Blackbaud Institute Spotlight Report Explores How the Election May Impact End-of-Year Donations

What Organizations May Experience This Giving Season and Beyond

Charleston, S.C. (November 14, 2024) — The Blackbaud Institute, the sector research lab at Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB), the leading provider of software for powering social impact, today released a new Spotlight Report: What Can We Expect from GivingTuesday in an Election Year? This free-to-access report examines how the momentum of civic engagement will impact end-of-year fundraising and how organizations can tap into the generosity of politically engaged donors this GivingTuesday and beyond.

Key Findings:

Rather than being fatigued by the election cycle, donors historically have remained generous at year-end.
End-of-year giving is likely to account for approximately 30% to 35% of all giving in 2024 based on recent election year trends. If we compare the percentage of giving that occurred in the last three months of the year for the last two election cycles to the year prior, it does not appear that end-of-year giving suffered. In the last three months of 2015, 33.4% of giving occurred at year end while the 2016 election year saw 33.2%. In the last three months of 2019, 32.8% of giving occurred at year end while the 2020 election year saw 35.7%. While data is unavailable for 2011, 2012 experienced 34% of total giving at year-end and the Blackbaud Institute found that political donors tracked by the Federal Election Commission gave 0.9% more to nonprofit organizations in the 2012 election year than they had in the year prior.

The missions of healthcare, human services, and public and society benefit organizations may be top of mind for an engaged donor population on both sides of the aisle. 
Civil rights, immigration and reproductive rights remained driving factors in the 2024 election, as they were in the 2016 election. The subsectors that saw the highest percentage of their online gifts at year end in 2016 included: Human Services (50.6%), Healthcare (47.5%), and Public and Society Benefit (46%). Human Services and Healthcare were also in the top three subsectors benefiting from GivingTuesday that year.

Recent natural disasters, including Hurricane Helene, could drive increased donations at year-end to Human Services and Environmental organizations, including disaster relief, food banks, and climate change focused organizations.
In election year 2012, giving remained relatively flat until the impact of Superstorm Sandy, which drove a marked increase in year-end giving for Human Services organizations sending aid to the impacted regions. Human Services received 23% of all GivingTuesday donations that year. With the recent devastation of Hurricane Helene front of mind for donors, those organizations providing ongoing aid in the Southeastern U.S. may see an increase in year-end giving compared to other subsectors.

For more information on how organizations can ensure year-end giving thrives in an election year, the full report can be accessed here. All Blackbaud Institute resources are offered for free, as part of Blackbaud’s commitment to accelerating social impact.

About Blackbaud Institute
The Blackbaud Institute develops leading-edge research and convenes expert voices to equip the social impact community with knowledge, insight, and confidence. The Blackbaud Institute draws from Blackbaud’s data set, the most comprehensive in the social impact community. In addition, the Institute facilitates public research studies to drive original qualitative and quantitative insight. Our research agenda is grounded in a commitment to topics that social impact organizations can apply immediately to better understand, benchmark, and improve their essential business operations. We are guided by our commitment to the social impact sector to provide timely, transparent, and well-rounded research that is free to access. From how organizations run to how donors give, we’re 100% focused on research and resources for this sector.

About Blackbaud
Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB) is the leading software provider exclusively dedicated to powering social impact. Serving the nonprofit and education sectors, companies committed to social responsibility and individual change makers, Blackbaud’s essential software is built to accelerate impact in fundraising, nonprofit financial management, digital giving, grantmaking, corporate social responsibility and education management. With millions of users and over $100 billion raised, granted or managed through Blackbaud platforms every year, Blackbaud’s solutions are unleashing the potential of the people and organizations who change the world. Blackbaud has been named to Newsweek’s list of America’s Most Responsible Companies, Quartz’s list of Best Companies for Remote Workers, and Forbes’ list of America’s Best Employers. A remote-first company, Blackbaud has operations in the United States, Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, India and the United Kingdom, supporting users in 100+ countries. Learn more at www.blackbaud.com or follow us on X/Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.

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