Many nonprofits have lowered 2023 fundraising expectations compared to previous years’ projections, a survey from the Nonprofit Alliance finds.

Based on an online survey of 33 direct response fundraising consultancies that collectively represent hundreds of nonprofits, the 2022-2023 ADRFCO Survey: Compiling Insights into the Nonprofit Sector found that while nearly two-thirds (65.64 percent) of respondents indicate their nonprofit clients met or exceeded projections for 2022, an even greater number (68.75 percent) said the results fell short of 2021’s outcomes and nearly half (43.75 percent) said their clients have lowered their expectations further for 2023. Conversely, only 37.5 percent of respondents have clients who expect to match last year’s results, and 18.75 percent expect to exceed them. When asked to identify the biggest fundraising challenges they believe their clients will face in 2023, respondents overwhelmingly identified inflation (84.85 percent), new donor acquisition (78.79 percent), and donor retention (63.64 percent).

According to the survey, nonprofits will likely utilize email fundraising methods versus direct mail or telemarketing, and most respondents expect their clients to do either the same amount of (53.13 percent) or less (40.63 percent) direct mail fundraising this year compared with last year (largely because of increases in the cost of postage and paper). A majority also report their clients will be doing the same amount of (71.43 percent) or less (21.43 percent) telemarketing, while nearly half (43.75 percent) indicated that clients intend to increase their volume or frequency of fundraising emails, with the remaining 56.25 percent expected to do the same as last year.

“Some of them commented that 2022 was still a stronger year than 2019, and overall if you take out that COVID anomaly period, you can see they would have been following the same trendline,” Nonprofit Alliance CEO Shannon McCracken told the NonProfit Times. “But recognizing some of the economic challenges, many agencies are recommending to their clients that they be more conservative in 2023, and year-end 2022 really spoke to that because it just wasn’t as strong as the past couple of year-ends.”

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