2. When the clock strikes midnight on January 1, scores of
nonprofit staffers and fundraising experts let out a collective
sigh of relief, and hopefully, a round of hugs and cheers.
Another year-end fundraising season is in the books, and
thank goodness, it went well.
2 | 2013 year-end fundraising report
3. In this short two-month sprint, many nonprofits raise an
outsized percentage of their online revenue, so there’s
a whole lot at stake. That’s why it’s so important to test,
observe, and analyze your way to an even smarter year-
end fundraising program in the future. The results of our
analysis are packed into this report, with key insights that
will help you gear up for a generous year ahead.
3 | 2013 year-end fundraising report
4. Quick Stats
425 bsd tools clients
414,280 donors
$30 million
32% increase in average gift
1.2 billion emails sent
26% average open rate
2.2% average click-through rate
.11% average unsubscribe rate
44% of email opens occurred on
mobile devices
179 bsd agency clients
including 15 fundraising clients
15% increase in year-end online revenue
over 2012
41% of annual online revenue raised
during November and December
33% of year-end online revenue driven
by email
13% of year-end donations made on
mobile devices
4 | 2013 year-end fundraising report
Blue State Digital’s technology platform, the BSD
Tools, processed more than 493,441 donations
and sent almost 1.2 billion emails on behalf of 425
clients during November and December 2013.
We also partnered with 15 organizations to
develop and execute cutting-edge digital year-
end fundraising programs, resulting in an average
increase in revenue of 15% from 2012. The figures
in this report reflect takeaways from both sets of
clients, which we’ll identify as either “BSD Tools
clients” or “BSD agency clients.”
5. In November and December 2013, 414,280 people
donated $30 million to 425 organizations using
the BSD Tools. The average gift grew 32% compared
to 2012, up to $61.
BSD Tools clients raised about a quarter of their
2013 online revenue during November and
December. Almost 10% came in the last week of
the year, and 6% came on December 31 alone.
BSD agency clients raised on average $786,000, or
41% of their annual online revenue, during year-
end—18% during the last week of the year and 8%
on December 31. That’s why it’s crucial to prepare
far in advance for year-end fundraising.
End of Year = $$$
2013 Revenue by Day
for BSD Agency Clients
5 | 2013 year-end fundraising report
0
$375k
$750k
$1.125m
DecNovOctSepAugJulJunMayAprMarFebJan
6. People still read email,
and it drives them to give
Organizations using the BSD Tools sent 1.2 billion
emails during the 2013 year-end period. These
emails saw an average open rate of 26% and click-
through rate of 2.2%. Although there are a number
of environmental factors at play, from Yahoo’s
scrub of inactive accounts to Gmail’s auto-enabling
of images, these metrics increased significantly
from 2011 and 2012. So, go email!
For BSD agency clients, email drove 33% of
all year-end online revenue—the single most
lucrative fundraising channel.
Of course, more email typically means more
unsubscribes. During 2013 year-end fundraising,
the unsubscribe rate for BSD Tools clients was
.11%, up from .09% in 2012. Now, unless you stop
sending email altogether, attrition is unavoidable.
So here are three good ways to mitigate it:
1. Make sure your emails are interesting and offer
value, even when asking for money.
2. Don’t treat your supporters like ATMs. Cultivate
them throughout the year with rich content,
other ways to engage, and notes of appreciation.
3. Never stop looking for ways to grow your
subscriber base throughout the year.
Email Action Rates in EOY
2011 2012 2013
Click RateOpen Rate
7.5%
15%
0%
22.5%
30%
Percentage of
Total Revenue by Source
Paid
Media
Direct
Traffic
Social
Media &
Referring
Sites
Organic
Search
Email
10%
20%
0%
30%
40%
6 | 2013 year-end fundraising report
7. One goal-focused email can outperform
multiple storytelling-focused emails
Every organization has wonderful stories to tell,
and there are 10+ months of the year to tell them.
During the end of November and all of December,
get to the point: Ask people for their financial
support. And then ask again. Keep it up till the tax
deadline at midnight on December 31.
