May 2025
Nonprofit Trends by MissionWired
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The Narrative: Context & Takeaways
Broadly, Nonprofits Continue To Face Fundraising Challenges
…but results likely vary a great deal by vertical or mission.
A whirlwind of events in 2025 has created a deeply challenging fundraising environment for nonprofits, and this month we’re seeing the effect of a difficult giving landscape in a broad look at results across all nonprofit verticals and sizes. Many organizations are still trying to navigate fundraising challenges, whether they’re directly impacted by funding cuts, or indirectly impacted through an increase in need across their communities.
In moments like this, a broad look across missions and channels at revenue and donor behavior might seem very different from closer views and certain verticals. While many organizations are down year over year, there are some that are seeing major gains (in the view below, many of these results get filtered out by the rigorous outlier screening we implemented).
These organizations are directly calling out funding cuts and building momentum around it – as well as many humanitarian aid organizations that have responded to devastating emergencies this year. By keeping their foot on the gas in their messaging and even in their acquisition investments, these organizations are able to continue to drive immediate and long-term growth and revenue for their programs. Programs like these remain in the minority, with new acquisition composition still about 35% down from what we’ve seen the past two years. Even in giving landscapes as challenging as this one, it’s still incredibly important not to give into the scarcity mindset. By continuing to invest in acquisition, you can set your program up for future success.
-7%
Average revenue decrease YTD
-26%
Average revenue decrease in May YOY
-6%
Decrease in new donors in May YOY
$75
Average gift
Navigate Results:
Results
| 2024 | 2025 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average Revenue | $996,168.84 | $926,641.10 | - 6.98% |
| Average Total Gifts | 24,753 | 19,422 | - 21.54% |
| Open Rate | 26.02% | 32.85% | + 26.25% |
| Click Rate | 1.46% | 1.68% | + 15.05% |
| New Donors | 43.14% | 44.68% | + 3.59% |
| Opt-Out Rate | 0.38% | 0.36% | - 4.51% |
| Average Revenue | $246,885.30 | $181,516.94 | - 26.48% |
| Average Total Gifts | 5,737 | 3,416 | - 40.45% |
| Open Rate | 25.73% | 29.38% | + 14.17% |
| Click Rate | 1.84% | 1.43% | - 22.16% |
| New Donors | 45.57% | 42.80% | - 6.08% |
| Opt-Out Rate | 0.31% | 0.26% | - 16.46% |
| Average Revenue | $164,490.34 | $140,522.95 | - 14.57% |
| Average Revenue | $565,146.60 | $707,016.49 | + 25.10% |
| Average Revenue | $2,258,869.58 | $1,932,383.84 | - 14.45% |
| Average Total Gifts | 2,378 | 1,997 | - 16.01% |
| Average Total Gifts | 9,940 | 10,730 | + 7.95% |
| Average Total Gifts | 61,939 | 45,537 | - 36.02% |
| Open Rate | 21.13% | 33.00% | + 56.14% |
| Open Rate | 26.69% | 29.94% | + 12.18% |
| Open Rate | 30.25% | 35.63% | + 17.79% |
| Click Rate | 1.33% | 2.21% | + 66.16% |
| Click Rate | 1.71% | 1.57% | - 7.96% |
| Click Rate | 1.35% | 1.27% | - 6.19% |
| New Donors | 47.84% | 45.99% | - 3.85% |
| New Donors | 41.95% | 45.42% | + 8.27% |
| New Donors | 39.62% | 42.63% | + 7.61% |
| Opt-Out Rate | 0.32% | 0.34% | + 6.63% |
| Opt-Out Rate | 0.37% | 0.30% | - 19.31% |
| Opt-Out Rate | 0.31% | 0.43% | + 37.80% |
| Average Revenue | $35,668.10 | $27,790.80 | - 22.09% |
| Average Revenue | $143,194.60 | $146,471.30 | + 2.29% |
| Average Revenue | $561,793.21 | $370,288.73 | - 34.09% |
| Average Total Gifts | 478 | 361 | - 24.42% |
| Average Total Gifts | 2,630 | 2,601 | - 1.13% |
| Average Total Gifts | 14,102 | 7,287 | - 48.32% |
| Open Rate | 20.78% | 25.70% | + 23.69% |
| Open Rate | 26.76% | 28.83% | + 7.73% |
| Open Rate | 29.65% | 33.60% | + 13.32% |
| Click Rate | 1.48% | 1.33% | - 10.30% |
| Click Rate | 2.87% | 2.04% | - 29.00% |
| Click Rate | 1.18% | 0.94% | - 20.38% |
| New Donors | 49.48% | 44.10% | - 10.88% |
| New Donors | 47.11% | 43.63% | - 7.40% |
| New Donors | 40.12% | 40.67% | + 1.37% |
| Opt-Out Rate | 0.33% | 0.29% | - 13.15% |
| Opt-Out Rate | 0.38% | 0.25% | - 35.44% |
| Opt-Out Rate | 0.20% | 0.23% | + 14.11% |
Revenue
Average Revenue Raised
The view below shows the average revenue raised across all digital channels for a nonprofit organization – excluding mid-level ($1,000+) donations and recurring (monthly) donations.
Average Total Gifts
Included below is the average number of total 1x gifts per nonprofit organization across all digital channels – excluding mid-level ($1,000+) and recurring (monthly) donations.
Average Gift
Defined as total revenue/total gifts, this chart shows the average 1x donation made across digital channels – excluding mid-level ($1,000+) and recurring (monthly) donations.
Acquisition
Average New Donors
Across all digital channels, the chart below shows, on average, how many 1x donations a nonprofit organization saw from first-time donors – excluding mid-level ($1,000+) and recurring (monthly) donations.
Average Active List Composition
Looking at all active email files, the chart below shows the average percentage of new acquisitions (new leads) that were added to the email file. This view shows the current year-to-date over previous years.
Email Engagement
Open Rate
Defined as total opens/total sent, this view shows the average email open rates across nonprofit organizations.
Click Rate
The view below shows the average click rate, defined as unique clicks/unique opens across nonprofit organizations.
Opt-Out Rate
The view below shows the average opt-out rate, defined as total opt-outs/total emails sent across nonprofit organizations.
Our Methodology
The results displayed are a view of more than 60 nonprofits across a variety of sectors. We have taken the metrics from these nonprofits and created averages for each of the KPIs so that nonprofits can easily see how their results compare. All fundraising metrics encompass all digital channels – including but not limited to email, SMS, advertising, and web. Each metric is broken down by nonprofit size, defined by the size of the active email file.
- Large: sending to 300,000 + unique emails in a month
- Medium: sending to 100,000-299,999 unique emails in a month
- Small: sending to less than 100,000 unique emails in a month
These metrics have excluded donors and donations more than $1,000 – often defined as mid-level – as well as monthly donors and donations.