The gen on income gen for Christmas 2022

Covid-19 turned fundraising approaches on their head and, despite all our fears, generated some of the highest one-off giving campaigns we have experienced in recent times.  But with recent political and economic events, what did individual fundraising income generation look like at peak fundraising season: Christmas?

A universal concern over finances has resulted in an increased uncertainty for individual giving funders.  The Christmas period, normally a time for high income generation levels in charities, was hit by lower temperatures combined with fuel cost price hikes, postal strike action, railway strike action and increased cost for food and goods.  The cost-of-living crisis hit our supporter bases across the board, including the elderly and asset rich.

Woods Valldata response handle charity appeals for a wide variety of charities alongside raffles, weekly lotteries and direct debits. They’re in an ideal position to identify any impact to individual giving fundraising across this key income generation period. 

Cash appeals: Woods Valldata saw a 15% drop in Christmas cash appeal response against the previous year with many responses landing later than normal changing the banking curve.  Although there was a decrease in response for one-off campaigns at Christmas – income on cash appeals for 2022 was steady against 2021 overall.

Raffle: Christmas raffle campaign response rates saw a drop of 7%. That said, raffle response rates still sat above pre-Covid figures with average gifts still strong.

For any postal response campaign, it’s difficult to know the exact dynamics of the cost-of-living reducing the number of those that can give vs a slowdown in postal responses from strike action but we have seen long delays in mailings landing, and there will naturally have a been a fear that a returned response form may not reach its goal therefore reducing response returns.

Regular giving: Regular giving saw a huge uplift in recruitment in the run up to Christmas with steady and normal attrition rates.  From June through to December 2022 recruitment was sitting at over 2% of the base compared to under 1% for 2021 and the first half of 2022.  Cancellations likewise were averaging at around 1.3% of the base, up only 0.3% points on the 18mths previous where there was a much lower rate of recruitment.

It's clear that people are still willing to sign up to a regular direct debit with charities, and there has not been a flurry of cancellations during the colder winter months.  Committed giving and lottery are therefore doing well – perhaps when we’re having to do a little more planning and budgeting with our money this regular DD approach to giving resonates.

1. Ask. Supporters will continue to support and give to new and chosen charities. Keep a close eye on ask levels and frequencies. Test to find the right balance for your supporter segments.
2. Keep going. Understand that there may be shifts in patterns of one-off giving but income is strong and steady.
3. Be agile. Forecasting may be a little trickier as benchmarks are difficult to find over recent years. That, and the impact of the constantly changing economic and political world around us, mean response and banking curves are difficult to predict. But be open to changing forecasts: response and income will still come.
4. Offer alternatives. Prize-led asks can sometimes prove more robust and be easier for supporters to engage with thanks to their fun nature and the chance to win a prize.
5. Build relationships. Understand and value your supporter bases. Acknowledging the difficulties supporters face and thanking them for their continued support (whatever that looks like) will help you engage and retain them.  Ensuring they feel valued at a time when difficult monetary choices are being made will encourage longer relationships and generate increased lifetime value. 

Helen Daw is Head of Data Strategy & Insights at Woods Valldata. Working closely with our charities and account directors, her role is to support their fundraising activities - delivering actionable insights and data strategy recommendations alongside wider charity benchmarking and trend analysis. Helen brings with her experience of working within the charity fundraising sector and working on data and CRM planning and insight projects.