What’s going on with community fundraising?

Community and events fundraising were the income streams hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic. The former has yet to recover while the latter is showing a return to form.

So, what’s going on with community fundraising?

Prior to the pandemic, there was a lot of positivity towards community and a growing understanding of what it does and contributes.

THINK’s research shows that income and headcount are behind pre-pandemic levels, however, 67% of charities reported in the THINK Community Forum benchmarking study that they were planning to invest in community.

Higher averages but lower volume

Our benchmarking has found the average value of supporters across a broad range of activities has actually increased compared to 2021. For example, average value of DIY fundraisers has increased from £451 to £672 and community groups up from £7,080 to £7,974. The challenge for community fundraising is volume. Our research shows a decrease of 44% in the number of community fundraising supporters in 2023 compared to 2021.

Excellent initial stewardship

Community fundraising will continue to be an entry point for many supporters, so relationships will – and should – continue to be a focus.

Higher average values point to excellent initial stewardship provided by community teams. Our annual community fundraising mystery shopping study found continued improvement in the front end of supporter experience (eg telephone registration, online registration, fundraising packs) but challenges in the back end (eg follow-up contact after registration, donation acknowledgement, etc).

Room for improvement in retention and cross-sell?

Average supporter retention in community is 29%, with few organisations able to report on the number of community supporters who have gone on to support the charity in another way. Both should be key metrics.

KPIs that monitor and measure the wider contribution that community makes are required. It is no longer acceptable to simply claim these activities are an entry to the organisation – so systems and reporting are required to demonstrate how many people are going on to support in a different way, what that activity is and what the value is.

The future?

There remains unquestionable opportunity in community and events fundraising for charities. 2024 is looking like another year of uncertainty for community fundraising, with key challenges for community teams in the near term appearing to be:

• Reaching more supporters – How can organisations boost the volume of community fundraising supporters? Are propositions designed to stimulate the activity required?
• Greater focus on lifetime value – How can community fundraising teams increase their retention rate? How can organisations evolve systems to enable reporting to show supporters going on to give in another way?

It will be critical for organisations to use the latest insight to refine, adapt and innovate both propositions and experience.

Gary Kernahan, Executive Director
March 2024

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If you lead a community fundraising operation and would benefit from being part of a facilitated peer-to-peer community, we’d love to talk to you about THINK’s Community Fundraising Forum. You can get in touch with us here.

You can also find us on LinkedIn at THINK Consulting Solutions and on Twitter/X @ThinkCS, where we share useful industry insights.