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Total dollars raised during the first quarter of 2025 increased 3.6% when compared to the same period of 2024. And yet, the number of donors, declined 1.3% year-over-year and retention rates dipped 0.2% to a decline of double digits at 18.1%
That’s the among the newest data released by the Fundraising Effectiveness Project (FEP), a project of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Foundation for Philanthropy and GivingTuesday. The data is gathered and analyzed by data providers, researchers, analysts, associations, and consultants.
The FEP releases quarterly findings on those giving trends, released both via downloadable reports at afpglobal.org/fep and in a free online dashboard.
The smallest donor group ($1–$100), who made up 57% of all donors in Q1 2025, experienced an 11.1% year-over-year drop, continuing a trend of decreased engagement from small donors early in the year. This continuing downward trending of donors underscores the challenges facing nonprofits, especially the need to re-engage both first-time and repeat donors while strengthening small donor acquisition and retention strategies alongside major donor cultivation, FEP official said via a statement.
Fundraisers can mitigate dependencies on larger donors by prioritizing small donor acquisition and tailoring retention strategies to smaller donor segments, in addition to strengthening relationships with major donors, Woodrow Rosenbaum, chief data officer of GivingTuesday, told The NonProfit Times.
“As we’ve seen in previous quarters, the continued decline in small donor participation reveals a deep vulnerability, especially at a time of growing volatility for the nonprofit sector,” said Rosenbaum. “Now, ahead of giving season, is the time to invest in unlocking the billions of dollars in untapped opportunity within the everyday giving market.”
Shifting governmental priorities and uncertainty in funding is not helping.
“The need for timely, reliable data has never been more urgent. The Fundraising Effectiveness Project is a powerful example of sector-wide collaboration, providing insights that empower fundraisers to understand and adapt to trends like the continued decline in donor participation,” Art Taylor, president and chief executive officer of AFP, said via a statement. “Sharing this collective data helps individual organizations make informed, resilience-oriented decisions, and equips our sector to advocate more effectively for policies that strengthen long-term nonprofit impact.”
While the continued decline in donor retention and individual giving reflects long-standing challenges in the sector, “they also point to tremendous opportunity,” according to Keith Reed, CEO of Neon One, via a statement. “We know that, when nonprofits successfully engage supporters over time, those donors don’t just stay involved. They also increase their generosity.”
The FEP silos donors into five groups, all of which declined during the first quarter of this year. The number of supersized donors – those who gave $50,000 or more – declined 0.3% and make up a matching 0.3% of all donors. Those who gave $500 or less made up 86.2% of all donors. The smallest decline was in repeat retained donors, who constitute just more than half of the donor base of this year’s first quarter, illustrating the value in continued engagement with existing donors.
Micro donors, those who give $100 or less and comprise more than half of all donors (57%), contributed just 2.5% of total dollars raised during the first quarter of this year. This group experienced the largest year-over-year decline in dollars, falling 10.4% compared to the same period of 2024. This mirrors a trend seen since 2022, in which the smallest donors have consistently seen double-digit decreases in total dollars raised in the first quarter of a year, indicating less engagement from smaller donors during the beginning of the year.
The macro-declines have been seen for several years prior to the current uncertainty regarding federal funding and grants. However, Rosenbaum said that antidotally sector leaders have been talking about a missed opportunity to boost giving due to the annual reduction in solicitation during a year’s first quarter. The numbers this year show engagement is in better shape, thus a missed opportunity to generate more income.
“We are hearing from people in the sector, because of the degree of uncertainty and volatility, this might be starting spur some action we have been hoping to see” in more active solicitation, Rosenbaum said. “The industry is starting to feel that urgency.”
