2026 Nonprofit Fundraising Report
Giving hit a record.
Donors kept leaving.
US giving reached $617.20 billion in 2025. The number of people doing the giving fell for the eighth year running. This report is 16 pages on why those two facts are the same fact, and what a development team can do about it.
Sixteen pages, 71 statistics, every one sourced.
The finding
More money, arriving through fewer hands.
Over the last decade dollars raised rose 69 percent while the number of donors fell 19 percent. Revenue can look healthy for years while the base underneath it thins out, and most organizations only discover it the year a large donor moves on.
The report traces that gap through participation, retention, mobile behavior and recurring giving, then sets out what to do in priority order.
Inside the report
Eight sections, 16 pages.
- 01The state of giving
$617.20 billion, a record, and 1.4% real growth once inflation is taken out.
- 02The participation paradox
Household participation fell from 66% to 46.9%. The money replacing it comes from fewer, larger hands.
- 03Why the base is thinning
Itemizers fell from 37 million to 16 million, religious affiliation from 34% to 23% of giving, and neither is coming back.
- 04Seven shifts, scored
Each shift rated on evidence strength, so you can tell the structural changes from the vendor talking points.
- 05Mobile and recurring
52% of traffic, 28% of revenue. Monthly donors retain at 78 to 80% against 43.3% overall.
- 06Where donors leak out
The journey from first click to second gift, and the four points where most organizations lose people.
- 07What to do now
Eight moves in priority order, with the evidence behind each one and what it costs to run.
- 08Methodology
71 statistics, 19 independent and 32 vendor-published, flagged as such. Including what we could not prove.
Get the report
Read it before your next board meeting.
The PDF downloads immediately. We ask for an email so we can send the eight follow up notes, one per section, each with a specific number and what to do about it. Unsubscribe in one click at any time.
- 16 pages, designed to be read in twenty minutes
- 71 statistics, vendor-published ones flagged as vendor-published
- Includes what the data could not prove
We'll also send you new research and notes as we publish them. Unsubscribe any time.
Readiness score
We score your fundraising system. You don't.
Page 14 is a 14 question readiness framework, two points each, 28 possible. We don't ask you to score yourself, because you would need to know what good looks like on all fourteen, and if you already did you wouldn't need the report.
So we run it. We meet your donation experience the way a first time donor does. Mobile checkout, the number of fields, whether monthly giving sits on the same screen or two clicks away, what happens in the 48 hours after a first gift. You get the scorecard back with the specific points you are losing.
Twenty minutes on your numbers, and a straight answer on what to fix first. Most organizations we run this on land under 14.
“Your revenue can look fine for years while the base underneath it quietly gets thinner.”