One-time online giving increased significantly in 2020, fueled largely by emergency giving related to the pandemic and the disruption of other fundraising channels, a report from Blackbaud finds.

Based on an analysis of aggregate data from January 1, 2018 through December 31, 2020, from 908 Blackbaud Luminate Online customers with at least three years of consecutive usage data, the Blackbaud Luminate Online Benchmark Report 2020 found that revenue from one-time giving grew 15.6 percent on a year-over-year basis in 2020, rebounding from a 1 percent decline in 2019. The number of one-time donations rose 15.8 percent, while the average gift size increased 3.3 percent, to $169.59. One-time online giving revenue increased in eleven out of twelve issue areas, including a 453 percent surge for food banks.

The study also found year-over-year increases in online revenue from first-time donations (14.9 percent), repeat donations (16.4 percent), and monthly sustainer donations (17.9 percent). While the median share of sustainer revenue declined from 11 percent in 2019 to 9 percent, the number of sustainer donors in the dataset rose 18 percent and all issue areas saw growth in revenue from sustainer giving, led by food banks (99.1 percent) and including health services and research (8.4 percent), the only issue areas to see a decline in one-time donations and overall online revenue. While one-time giving spiked in May and June and again in November and December, sustainer giving grew by between 14 percent and 20 percent every month.

According to the report, with the elimination of in-person fundraising events, nonprofits sent 13.9 percent more emails in 2020 than in 2019, and total email clickthroughs increased 29 percent. Revenue from fundraising emails jumped 42.2 percent while the number of transactions rose 43.2 percent, and the email conversion rate rose by 17.9 percent, to 0.35 percent.