The Blackbaud Institute analyzed the distribution of giving across all of 2016 and here’s what they found: June, June, June
2016 Overall Giving Distribution by Month
January 7%
February 6.6%
March 7.2%
April 6.9%
May 7.8%
June 10.6% (Second highest month following December)
July 6.3%
August 7.3%
September 7.2%
October 7.3%
November 8.2%
December 17.7%
They say that there are signs of giving shifting during the calendar year. We should keep an eye on that. While December remains the largest giving month of the year, it is followed by June, a surprise to me. Who would have guessed that June was such a good month for giving? Blackbaud indicates that these findings have remained consistent for several years now. The most challenging months are February and July.
Further, online giving in December increased for the second consecutive year and represented 21.8% of all online giving. November accounted for 9.7% of all online giving in 2016, and this is likely due to continued growth in #GivingTuesday online donations.
Does this change your thinking about June? It’s right around the corner. I think we’ll be doing more mid-year email solicitations based on this data, plus adding more direct mail over and above what we had planned. We’re also going to try a special new donor acquisition mailing.
We welcome your comments about this post on the LAPA blog.
