally, as electronic media become more important, timing is everything. Clearly tax strategy plays an important part in charitable giving and timing your electronic fundraising program correctly is critically important. 

OUR OPTIMISTIC CONCLUSION

2016 could be a banner year if we're careful to change with the times and study our business environment carefully.

FREE GUIDE – The folks over at Online Fundraiser’s Checklist 2.0 have a free guide out that can help you with your planning.  You can check it out here. 

Please leave a comment below if it was helpful.