Donations Are Up, but Donors Are Down, Reports the Fundraising Effectiveness Project
New York, NY, October 29, 2026 --(PR.com)-- New data from the Fundraising Effectiveness Project (FEP) show that dollars are up significantly. While the dollar amount of donations is up 6.6% over Q2 2025, those dollars continue to come from fewer donors.
So far this year, the number of donors is down 1.6% year-over-year, while giving growth has come largely from Major and Supersize donors, with Major donors posting the strongest gain of any segment. This pattern matches the trends seen in 2025, though Q1 2026 data had suggested slight growth among Small and Midsize donors. Micro donors (1-100) remain the largest segment at 51.6% of all donors, but their numbers fell 4.2% year-over-year.
The Fundraising Effectiveness Project (FEP) is a collaborative project of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Foundation for Philanthropy and GivingTuesday. It is a collaboration among fundraising data providers, researchers, analysts, associations, and consultants that tracks and evaluates giving trends. The project offers one of the only aggregate views of the current year’s fundraising data, providing the most recent trends to guide nonprofit fundraising and donor engagement. The FEP releases quarterly findings on those giving trends, released both via downloadable reports at afpglobal.org/fep and in a free online dashboard.
As nonprofits approach this year’s giving season, these data points reveal both critical challenges and strategic opportunities. Organizations can mitigate dependencies on larger donors by prioritizing broad-based donor acquisition, and investing in first-year donor conversion strategies. By focusing on these areas, nonprofits can position themselves for successful fundraising in the 2026 giving season and the year ahead.
The full Q2 2026 report is available here.
FEP Q2 2026 Report Key Takeaways:
— Dollars are up and donors are down, again. Dollars rose an estimated 6.6% year-to-date through Q2, while donors fell 1.6% and retention slipped 0.4 percentage points to 26.4%. Growth is a little broader than in recent quarters: donor counts grew or stayed flat in every size segment except Micro. But it is still concentrated at the top. Major and Supersize donors give 76.4% of all dollars while making up just 2.9% of donors.
— Micro donors are the only segment losing ground. Micro donors ($1-$100) are still 51.6% of all donors. They were the only size segment to decline in both donors (-4.2%) and dollars (-4.4%). Because Micro donors are the entry point for future mid-level and Major donors, this trend could pose problems for revenue over the longer term.
— Fewer new donors are emerging, and fewer of them are being retained. New, New Retained, and Recaptured donors all declined, while Repeat Retained donors grew 3.1%. New Retained donors fell 9.5%, the steepest drop of any lifecycle stage. Only 11.3% of donors acquired in 2025 had given again by the end of Q2.
— Frequent givers are a bright spot. One- and two-gift donors declined, while donors making 3–6 gifts grew 3.2%. Donors who gave seven or more times last year were retained at 90%, compared with 14.4% of one-time donors. The dollars coming from the most frequent donors, however, grew the least of any frequency segment (+2.5%).
"Seeing a rise in total dollar amounts is always encouraging after several difficult years," observed Woodrow Rosenbaum, Chief Data Officer of GivingTuesday. "The continuing decline in the number of donors indicates that nonprofits are increasingly reliant on larger donors. This comes at the expense of a much broader donor base, which is key to sustainability.” There are also a lot of dollars coming in from single gifts, and to large organizations. The challenge for nonprofits of all sizes will be a continued focus on recruiting and maintaining recurring donors.”
“The continued growth in giving is encouraging, but these findings remind us that generosity is strongest when it is built on a broad foundation of trust,” said Ann Hale, CFRE, executive director, AFP Foundation for Philanthropy – US. “While many organizations are seeing success with major donors, the long-term strength of our sector depends on engaging and retaining supporters at every level. Fundraisers have an opportunity to build on what's working today while also investing in the relationships, stewardship, and transparency that inspire more people to give and stay connected to the causes they care about.”
“FEP works like a ledger, and a good one,” said Tim Sarrantonio, Chair of the Fundraising Effectiveness Project. “FEP tells us with real confidence what happened, which is how we know that only about one in nine people who gave for the first time last year has given again. What FEP data can’t show is whether a $25 supporter who stopped giving still cares and simply never heard from anyone again. We can’t see the reasons behind any single donor’s decision to stop, yet your nonprofit could be one phone call away from finding out.”
This quarter's release is the second since FEP's first major methodology update in five years: refinements to how the report builds its panel of organizations, adjusts for late-arriving data, weights the data, and breaks down results by organization size, all aimed at making the sector's most important fundraising data more accurate, transparent, and consistent. See here for a full breakdown of what's changed and why.
FEP reports continue to be made possible by the generous support of existing collaborating data providers, including BetterUnite, Bloomerang, Bonterra, Donorbox, DonorDock, DonorPerfect, FundraiseUp, Givebutter, Givesmart, GoFundMe Pro, and Neon One. All giving platforms are welcome to join these efforts and increase data coverage, enhancing the accuracy and accessibility of efforts to provide measured analysis to the social sector.
