Top level information from NZ / Australia benchmarking

The very top level information from benchmarking

In a unique show of camaraderie and mutual support seventy charities across NZ (16) and Australia (54) agreed to pool all their transactional data* and analyse it.  This means that they compared actual donor behaviour – including mutual donors.

With around 2.8million donors giving $836 million in 2012 to these charities there is a huge wealth of information and learning.

The charities that pooled their data

Over the next few months I will share some fascinating insights, ideas and tips based on the data but in the meantime here are some top line facts:

Largest fundraising charities in Australia

Looking beyond the benchmarked charities we looked at the annual reports of top fundraising charities (Australia only).  We found that the largest, World Vision, really dominates the market.  World Vision are also a member of the benchmarking program, having an enormous influence over the giving patterns of the average Australian.

Just short of all fundraising income to the top 50 charities goes to overseas aid.  Australians love helping people less fortunate than themselves in other nations.  Good on ya Aussies!

How Australians and New Zealanders give their gifts

Australians and New Zealanders gave more money to these charities in 2012 than ever before.    From around $365m in 2003 to $836m in 2012 ($637m in 2003 dollar equivalent).

The chart above clearly demonstrates the strength of child sponsorship as a great fundraising ‘product’ However, other regular giving programs and bequests also contribute huge amounts.

Questions

If you have any questions you want to know about Australian and NZ fundraising data - ask away!  Attrition, face to face, average donations etc...

I will post lots but your request will move that subject up the priority list.

*Please note – the charities were collaborating by analysing giving patterns and behaviour.  None of them have breached any privacy rules by allowing any other member to identify donors as individuals; ie donors’ personal information is never shared between partners in this exercise.

Adrian Sargeant is brilliant

I was lucky enough to attend two of Adrian's sessions at the IFC. I say lucky because the first was packed and they were turning people away.

Adrian looks at the psychology of giving, and it is great stuff for example using 'social information' to increase average donations. Social information helps make people decide to make larger donations. By asking a couple of questions right before the ask, HUGE increases in donations are realized.

For example, when they tested a prompt v no prompt based on others' giving they got over 30% increase in average domation.

The prompt (to people who had not donated before) would be something like 'thank you for agreeing to donate, I just took a donation from someone else... They gave x amount. How much would you like to give?'

The control group, with no prompt had an average of $86.
A prompt at $75 got just $1 more, but prompts of $180 and $300 got averages of $96 and $111. Brilliant.

Tons of information here, http://Www.studyfundraising.info/