The State of Nonprofit Fundraising 2022: What it Means for You

Our annual nonprofit fundraising report is here, packed full with surprising insights and new fundraising strategies, all based on YOUR answers.

Download the full State of Nonprofit Fundraising report here!

Dear fundraising professional: we wrote this report for you!
Here at Greater Giving, our goal is to help nonprofits achieve fundraising success.  We use technological solutions, as well as data-driven fundraising insights gathered from surveying hundreds of nonprofits.

For The State of Nonprofit Fundraising 2022, we studied how nonprofits responded to the challenges of the last two years, what strategies are working, where they struggled the most, and what changes nonprofits plan to make in the coming year. We hope it will provide the insights and ideas you need to achieve your goals, and change the world!

What you’ll find in The State of Nonprofit Fundraising 2022

We’ve distilled our comprehensive fundraising report into easy-to-read highlights to give an overview of the most critical findings. You’ll find graphics and charts illustrating each of the major discoveries from our survey.

An overview of trends discusses these findings in greater detail, with a deep dive into the data collected, and some of our own conclusions about what these discoveries mean for fundraising in 2022.

The report provides extensive coverage of trends in galas and other fundraisers. Learn what nonprofits found when hosting virtual and hybrid events in 2021. Approach the challenges of the coming year with opportunities to diversify revenue streams and plans for new fundraising activities to address budget shortfalls.

What we learned from the data

The onset of the pandemic in 2020 derailed plans and negatively affected a majority of nonprofits.  Over 20% of them reported feeling concerned or distressed by the end of the year. Half of the nonprofits reported that their operations were stable, and a much smaller 17% felt they were on the way back to normal. At the end of 2020, only 16% were anticipating future growth in 2021.

The environment is looking better for nonprofit fundraising. Those numbers shifted over the past year, as nonprofits grew accustomed to the challenges of a pandemic. The number of organizations that struggled in 2020 has remained the same, but the majority of nonprofits are recovering—even growing.

Nonprofits are both meeting their goals at a much higher rate and setting higher goals in the future. In 2020, more than 60% of nonprofit organizations reported falling short of their goals. That dropped significantly last year, to only 36% of nonprofits missing their annual revenue goal.

Goal increases were moderate heading into 2021, with only 34% raising their goals after the onset of the pandemic. But in the coming year, 59% of organizations say they are increasing their fundraising goals. The future is looking brighter for nonprofits!

What challenges does the industry face, and how do nonprofits adapt?

After the events of 2020, a majority of nonprofit organizations (59%) saw limitations on in-person gatherings as a significant challenge to fundraising in 2021. But going into 2022, that has dropped to only 45%—making pandemic restrictions the greatest challenge that nonprofits see ahead of them.

Competition for fundraising dollars remains a big concern for fundraisers (44.5%) in the coming year. The feeling that available charitable funds are limited—and nonprofits are struggling to connect with donors deeply enough to receive those funds—is reflected in other significant challenges: Donor engagement & communication were ranked a large obstacle to fundraising in 2022 by 33% of nonprofits, and 30% felt donor fatigue stood in the way of success.

The future of fundraising events

Virtual events found much more success last year than in 2020, when the technology was still new to most nonprofit fundraisers. Twice as many nonprofits met their goals with these high-tech events in 2021 (33%) versus 2020 (15%).

But fewer organizations are planning to hold virtual and hybrid events in the coming year. Virtual and hybrid events brought in somewhat fewer new donors than in the previous year—63% in 2020 dropped to 53% in 2021. This suggests that the bubble of enthusiastic new supporters with stimulus money to donate is shrinking.

Interest remains, with 27% of nonprofits reporting new donor interest (a 9% increase over 2020) thanks to their virtual event. Nonprofits can still draw new interest and develop new relationships with virtual and hybrid events despite donors having fewer dollars for charitable giving in the coming year.

The majority of nonprofits who held one virtual or hybrid event in 2021 plan to do so again in 2022. New types of virtual events are emerging to engage donors and develop relationships; nonprofits aren’t done with high-tech events just yet!

For more ideas about how to continue fundraising and engaging donors in 2022 and beyond, download The State of Nonprofit Fundraising 2022.

Don’t forget to sign up for our list of participants for our 2023 report! The more nonprofits who complete our survey, the more helpful and insightful data we can offer you. And every participant receives a chance to win a fabulous prize!