Rossi’s Roundup: Trends and Giving Pulse, donor treatment and consumer mood

As we roll past April Drools Day (a playful nod in the animal care world), it’s clear the world around us isn’t slowing down — changes are coming quicker than ever. Growing up in Oklahoma’s tornado alley, we had a saying: Keep your boots on for now.

With that bit of country, small-town wisdom in mind, let’s dive into what’s been stirring in our nonprofit world.

🎁 DAFPay is now “live”. If you receive an email from Chariot, the company behind DAFPay, please follow the instructions provided to claim your free Chariot account and reach out to them with any questions.

📲 Blackbaud releases Tap to Pay on iPhone to Blackbaud Merchant Services™ customers. Tap to Pay on iPhone allows organizations to accept in-person, contactless payments using the MobilePay Terminal and just an iPhone. This means no additional hardware, like card readers or terminals, is needed.

📊 Monthly sustainer benchmark insights ahead! Carl Brenner, our data scientist has given us several interesting insights about monthly recurring gift donors based on the 2024 benchmarks. Two new blogs you won’t want to miss will launch today and tomorrow on the RKD website:

Monthly subscription giving: 2024 Animal Care Benchmark

What are the most popular monthly sustainer gifts

📨 Oh boy …. the up and coming bi-annual U.S. postage increase coming in July …. The anticipated increases reported below are premised on USPS using all of its rate authority. We should find out this month if these are confirmed and approved. The anticipated increases are:

First Class 8% (an 80-cent first class stamp)

Marketing Mail Letters … 11.6%

Marketing Mail Flats … 13.6%

Periodicals … 9.4%

The mail will also be slower, with the USPS is expected to add a day to its service standards which will, among other things, add a day to business reply mail delivery. Dave Lewis at SnailWorks cited on-time percentages aren’t much different than the same time last year, but days in transit is markedly worse and delivery within SCFs is slowing.

🤖 The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) dived in to tell us The Five Things You Shouldn’t Tell ChatGPT and earlier in the week, I Quit Google Search for AI—and I’m Not Going Back. Keep your eyes on the RKD blog because Ronnie tells me that he’s been working with Ashley Walker and Mitchell Chokas on a detailed blog post targeted for April 16 about this very topic—how AI is changing search behavior and how it affects paid and organic search efforts.

WSJ’s first article mentioned above does provide some very good tips. If you’re privacy conscious, try these tips:

Above all, don’t share any sensitive information in your conversations. Chats about your weird rash or your financial flubs might be used to help train tomorrow’s AI—or come out in a data breach. Keep your identity information including birthdate to yourself. This includes medical results, financial accounts, proprietary corporate information, and logins.

Cover your tracks. When you give feedback about a bot’s response—thumbs-up or -down, typically—you might be giving permission for your prompt and its output to be evaluated and even used for training. If the conversation gets flagged for safety (if you mention violence, for example), company employees might review it. Anthropic’s Claude by default doesn’t use your chats for training and deletes data after two years. OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Copilot and Google’s Gemini do use conversations, but offer an opt-out in settings.

Delete often. DeepSeek, which has servers in China. According to its privacy policy, it can retain your data indefinitely, and there is no opt-out offer. Use temporary chat. ChatGPT’s Temporary Chat, found in the top right corner of the chat window, is like your browser’s Incognito Mode. Turn it on to stop ChatGPT’s memory bank from adding that material to your profile.

Ask anonymously. Duck.ai, by privacy search engine DuckDuckGo, anonymizes prompts to the AI model of your choice, including Claude and OpenAI’s GPT, and says data isn’t used for model training.

Just remember: The chatbots are programmed to keep the conversation going. It’s up to you to hold back—or hit “delete.”

💡 Our friends over at NextAfter shared new statistics about the ever-so-important second gift of a donor. The likelihood for a donor to retain into their second year of giving is 21%. That means that next year, you will lose 79% of the new donors you acquire this year. Their latest research shows that if a donor gives a second gift in their first year of giving, their second-year retention increases by 114%. In other words, a donor’s retention rate can go from 21% to 45% by simply securing a second gift from a new donor.

📊 Reminder: Neon will be releasing a new report at the end of this month using research done for The Generosity Report looking at actual large-scale donor behavior. Another drip of findings from Tim Sarrantonio: More engagement doesn’t necessarily inspire more generosity.

Single-organization donors actually received more communications than multi-organization donors - an average of 59 emails over five years, compared to 55 for multi-org donors. They were also enrolled in more automated workflows.

And yet, multi-organization donors gave more overall and increased their giving at a faster rate. Their generosity wasn’t tied to frequency of outreach - it was tied to affinity and meaningful engagement.

