2023 Animal Welfare Mid-Year Benchmark Report

The halfway mark of a calendar year is typically a good time to check in with the landscape of fundraising. Organizations across the nonprofit industry are preparing for the year-end giving season, and many are beginning to shape their future planning.

As we look ahead to strategies for 2024 and beyond, it's important to take stock of where we are now. While human services organizations are still seeing the ripples of the pandemic on their programs, animal welfare organizations find themselves in a period of transition.

Many have shifted their messaging focus away from adoptions and toward the idea of keeping pets in the home. They have been testing this community-based language across channels. Organizations have also been increasing their investment in digital ecosystems to meet today's donors where they are.

As these preparations are put in place for the future, inflation and rising interest rates have left their imprint on today. Many sectors across the nonprofit industry have seen declines in acquisition—and animal welfare saw a dip in revenue and donors in the first half of 2023.

This context helps us understand the story behind the numbers of our 2023 Animal Welfare Mid-Year Report. In the data, you'll see the following key learnings:

1. Revenue is down but still strong

When we look at year-over-year numbers, we see a drop in revenue for animal welfare organizations, but stepping back a bit gives us more perspective. In the first half of 2022, animal welfare saw a huge lift in revenue. The 2023 numbers are down from that peak but still up from 2021 and the prior years.

2. Donor value and gift frequency hit 5-year highs.

Donors have been hit hard by inflation in the last 12-18 months, leading some to pull back their giving. The good news is that those who can afford to do so are giving more, which has led to the highest gift frequency and donor value of the last five years.

3. Spring acquisition was slow.

The sting of inflation and the rise of interest rates this year also put a damper on new donor acquisition this spring. While the value of new donors increased, the total number declined. As inflation eases and consumer confidence begins to rise, inspiring more new donors to join the mission will be key.

4. Retention rates are dropping.

Animal welfare organizations saw an increase in donor retention during the heat of the pandemic, with retention rates climbing to 34% in the first half of 2020 and 2021. That number held steady at 33% in 2022, but the impact of inflation on donor budgets has led to a 30% retention rate in the first half of 2023.

What we measured  

The 2023 Animal Welfare Mid-Year Benchmark Report contains full-file data from 100 RKD animal welfare clients across the United States through June 30, 2023. The data includes overall program metrics, like total revenue, active donors, new donors, retention rate, average gift size, donor value and gift frequency. 

We’ve broken this data out into five regions across the U.S.: West, Southwest, Midwest, Northeast and Southeast. We’ve also categorized the data by organization size (determined by active donor file size in 2022):  

• Large (10,000 or more donors) 
• Mid (5,000 to 9,999 donors) 

• Small (2,000 to 4,999 donors) 
• Emerging (under 2,000 donors) 

Trends are based on all donors and all gift types. Donors with a gift of $10,000 or more were excluded. 

Five-year charts show a comparison of January-June data for each year. 

Revenue regresses, but is still up

A narrow window of year-over-year revenue would show a -6.8% decline from 2022 to 2023. But pulling back to a wider look, we see that revenue was 11.0% higher in 2023 than in 2019 and 6.4% higher than in 2021.

Numbers were up across the board in 2022 thanks to five-year highs in average gift, donor value and acquisition. The first half of 2023 showed some regression from those highs, but revenue is still up over pre-pandemic levels.

Average gift size hits five-year high

The average gift across all active donors was up 7.1% from $78.20 in 2022 to $83.78 in 2023. That marked the highest level of average gift since 2019 and helped offset the decline in acquisition.

Gift frequency also reaches high mark 

Gift frequency dropped to 1.82 in 2022, but it reached a five-year high of 1.89 in 2023—a 3.8% lift. Donors giving larger gifts more often should help strengthen animal welfare organizations for future years.

Average donor value continues to climb 

Thanks to the increase in gift frequency and average gift, donor value at the midway point of 2023 has reached new heights, at $158. This is a big jump of 11.3% over 2022, and it shows that those donors who can afford to give demonstrated high levels of generosity and dedication.

Declines driven mainly by new and lapsed donors 

The charts below show that the makeup of donor files stayed relatively similar in 2023, but a deeper dive indicates that drop-offs in new and lapsed donors led to the decline in revenue.

New donor revenue is down -9.3%, deeply lapsed is down -17.5% and recently lapsed hit a five-year low with a revenue decline of -22.0%. Revenue from transition donors—last year's big acquisition class—is up 6.0%. These donors will move into core in 2024.

Retention is down 

The surge in new donors for 2022 combined with the effect of inflation led to a drop in retention rate, from 33% in 2022 to 30% in 2023. As inflation eases and the new donor class of 2022 moves into core next year, retention should climb back up.

Active donors reach five-year low

From 2022 to 2023, animal welfare organizations lost -16.1% of their donors, due in large part to the drop-off in acquisition. This mark in 2023 represents a five-year low for the sector.

Economic conditions hurt acquisition

Between the ongoing effect of inflation and the rise of interest rates, economic conditions in the first half of 2023 continued to have an impact on charitable giving. Animal welfare organizations saw this most in acquisition. New donors were down -27.4% from 2022.

New donors returning to higher value

The number of new donors may have dropped, but some of the sting was mitigated by a 24.4% rise in new donor value.

The average new donor value hit a five-year high, moving from $86 in 2022 to $107 in 2023.

We divided the U.S. into five distinct regions to analyze how giving trends look across the country.  

Northeast sees better performance in revenue, active donors 

In the first half of 2023, the Northeast was the only region that saw revenue improve (3%) year over year. Organizations in the Northeast also saw the smallest decline in active donors (-6%).

The West region showed some cause for concern, with the lowest marks in active donors (-23%) and revenue (-17%). The West was also the only region that saw a decline in gift frequency.

Retention and reactivation patterns are also similar 

Retention and reactivation trends look similar across regions. Again, the Northeast saw the strongest retention performance in core (50%), transition (15%) and recently lapsed (9%) donors, while the West saw the worst in core (43%), transition (13%) and recently lapsed (6%).

We categorized the data by organization size (determined by active donor file size in 2022) to analyze how giving trends look:  

• Large (10,000 or more donors) 
• Mid (5,000 to 9,999 donors) 
• Small (2,000 to 4,999 donors) 
• Emerging (under 2,000 donors) 

Large organizations see biggest declines 

When you're the biggest, you have the most to lose. Large animal welfare organizations experienced a -10.0% drop in revenue and an -18% drop in active donors from 2022 to 2023, the greatest declines of any segment.

Emerging organizations were the only ones to see increases in revenue (+22%) and active donors (+1%). This group also witnessed big lifts in donor value and average first gift size.

Retention rates showing drop-off

Retention rates for large organizations also saw the biggest decline (-4.4%), and emerging organizations were the only ones to see an increase (+1.4%).

In similar form, large orgs showed slightly lower performance in core (47%), transition (14%) and recently lapsed (7%) donors, while emerging orgs had the best numbers in transition (16%) and recently lapsed (12%) donors.

RKD Group is a leading fundraising and marketing services provider to hundreds of nonprofit organizations. With five decades of experience, RKD Group's omnichannel approach leverages technology, advanced data science and award-winning strategic and creative leadership to accelerate net revenue growth, build long-term donor relationships and drive the best return on investment. RKD Group creates breakthroughs never thought possible.