Author: Bugeaud, Theresa

Publication Year: 2015

Media Type: Report

Summary:

This 2015 M+R Benchmarks Study is the first time we’ve included enough participants in the Cultural sector to take a look at their numbers as a group. And the picture the results paint is fascinating: in chart after chart, Cultural nonprofits show up as outliers, existing on a different plane from other organizations.

Abstract:

This 2015 M+R Benchmarks Study is the first time we’ve included enough participants in the Cultural sector to take a look at their numbers as a group. And the picture the results paint is fascinating: in chart after chart, Cultural nonprofits show up as outliers, existing on a different plane from other organizations.

Consider email for Cultural groups. Where the overall average open rate in our study was 14%, Cultural groups enjoyed an average open rate of 20% for their messages. Recipients of fundraising messages from Cultural groups clicked through at a rate of 0.70% — compared to a 0.48% overall rate. This sector had the highest fundraising email response rate, 0.10% against an overall average of 0.06%.

All told, nonprofits in the Cultural sector raised $141 per 1,000 fundraising messages sent, a monumental difference from the $40 industry average. Put another way: a single fundraising message delivered was worth just shy of 4 cents to the average nonprofit in our study. For Cultural groups that number jumps to 14 cents per message delivered.

And email is not the only place where Cultural groups look different from everyone else. Spoiler alert for our next section: monthly giving is an increasingly important part of the overall revenue picture for nonprofits in our study. Except, that is, for Cultural groups.

Overall, monthly giving as a percentage of online revenue climbed from 13% in 2013 to 17% in 2014. For Cultural groups, monthly giving accounted for 2% of online giving in 2013 — and that number actually dropped to 1% in 2014.

In so many ways, Cultural groups appear to be forming some sort of counter-culture of online fundraising performance, rebelling against overall industry trends. One last example: while groups in our study averaged 112 Twitter followers for every 1,000 email subscribers, for Cultural groups that number was 816. That’s a tweet-worthy fact right there. 4

Arts & Intersections:

Categories: Fundraising