This means quality matters more than quantity. Engagement rates were higher than industry benchmarks, but that didn’t necessarily translate to deeper financial support.

🤔 This data reinforces an important truth: we can’t assume how people want to engage - we have to create opportunities and let them decide.

🧹 Over on the Thinkers Newsletter on LinkedIn, Ronnie is “Spring cleaning” the clutter with insights on direct mail trends, compliance updates and key benchmarks to help you plan ahead. What type of spring cleaning do you need to tackle at your organization? Keep that thought in mind as you read, “Clearing the clutter: Spring tips for nonprofit growth”.

Ready to dig in? Let’s do it.

1. New Giving Pulse Data Shows Timing Is Everything & the companion Giving Pulse Field Guide ⏱️

Following traditional seasonality of giving is stunting charities’ ability to generate additional income. Not asking is counterintuitive since new research in the Giving Pulse report from GivingTuesday for the fourth quarter of 2024 shows people, in general, trust charities and are willing to give.

Key takeaways from the report include:

Levels of trust in the nonprofit sector, a sense of community belonging, and civic intent (a measure indicating a community-minded orientation, as well as a pattern of recent generosity) remain consistent across the four main geographic regions of the U.S. and community types (as identified by the American Communities Project).

Negative news about nonprofits does not depress generosity. People who noticed coverage of nonprofits were more likely to be generous, regardless of whether the news they heard was positive or negative.

Solicitation matters. People are more likely to support causes, organizations, and people when they are asked. As the organizations in the nonprofit sector ramped up solicitation activities in the last quarter of 2024, this period remained vital to the resilience and health of the social sector.

People living in different regions of the U.S. experience different levels of solicitation to give. To drive more giving, there are opportunities to expand the reach of current solicitation efforts.

RKD Group’s companion to this report, GivingPulse Field Guide is back with fresh insights to boost your nonprofit's impact. This edition dives into:

🌍 Engaging local communities for stronger donor connections

🤝 Stewardship strategies to build lasting trust

🔍 How transparency drives donor loyalty

2. 5 Years Since COVID: How Fundraising’s Changed and What It Means for You 💫

What has happened in fundraising since COVID? The nonprofit fundraising world has transformed since the pandemic. Donors are giving differently, digital strategies are evolving, and organizations are being asked to do more with less. Virtuous’ new report breaks it down featuring insights of industry experts, including RKD Group’s own Sr. Vice President of Audience Strategy, Jarred Schremmer.

📌 How donor behavior has evolved – fewer donors, larger gifts, and rising expectations.

📌 The biggest fundraising challenges today – donor retention, engagement, and the role of AI.

📌 Sector-specific insights – tailored strategies for human services, healthcare, faith-based, and education nonprofits.

📌 Future trends – the impact of mobile giving, AI-driven fundraising, and the $70T wealth transfer.

📌 Practical next steps – a checklist of actionable strategies to future-proof your fundraising.

3. Blackbaud Institute: 2024 Trends in Giving 📊

Discover where records were set—and what the data reveals about 2024 giving.

In 2024, nonprofit fundraisers showcased remarkable resilience, driving a 2% increase in charitable giving despite facing uncertainty. Inside this spotlight, you’ll find data-backed insights into:

How the sector rebounded in 2024 from post-pandemic declines

A new record in individual gifts

Trends in online and overall giving by organization size and subsector

4. Top 30 Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Events Accomplish Fourth Straight Year of Growth 📈

The nonprofit sector’s top peer-to-peer fundraising programs continue to make up ground from 2020’s drastic 33.9% drop in revenue by recording a fourth straight year of growth.

With 3% more revenue in 2024 than 2023, the top 30 U.S. peer-to-peer fundraising programs combined to bring in $1.14 billion last year, according to the 19th annual "Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Top 30 Survey" that the Peer-to-Peer Professional Forum released.

The peer-to-peer programs are walks, runs, bike rides and other challenges that rely on participants’ network of friends and family to support them with donations to the cause. While these top 30 events have yet to combine to reach 2019’s nearly $1.37 billion level, they have chipped away in subsequent years with gains of 3.5%, 18.8%, 3.2% and now 3%.

Participation also increased by 3.5% to 2.5 million participants, according to the survey.

5. The Next Phase of Fundraising Effectiveness: A Chair’s Perspective 🎯

Chair Tim Sarrantonio has shared changes in the governance and where the Fundraising Effectiveness Project is headed as well as providing an invitation and even requesting feedback.

FEP isn’t just about producing reports - it’s about ensuring they are actionable, accessible, and meaningful. That means the board is revisiting their governance structure, improving how they engage fundraisers, and expanding how we think about data.

