In today’s @AvalonFYI dispatch, you’ll find four benchmarks reports that paint a picture of where nonprofits have been and where fundraising must go, plus balanced creative, development days, and how to find time for your most important work. Read it here!
Dear friends,
Avalon is in Annapolis this week for our annual all-staff retreat. Thank you to everyone for making the trip and especially to our operations team—COO Kerri Kerr, VP of operations Barb Perell, and operations manager Mollie Bensen—for orchestrating an excellent event. Our teams prepared ahead for client work, and all deliverables will remain on schedule. It should be a fun and productive week.
Benchmark-a-palooza
Last week was a busy one for benchmarks! Let’s dive in:
- Fundraising Effectiveness Project released 2025 Q4 benchmarks, which I read as cautiously optimistic. Donations grew by +5%, which is the strongest jump in five years. And, though donors (particularly those giving less than $5K) continue to decline, the pace is slowing. As FEP notes, this deceleration may be the result of a smaller overall pool, or it could indicate real improvement, so fundraisers should continue to follow it. In addition, the report highlights mid-level growth, the critical second gift, and the continued importance of donor stewardship, relevance, and trust.
- Giving USA published a 2026 special report on Donor Confidence and Giving Behavior, exploring what is influencing donors right now and how to engage them. They emphasize donor’s economic concerns, the looming impact of tax policy, and an evolution in giving channels. The report stresses that direct mail remains a critical driver, but that donors are significantly more likely to process their donation online. Omnichannel tracking and attribution are critical: “Organizations that only measure direct mail effectiveness by reply forms returned are counting only around 30% of the revenue that direct mail generates.” Avalon approaches this through advanced digital analytics and cross-channel attribution, to ensure our clients have the full picture.
- M+R Benchmarks hit inboxes as well. The latest report highlights overall growth in digital revenue, which came in at +15% on average for participants, after two years of relatively flat changes the prior two years! Two especially bright spots were (1) monthly giving, which accounted for 27% of online revenue, and (2) DAF giving, which increased by +44%—and we’re seeing these increases in monthly and DAF giving bear out for our clients, too.
In addition, the report outlines how AI is changing engagement: Organic website traffic is dropping steeply, as more and more interactions are mediated through AI. Avalon joins M+R in recommending Generative/Answer Engine Optimization strategies alongside traditional SEO. While some of our clients haven’t experienced steep drops in organic traffic, we encourage all clients to consider brand awareness or other paid strategies that will drive qualified prospects to the site and counteract drop-off. We also agree with the perspective on SMS programs and revenue—there’s so much untapped potential in this channel for many organizations, and we’re seeing that our clients who invest in this channel are driving strong results, with YOY increases.
Finally, in an interesting development that underscores Giving USA findings, M+R added direct mail benchmarks this year, reinforcing the importance of omnichannel integration. While digital revenue is growing, Giving USA shows that channels are increasingly interconnected, with direct mail often driving online giving. Together, these benchmarks highlight that the strongest results come from coordinated, multichannel strategies rather than siloed efforts. - FundraiseUp updated their “Pulse of the Donor” report, calling 2025 “the paradox year.” This report tracks anonymized giving data for 1000+ nonprofits on their platform and lands on 3 core insights. First, over half of online transactions took place on mobile devices. In addition, social media is a sustainer engine, with donors who are twice as likely as email donors to convert to recurring within 60 days (and 12% immediately recurring). And third, a “sustainable commitment pattern” may be emerging: Monthly average gift declined by -5.3%, but sustainer enrollments increased by +2.5%. Avalon agrees that a strong recurring gift strategy is imperative, and we use proprietary sustainer analytics to optimize recurring giving across both online and offline channels.
Balanced Creative
Senior VP Melissa Roberts recommended John Thompson’s three-part series on balanced creative to the Avalon team. The first post, on the balance between crisis and compassion, explains how an always-urgent tone can undermine your nonprofit’s message. Next, he suggests a “creative equation” that motivates both heart and mind. Finally, he considers “brandraising,” a.k.a. collaborative integration of fundraising and marketing that both demonstrates need and highlights impact. I particularly like his shorthand for donor motivation:
John Thompson’s Creative Equation:
“R (Resonate) + D (Demonstrate) = M (Motivate)”
Timeboxing FTW
Shout out to the Avalon Analytics team for completing their latest Development Days, a two-day R&D sprint led by Analytics VP SB Birnie. From matchbacks to benchmarks, to dashboards, to advanced modeling and forecasting, this round did not disappoint.
The timebox approach to R&D empowers faster and more purposeful technical innovation, but anyone can use the strategy to advance their professional goals. According to Harvard Business Review, timeboxing offers five benefits: timing the work well, communicating priorities, providing a record of the work, developing autonomy, and increasing efficiency. I encourage everyone to give it a try!
“Just take a commonplace example: do you habitually take two hours (cumulatively, often drawn out over multiple sessions) to complete a task that really could have been done in a single, focused, time-boxed hour? If the answer is yes, then your personal productivity might be double what it is right now.”
– Marc Zao-Sanders, Harvard Business Review
