Have you ever wondered how your seasonal fundraising patterns change over the year? For most nonprofits, giving tends to spike in December. That may be true for your organization, too. Or it may not. And what about the rest of the year?
It’s possible your nonprofit experiences fairly predictable splurges and deserts over the course of the year that seem to show up year after year. It’s also possible your donations come in irregularly, and every year is different.
This sort of topic can only be addressed in one way – by examining your own data. You can’t compare yourself to other organizations, because your data might be different from theirs.
But with data visualization in the form of graphs and charts, using your organization’s own fundraising data, you can study your seasonal fundraising patterns and see if any useful insights and trends emerge.
How Do You Access Seasonal Giving Data?
You simply need good recordkeeping and a way to quickly collate, analyze, and represent it.
This is what the Fundraising Report Card makes easy. Simply upload three categories of data – donor ID numbers, donation dates, and donation amounts – and you’ll be able to see your seasonal giving data in seconds.
In addition, you’ll be able to create graphs and charts so you and your team can visualize the data and see what’s happening.
Why Study Seasonal Fundraising Patterns?
When you know what’s happening with your fundraising, it should inform your practices, routines, and habits. Here are a few things you can do when you know your organization’s giving patterns.
Strike when the iron is hot
If you notice fundraising patterns repeating year after year, this is an indication of what your donors seem to prefer regarding timing. Are you maximizing this potential?
Maybe you’re doing well with email fundraising during that time, or with direct mail or other channels. But maybe you could amp up your social media fundraising efforts. Maybe make a point of interacting with your mid-level and major donors around that time, as they may be in a generous mood.
The point is, if you see giving patterns that seem reliable, look for ways to capitalize on those times of year even more than you already are.
Communicate with relevance
Figure out why donors seem to give during predictable times each year, and communicate in ways that are relevant to those times.
For example, maybe you notice a spike in giving every year in the spring, mostly in April. What could that mean? Maybe it has to do with taxes. Maybe better weather. Maybe spring break, or the start of baseball season, or a hundred other possible reasons. But figure out what it is, and start injecting language related to that in your fundraising communications that go out at that time.
You’ll be entering the conversation people are already having in their own minds. When you can succeed at that, it drives better results.
Seize missed opportunities
You may also discover that your fundraising spikes seem to coincide with spikes in communication or campaigns. You may discover some missed opportunities with data like this.
For example, suppose you see spikes in February, May/June, September, and December. Is there something you’re doing during any of these times you can replicate in some of the months with lower levels of giving?
When you can see your fundraising patterns, these are the kinds of conversations you can start having.
What Fundraising Data Should You Use to Look for Patterns?
The conversions you can have regarding seasonal fundraising patterns really depend on what type of data you study. Different fundraising metrics and KPIs (key performance indicators) will reveal different insights, and inspire different strategies and responses from your organization.
Here are four of the most useful fundraising metrics to study for giving patterns.
Average donation amount
This metric gives you a sense of how generous people may be feeling at various times of year. While it’s usually true that donations spike in December, that doesn’t mean the average donation amount also spikes. In fact, it may even decline for some nonprofits.
This matters, because if a lot more people are giving, but giving in smaller amounts per person, this affects the way you’ll approach your fundraising communications during that time.
You may find even more insights by looking at average amounts for different giving levels. The Fundraising Report Card breaks down your data into five levels:
- Under $100
- $100 to $250
- $250 to $1000
- $1000 to $5000
- Above $5000
For each of these levels, if you look for patterns year after year, you may find even more insight into when people increase their giving amounts verses more people giving.
Number of donations
On the flip side of the last one, you should also track number of donations to see when more people give. In terms of mass donor communications – even fundraising that is targeted at particular segments of your database – it will be very helpful to know when more people tend to make gifts.
As mentioned earlier, sending out communications during these times should earn a more favorable return on investment.
Retention rate
Retention rate is typically measured once per year. In other words, a donor is considered retained if they give at least once each year. But when during that year? Does it matter?
By studying your fundraising patterns, you may be able to discern when most of your retained donors give again. For example, if you look at your retention rate in November, and it’s a worrying 14%, you might be panicking if the retention rate last year was 45%. But, after December, what if donor retention spikes up to 42%?
This would mean a great number of your repeat donors have waited until December to give another gift.
You may also find other kinds of surprises when studying retention rate patterns. This could be a missed opportunity, for instance. If you notice a lot of retained donors giving just once per year but around the same time, maybe you can try turning them into twice-a-year donors. Knowing when most of these donors are giving, you can time your efforts to win a second gift so they are spaced out in the calendar.
Overall revenue
You can also look for patterns in how revenue comes in throughout the year. Again, it’s common for big spikes to occur in December. But because of major gifts, this may not be the case. You may find major gives coming in at various points of the year, and see big spikes and valleys as a result.
There may be no pattern at all. Or, maybe you notice major gives popping up in clusters, because you see big revenue spikes happening at certain times per year. This would indicate when major donors tend to be more likely to make their gifts. And that could influence how you communicate with them and the choices you give when you create giving proposals.
There’s a reason people must be giving large gifts at certain times of year – if that’s in your data. Figure out the reason, and use it to be more effective in your conversations with other major donors.
Seasonal Giving Patterns and Data Visualization
All of this is made much easier when you can visualize the data with graphs and charts. These make it far easier to spot trends and patterns than when you just look at numbers. Plus, with graphs, you can alter the scale to identify highlights more easily.
The Fundraising Report Card produces graphs and charts in mere seconds, work that can take hours of time if you ask your staff to do it. And then if you make any changes, they have to go back and invest even more time. And then repeat it all the next time the need arises.
Our platform makes it super easy to create all the graphs and charts you want in seconds, so you can analyze your data, look for patterns, and use it to develop an informed course of action.