For too long, data in the nonprofit sector has functioned like a weather report - informative but passive. We need a report card instead: a tool that fundraisers can use to assess performance, understand patterns, and improve their strategies in real-time. That’s the work Tim and the board have been doing - transforming FEP into a resource that doesn’t just describe the landscape but helps shape it.

His LinkedIn post provides in-depth details including sub-committee changes. He has this invitation: If you are attending AFPICON then please attend their panel on April 27 at 9am PT or join the public forum at 10:30am. You can also comment on this LinkedIn post thread or DM Tim.

6. Donor Retention: Why It's Decreasing and 5 Things You Can Do About It ✍️ ‍👨

Pondering society and how it has changed allows us to examine fundraising and how it has changed. It shows reasons donor retention is decreasing and sheds light on what we can do about it.

Five impactful things that nonprofits are doing today to increase retention and build strong donor communities:

Show Real Impact
Show Gratitude
Provide Payment Options
Make Communication a Two-Way Street
Create Non-Monetary Opportunities

All gifts matter, so ensuring that thank-you emails and pages on the website make it easy for donors to share their support of your mission. One strategy is organizations asking donors to share a short video about why they gave and why the mission matters.

The organization used the videos as part of an email campaign leading up to GivingTuesday. Donor stories can create a sense of fear of missing out (FOMO) and encourage others to make a gift. This approach provides existing donors the opportunity to increase their value but also creates user-generated content that can help a nonprofit’s communications team immensely.

There are more than 1.8 million nonprofits in the U.S. This means there is a lot of competition for donors and dollars. Nonprofits that connect with people and invest in building relationships with them retain donors. This takes effort. It takes thought. It takes time.

7. How to Treat Every Donor Like They Matter — and Keep Them 🙌

Here are tips to engage small-dollar donors beyond simply asking for gifts, including ways to use AI to make outreach feel more personal.

There is a different way of treating everyday donors: relational fundraising at scale. Relational fundraising isn’t new. Fundraisers have always treated major donors well. They send personal updates, write handwritten thank you notes, and take them to lunch. It’s the last part — “at scale”— that’s new.

Relational fundraising at scale prioritizes genuine connection and communications over efficiency. It enables organizations to build relationships with donors at every level and make each one feel like a million bucks. This approach recognizes donors as more than financial supporters; they are potential advocates, ambassadors, and collaborators.

Relational fundraising at scale is a new set of habits and norms. It is made possible with the responsible use of artificial intelligence tools.

It may seem counterintuitive, but when used responsibly, AI can make fundraising more personal, not less. AI can:

Customize outreach based on donor preferences and history

Ensure timely, thoughtful communication

Free up staff time to engage in real conversations with donors

The responsible use of AI assumes that people are always in charge of the technology and that a system is created whereby the technology does what it does best — looks for patterns and makes predictions based on a lot of data — and people do what we do best — build relationships, solve problems, create communities.

The pivot to relational fundraising at scale involves three steps: mindset, reset, and practice.

Every.org, has just released a Relational Fundraising Playbook. It outlines the kinds of relational fundraising practices to begin right now. Here are a few:

Home in on your “why.”

Thank donors at scale.

Call 10 donors a month.

In your annual fundraising plan, replace five solicitations with stories.

Create giving circles.

Focus on sustainers.

Personalize donor appeals by using predictive analytics built into AI-powered fundraising software.

Optimize messaging and timing.

Use AI chatbots for donor engagement.

Use predictive analytics for donor retention.

Spread out the work.

While integrating AI can enhance these efforts, it’s crucial to maintain a human-centered approach, ensuring technology serves to amplify, not replace, genuine human connection.

Ultimately, the journey toward relational fundraising is an ongoing process of learning, adaptation, and perseverance, but the rewards of building a truly engaged and supportive donor community are well worth the effort. In the end, organizations will retain more donors and have a reliable source of financial support to weather the storms ahead.

8. Food Banks Left in the Lurch as Some Shipments Are Suspended 🛒

Food banks across the country are scrambling to make up a $500 million budget shortfall after the Trump administration froze funds for hundreds of shipments of produce, poultry and other items that states had planned to distribute to needy residents.

The Biden administration had slated the aid for distribution to food banks during the 2025 fiscal year through the Emergency Food Assistance Program, which is run by the Agriculture Department and backed by a federal fund known as the Commodity Credit Corporation. But in recent weeks, many food banks learned that the shipments they had expected to receive this spring had been suspended.

Earlier this month, the Agriculture Department halted two other programs that distributed food to banks and schools. Lawmakers are also mulling cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as food stamps, which were used by about 42 million people in the 2023 fiscal year.

The direct impact to communities across the country is likely to vary by state.

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📝 A nice checklist download for what to do when your organization’s federal grant or contract is terminated was offered by the National Council of NonProfits.

