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A new report affirms what nonprofit leaders have long known: soliciting recurring grants is an essential activity. Donor-advised funds (DAF) participants who issued recurring grants during 2024 — whether automatically enabled or manually elected every year — gave three and a half times more dollars than individuals making one-off contributions.
Automatic recurring gifts provide dependable revenue during traditionally low-revenue times, according to the authors of Why Giving Matters: Recurring giving with donor-advised funds results in more reliable funding for nonprofits, a new report from Vanguard Charitable.
For example, automatic donations accounted for 25% of gifts made during the traditionally low-revenue month of July 2024. And once the donors are converted into recurring funders, those donors are more likely to be engaged with the nonprofit overall, including volunteering, interacting with board members or attending fundraisers and event. And, they will, on average, increase donation amounts by 8% annually.
Fundraisers have their work cut out for them, regarding converting manual recurring donors to automatic donors. According to the report’s authors, only 24% of recurring gifts are made automatically, with the rest the result of manual elections on the part of the donor. The research also found half of all recurring grants are made on an annual basis with another 20% made monthly, a frequency outside the DAF world favored by younger, less-wealthy philanthropists. Another 19% contribute quarterly and 11% give twice a year.
These frequencies are somewhat reflected in nonprofit leaders’ preferred cadences, with 47% of those surveyed expressing a desire for annual gifts, 31% wanting monthly donations, 14% seeking quarterly contributions and 8% seeking biennial gifts.
Nonprofit leaders should not be shy about expressing their preferred timing and tempo of gifts. As the report authors noted, “Since DAF donors received any applicable tax benefits when they made a contribution to their DAF account, grants aren’t tied to traditional year-end giving deadlines. With this in mind, clearly communicate your preferred timing and frequency of gifts.”
The report is based on a decade of internal Vanguard data, as well as a survey of 1,700 nonprofits that received grants from Vanguard Charitable during 2024. The full report is available here: https://www.vanguardcharitable.org/why-giving-matters-2025
