Looking back at 2025, charitable organizations navigated a year shaped by economic pressure, policy shifts and evolving donor behavior. It was a year that rewarded adaptability and exposed structural trends that are no longer temporary.
Each year, we analyze performance across RKD’s client portfolio to separate perceptions from reality. The 2025 Benchmark Report reflects full-file data from 215 organizations across the U.S., offering a wide-angle view of where fundraising is stabilizing, where it’s accelerating and where caution is warranted.
Here are five questions the benchmark data suggests every fundraiser should be asking.
1. Are we growing because we have more donors or because donors are giving more?
Overall revenue increased across the portfolio. But the story beneath that growth is more nuanced.
Donor counts are not expanding at the same pace as revenue. Although food banks and animal care organizations grew their donor counts, much of the revenue lift came from stronger donor value—meaning the donors who remain active are carrying more of the weight.
If your organization saw growth last year, this distinction matters. Growth driven by deeper commitment requires a different strategy than growth driven by rapid acquisition.
2. Are we leveraging the relational opportunity?
When major gifts are included, revenue growth looks meaningfully different.
Relational giving continues to play an outsized role in financial performance. For some sectors, it accounted for the majority of year-over-year growth. This follows the growth of appreciating asset markets. While shaky, the S&P 500 has increased 22% in the past year.
With appreciated markets rising, every organization should focus on major gifts and lean into relational giving.
3. What’s happening to engagement beneath the surface?
On the surface, donor value increased in 2025. At the same time, frequency softened.
In other words, many donors gave larger gifts but slightly less often.
That combination suggests a shift in behavior. Donors remained committed, but they may have become more selective. Monitoring repeat behavior and retention may matter more in 2026 than simply driving average gift size.
4. Are we rebuilding our file or simply replacing churn?
There was encouraging progress in both acquisition and reactivation across the portfolio. Much of this growth was primarily driven by food banks’ Q4 2025 supporters, though other causes, such as animal care and missions, are making progress as well through their strategies.
New donors are entering files. Lapsed donors are returning. But long-term loyalty remains under pressure. Core donor segments continue to face headwinds, even as overall revenue grows.
The question is not just whether new donors are coming in but whether they are becoming multi-year supporters.
5. Is monthly giving still the stabilizer it has been in the past?
Recurring giving has historically provided predictability and resilience. In 2025, that stability showed signs of strain, particularly for certain causes such as Humanitarian Action.
In 2025, overall monthly sustainer values plateaued, with donor counts and revenue essentially staying flat year over year. Although each organization has its own trend, this flattening shows that sustainer retention is becoming more critical as stewardship needs to play a stronger role in these programs.
Why these questions matter
Benchmarks provide clarity. They help you determine what is truly unique to your organization versus what is structural across the market.
Across 2025, we saw:
- Revenue growth that outpaced donor growth
- Incredible growth from relational-giving strategies
- Stronger donor value paired with softer engagement
- Momentum in acquisition and reactivation
- Caution signals within recurring revenue
The organizations that will grow in 2026 are not those waiting for conditions to shift; they are the ones adapting to what the data is already revealing.
Access our 2025 Overall Full-Year Benchmark Report
The full report includes detailed KPI breakdowns and sector-specific benchmarks for animal care, food banks, health & hospitals, humanitarian and missions.
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