Additional articles in The Chronicle of Philanthropy:

Facing Federal Defunding, Nonprofits Draft Best and Worst Case Budgets

Pivoting to Private Donors When Government Funding Isn’t There

9. Don’t Hide Overhead From Your Donors — They’ll Understand 🌫️

There’s a common misconception in the nonprofit sector that organizations must do everything they can to reduce or eliminate overhead.

Here’s the thing: Donors understand that overhead is necessary to fulfill the mission. More specifically, they recognize that a nonprofit can’t function without investing in its people, technology and other essential resources.

In other words, it’s OK to talk about overhead with your donors. They get it!

Why? A lot comes down to transparency and storytelling. If you can explain to donors how your organization’s overhead costs help retain the fundraisers they have relationships with and support the mission, they will feel more confident about where their money is going. More importantly, it shows them that you’re committed to a long-term vision and can clearly explain the reasoning behind budget allocations.

The bottom line? The mission is about more than just fundraising programs. It’s about creating a workplace that values staff, equipping employees with the tools and structure to generate revenue, and planning for the future.

If you can explain the value of these costs with clarity and transparency, you’ll never have to worry about losing the donors you’ve worked so hard to cultivate.

10. Economic Headlines 📊

U.S. inflation cooled to 2.8% in February, lower than expected. Prices excluding food and energy categories—the so-called core measure that economists watch in an effort to better capture inflation’s underlying trend—rose 3.1%. That was the lowest year-over-year reading since 2021. Analysts warned that an encouraging inflation print wasn’t enough to make up for the tariffs uncertainty. One reason for February’s cool reading was that shelter prices, which have been a significant source of inflationary pressure in recent years, continued to ease. They were up 4.2% from a year earlier—the smallest gain since December 2021. Spending at US retailers last month was much weaker than expected, per the latest retail sales report. This is on top of weakness in consumer confidence data and various Fed activity surveys. The closely watched GDPNow tracker is showing negative economic growth in the first quarter.

The Conference Board’s monthly survey for March showed that forward-looking expectations for income, business and labor-market conditions dropped to the lowest level in 12 years. At 65.2, the expectations index is well below the 80 threshold that often signals a recession. Analysts have been keeping a close eye on consumer surveys because of fears that a gloomy mood could presage a real economic slowdown. So far, there has been scant sign of a downturn in backward-looking data such as the unemployment rate and GDP figures that show what has actually happened in the economy.

Consumer sentiment declined significantly in March, with the University of Michigan's survey showing a drop in the headline index to 57, the lowest level since 2022. Consumers are increasingly pessimistic about the economy's future, with two-thirds expecting higher unemployment in the year ahead, the highest reading since 2009. Despite the gloomy outlook, there is no definitive evidence that the economy is on the cusp of recession, with other indicators showing a mixed picture. But for now, the souring mood among consumers has only pushed economic forecasters to lower their expectations for growth. While recession risks have risen, it's far from a consensus call on Wall Street.

The unemployment rate rose to 4.1% from 4% in the prior month. January's monthly job gains were revised lower from a previous reading of 143,000. With the Department of Government Efficiency's (DOGE) job cuts in focus, federal government employment declined by 10,000 in February. On March 6, 2025 the Nasdaq Composite officially entered a correction, as the index is now more than 10% off its mid-December record close, while the S&P 500 closed at its lowest level of the year.

The Federal Reserve held steady its benchmark interest rate at around 4.3%, marked up its forecasts for inflation and revised down its outlook for growth this year. Fed Chair Jerome Powell stated that the central bank will be ready to respond once the tariff uncertainty becomes enacted policy. Powell’s continued wait-and-see approach makes sense when uncertainty reigns over Washington and Wall Street. April’s widening tariff rollout may delay the Fed’s next intervention, though Fed officials predict two cuts by the end of 2025.

Goods prices are rising after decades of deflation. President Trump’s tariffs threaten to amplify a big inflation challenge: Even before the new levies landed, a long run of everyday stuff getting cheaper was coming to a close. Most prices gradually go up most of the time. But over the 20 years before the pandemic, the basket of physical products that typical shoppers buy didn’t get even a cent more expensive. A survey of 400 chief financial officers, released this past week by the Richmond Fed, the Atlanta Fed and Duke University, found that companies that don’t import from Canada, Mexico and China expect to raise prices 2.9% this year. But companies that rely heavily on these tariffed countries plan to raise prices 5.1%. Many businesses are still selling inventory that has been warehoused since before tariffs were in place.

Prospective home buyers are starting to move off the sidelines because life is moving on, even if mortgage rates and prices are stuck. People who are having babies, retiring and getting new jobs are shopping for homes, according to real-estate agents and buyers. Home tours and mortgage applications are up—early signals that demand is rising as the spring selling season gets under way.