So far this year, the number of donors is down 1.6% year-over-year, while giving growth has come largely from Major and Supersize donors, with Major donors posting the strongest gain of any segment. This pattern matches the trends seen in 2025, though Q1 2026 data had suggested slight growth among Small and Midsize donors. Micro donors (1-100) remain the largest segment at 51.6% of all donors, but their numbers fell 4.2% year-over-year.
The Fundraising Effectiveness Project (FEP) is a collaborative project of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Foundation for Philanthropy and GivingTuesday. It is a collaboration among fundraising data providers, researchers, analysts, associations, and consultants that tracks and evaluates giving trends. The project offers one of the only aggregate views of the current year’s fundraising data, providing the most recent trends to guide nonprofit fundraising and donor engagement. The FEP releases quarterly findings on those giving trends, released both via downloadable reports at afpglobal.org/fep and in a free online dashboard.
As nonprofits approach this year’s giving season, these data points reveal both critical challenges and strategic opportunities. Organizations can mitigate dependencies on larger donors by prioritizing broad-based donor acquisition, and investing in first-year donor conversion strategies. By focusing on these areas, nonprofits can position themselves for successful fundraising in the 2026 giving season and the year ahead.
The full Q2 2026 report is available here.
FEP Q2 2026 Report Key Takeaways:
— Dollars are up and donors are down, again. Dollars rose an estimated 6.6% year-to-date through Q2, while donors fell 1.6% and retention slipped 0.4 percentage points to 26.4%. Growth is a little broader than in recent quarters: donor counts grew or stayed flat in every size segment except Micro. But it is still concentrated at the top. Major and Supersize donors give 76.4% of all dollars while making up just 2.9% of donors.
— Micro donors are the only segment losing ground. Micro donors ($1-$100) are still 51.6% of all donors. They were the only size segment to decline in both donors (-4.2%) and dollars (-4.4%). Because Micro donors are the entry point for future mid-level and Major donors, this trend could pose problems for revenue over the longer term.
— Fewer new donors are emerging, and fewer of them are being retained. New, New Retained, and Recaptured donors all declined, while Repeat Retained donors grew 3.1%. New Retained donors fell 9.5%, the steepest drop of any lifecycle stage. Only 11.3% of donors acquired in 2025 had given again by the end of Q2.
— Frequent givers are a bright spot. One- and two-gift donors declined, while donors making 3–6 gifts grew 3.2%. Donors who gave seven or more times last year were retained at 90%, compared with 14.4% of one-time donors. The dollars coming from the most frequent donors, however, grew the least of any frequency segment (+2.5%).
"Seeing a rise in total dollar amounts is always encouraging after several difficult years," observed Woodrow Rosenbaum, Chief Data Officer of GivingTuesday. "The continuing decline in the number of donors indicates that nonprofits are increasingly reliant on larger donors. This comes at the expense of a much broader donor base, which is key to sustainability.” There are also a lot of dollars coming in from single gifts, and to large organizations. The challenge for nonprofits of all sizes will be a continued focus on recruiting and maintaining recurring donors.”
“The continued growth in giving is encouraging, but these findings remind us that generosity is strongest when it is built on a broad foundation of trust,” said Ann Hale, CFRE, executive director, AFP Foundation for Philanthropy – US. “While many organizations are seeing success with major donors, the long-term strength of our sector depends on engaging and retaining supporters at every level. Fundraisers have an opportunity to build on what's working today while also investing in the relationships, stewardship, and transparency that inspire more people to give and stay connected to the causes they care about.”
“FEP works like a ledger, and a good one,” said Tim Sarrantonio, Chair of the Fundraising Effectiveness Project. “FEP tells us with real confidence what happened, which is how we know that only about one in nine people who gave for the first time last year has given again. What FEP data can’t show is whether a $25 supporter who stopped giving still cares and simply never heard from anyone again. We can’t see the reasons behind any single donor’s decision to stop, yet your nonprofit could be one phone call away from finding out.”
This quarter's release is the second since FEP's first major methodology update in five years: refinements to how the report builds its panel of organizations, adjusts for late-arriving data, weights the data, and breaks down results by organization size, all aimed at making the sector's most important fundraising data more accurate, transparent, and consistent. See here for a full breakdown of what's changed and why.
FEP reports continue to be made possible by the generous support of existing collaborating data providers, including BetterUnite, Bloomerang, Bonterra, Donorbox, DonorDock, DonorPerfect, FundraiseUp, Givebutter, Givesmart, GoFundMe Pro, and Neon One. All giving platforms are welcome to join these efforts and increase data coverage, enhancing the accuracy and accessibility of efforts to provide measured analysis to the social sector.
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GivingTuesday
Shareeza Bhola
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https://www.givingtuesday.org
Shareeza Bhola
646-494-4487
https://www.givingtuesday.org
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