The most successful year-end campaigns motivate
people to give with deadlines and goals:
During the final week of December, for one BSD agency
client, a single goal-focused email outraised two
storytelling-focused emails by 36%.
And a matching gift challenge:
For another BSD agency client, a donor match
offer increased revenue by 75% and response rate
(donations per recipients) by 74% over a similar email
without the match.
And maybe a little bit of guilt:
For yet another agency client, the inclusion of
supporters’ donor record (e.g. Our records show you
donated $10 in 2013. Suggested December donation:
$5) more than doubled revenue and increased the
response rate by 58%.
Lastly, don’t be afraid to ask people twice. In 2013,
13% of donors to BSD Tools clients gave multiple
times during November and December. One
person even gave 16 times!
Be straight with people
7 | 2013 year-end fundraising report
8. Go mobile or go home
Have you heard that lots of people are using
mobile devices to read email and browse the web?
Probably. But here are some stats to back it up:
During year-end, 44% of email opens on the BSD
Tools occurred on mobile devices.
And 13% of donations to BSD agency clients were
made on mobile devices. This increased to 20%
for a client with a donation page specifically
optimized for mobile.
Invest the time and design/development resources
to ensure those emails and donation pages look
spectacular and remain user-friendly for anyone
feeling generous while mobile. Otherwise you may
be leaving money on the table.
of email opens
on the BSD Tools
occurred on
mobile devices
44%
8 | 2013 year-end fundraising report
9. Many clients who used BSD’s
Quick Donate feature saw
a signifcant jump in revenue.
QUICK DONATE
The more barriers you remove, the more money
you’ll raise.
A poorly designed donation form or a confusing
user experience can cost you dearly, no matter
how much traffic you drive to your site. Invest in
a clean design, a seamless donation process, and
relentless optimization. Even seemingly minor
modifications, such as removing one form field,
can cause a significant increase in conversion rates.
Lightboxes and Splash Pages
When implemented, lightboxes (windows that
pop up when a user hits the site for the first time)
accounted for 11% of total year-end revenue
for BSD agency clients. And through repeat
testing, we’ve found that lightboxes don’t result
in frustrated users, i.e. they don’t statistically
influence bounce rates, but they do dramatically
improve clicks to the donation page!
During the height of year-end fundraising, many
BSD clients rolled out donation-focused splash
pages (takeovers of their homepage). In the final
week of the year, a splash page for a large nonprofit
resulted in 46% of the revenue over the course
of the week. For another BSD agency client,
a beautifully redesigned splash page boosted
conversion rates by more than 636% and reduced
the bounce rate by 31%.
Quick Donate
BSD’s Quick Donate feature enables people to donate
with a single click via email, SMS, or the web. It also
eliminates the pain of filling out a donation form
on your mobile device. For many clients, we’ve seen
200% yearly growth of Quick Donate enrollees. For
one client, we saw a boost of over 1,000% of Quick
Donate revenue year over year.
That’s why it’s important to get donors to sign up
for Quick Donate before December comes around,
but also to optimize the process in time for the
year’s biggest spike in donations.
Make it easy
and obvious to give
9 | 2013 year-end fundraising report
10. The 2014 season is less than 9 months away.
Are you ready to make the most of it?
Better get started now:
Here’s to a happy and generous 2014.
Evaluate your 2013 results and identify the
lessons, insights, and hypotheses to explore
in 2014.
Start planning your year-end program in
August—yes, August, or even earlier. The
up-front work will pay off big time.
Grow your email list and cultivate them with
great stories, compelling visual content, and
meaningful actions.
Execute and iterate in November and
December. You can’t simply set it and forget
it. Set up a system to track analytics, pay
close attention to your results, and make
adjustments on the fly to ensure extra-
ordinary year-end results.
Test messaging and tactics all year long to
generate actionable results that will shape
your year-end program (including optimizing
your sign-up process with Quick Donate and
creating mobile-friendly donation forms).
And most importantly, say
hello to Blue State Digital.
