In today’s @AvalonFYI dispatch, you will find a year-end recap, new analysis of election ads, benchmarks, viral campaigns, resolutions, President Carter’s legacy, and fundraising fantasy football. Read it here!
Dear friends, This has been a challenging week with the East Coast snow days and the horrific impact of the destructive wildfires in California. Please stay safe and take good care—there’s a lot going on, and it’s important that we help each other out. Avalon is with you. Remembering President CarterI have been moved by recollections and tributes to President Jimmy Carter. Stanford Social Innovation Review ran a great piece on Carter’s leadership in the nonprofit sector, including his work at The Carter Center and Habitat for Humanity. Author Michelle Nunn observed, “One of the key lessons of President Carter’s civic leadership was a special combination of bold aspiration coupled with strategic, detailed, and sustained execution.” His lifelong impact, both in and out of office, is an inspiring example.
Year-End Digital InsightsAvalon has been busy crunching year-end digital numbers, and I’m happy to report a cumulative YOY increase in the number of gifts, revenue, and average gift. Despite the challenges of following a highly charged, competitive, and noisy presidential campaign—and while each nonprofit has its own trajectory—overall fundraising metrics are strong. Email is still a major workhorse in digital, and we saw excellent returns in texting. In addition, there was significant improvement in revenue and cost per donor in paid media, particularly Google Search and niche Display. Paid media acquisition efforts had an incredibly strong finish to the year. Thank you to all our clients and everyone at Avalon for your hard work to make year-end 2024 a success! Analyzing Election AdsLast month, Brennan Center for Justice (BCJ) published a new analysis of online ad spend in the 2024 election. They tracked $1.35 billion in total spend through Google and Meta, more than half of which occurred after August. The Harris Victory Fund ($179 million) and the Harris campaign ($146 million) topped their list of big spenders, more than tripling the Trump campaign ($41 million) and Trump’s joint fundraising committees ($48 million). They noted that issues with data transparency make it difficult to analyze why Trump’s spend declined vs. 2016 and 2020. It could mean that more activity flowed through super PACs in 2024, or it may signify a strategic shift towards influencers and other media. Thank you to our clients at BCJ for bringing this to light. Creative InspirationI enjoyed clicking through Fast Company’s round up of 2024’s best ad campaigns. Representing nonprofit organizations, Visit Oslo’s viral “Is It Even a City?” campaign is fantastic. They earned a nod for “Best Reverse Psychology” by highlighting “complaints” about the city’s accessibility and small-town feel. It’s a fun ad to watch, and now I want to travel to Norway! Resolutions for NonprofitsThe Chronicle of Philanthropy suggested a list of nonprofit resolutions that encompass fundraising, leadership, data collection, and more. Each practice is backed by their advice on how to make those resolutions stick. My favorite is this evergreen goal for fundraisers: “do a better job of hanging on to donors—including those who give spontaneously.” Why You’re Still HiringGeorge Mason University’s Center on Nonprofits, Philanthropy, and Social Enterprise shared new employment benchmarks, which track changes across the pandemic (2019 – 2022). The nonprofit sector has proven resilient, but it’s still in catch-up mode from jobs shed during the crisis. For future outlook, The NonProfit Times observed that cuts proposed by the Trump administration could impact federal funding and further slow nonprofits’ employment recovery. This will be a strategic consideration for leadership while Republicans are at the helm. FUN in FundraisingThank you to the Avalon virtual gathering committee for organizing our first-ever fantasy football league. This activity was a lot of fun for our team. The inaugural season has ended, so it’s time to crown our champions. Congratulations to senior VP Margot O’Leary (“Margot’s Gridiron Guesswork”) for winning the NFC, and to senior data manager Chris Stalowski (“The Source Codes”) for dominating the AFC! |
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