2025 Food Bank Benchmark
Introduction
Fundraising in the food bank space continues to prove one thing: When communities face uncertainty, donors respond.
In 2025, we saw significant growth across this cause. Revenue increased sharply year over year, alongside meaningful gains in active, new and reactivated donors. Much of this momentum was likely influenced by disaster-driven generosity tied to the federal government shutdown of October and November 2025 and SNAP funding cuts. When need becomes visible and urgent, supports step forward.
This year’s benchmark analyzes full-file performance from 79 RKD food bank clients nationwide, spanning 2021 through 2025. Across nearly one million active donors, the data reveals a clear pattern: Donor response remained strong, especially during moments of heightened public awareness.
At the same time, rapid growth brings a new challenge. The opportunity ahead isn’t simply about celebrating increased generosity; it’s about stewarding it well. How do we engage these donors beyond this moment? How do we transform urgency into sustained commitment?
Benchmarks like this give us clarity and perspective beyond a single organization’s results. They help us identify what is systemic across the cause and where opportunity exists to design growth. I hope this report gives you the context to understand today’s environment and the confidence to make strategic decisions grounded in data.
The organizations that will grow in 2026 are not the ones waiting for conditions to improve; they are the ones adapting to what the data is already telling us.
—Eddy Camas, Senior Vice President, Client Partnership, RKD Group
A Note from RKD's Food Bank Leader
Hey, everyone. I'm Eddie Camas. I lead our food banks team here at RKD, and I'm excited to announce our twenty twenty five Food Bank Benchmark Report. It's a full performance analysis across seventy nine food banks, representing nearly one million active donors. And really, one of the big things that we saw in twenty twenty five, we saw a surge in giving, especially through Q4 around the government shutdown, SNAP concerns, and just an overall higher visibility around the hunger cause. We saw donors respond in a big way. And as I mentioned, some of the big key takeaways were a surge in revenue and also a surge in new and reactivated donors really helping to drive revenue growth for our food bank partners. And now really, what comes next is really the focus shifts to us working on retaining those new donors that we got and sustaining that growth long term. So the report that you'll see, we'll dive into that and what it means today and really as you move forward into twenty twenty six.
Here is a look at our top 4 takeaways:
Based on this benchmark’s data, RKD’s strategy and decision science experts developed three recommendations for food bank organizations going forward:
1. Develop intentional follow-up and retention strategies
With a surge in more donors, 2026 must prioritize structured follow-up. Segment and communicate differently with donors who gave in response to urgency. Reinforce impact the crisis moment and share stories of sustained need and ongoing solutions.
2. Convert new donors into monthly givers
One of the best ways to increase retention is to continue stewarding donors into monthly support. Converting donors into monthly supporters increases not only retention but also the long-term value of each donor. With donor acquisition becoming more costly, growing monthly giving is a strategy that pays off and makes the most of disaster-driven generosity.
3. Focus on long-term retention
As revenue per active donor and multi-year donors soften, a deliberate retention strategy is essential to stabilize growth. With second-gift conversions, mid-year touchpoints and meaningful reports, you can connect supporters to outcomes. By turning episodic generosity into sustained partnership, you can drive long-term success.
About the report
What we measured
The 2025 Food Bank Full-Year Benchmark Report contains full-file data from 79 RKD food bank clients through the U.S., with data through Dec. 31, 2025. Contributions of $10,000 or more are analyzed separately as noted, to better inform growth from this critical relational segment of supporters.
Revenue excluding $10,000+ gifts up 21.9%
Due to the cuts to SNAP funding and the federal government shutdown in October and November 2025, revenue saw a dramatic increase in the food bank space. 2025 revenue excluding major gifts of $10,000 increased 21.9% year over year, while revenue including those major gifts grew 23.9%. This is tremendous growth and affirms the impact of crisis-response donors.
Active donors up 23%
The number of active donors grew significantly, with 2025 seeing a 23.0% increase compared to 2024. This large change confirms the influx of donors giving to food banks.
Revenue per active donor down 0.9%
Although revenue and donors rose intensely, revenue per active donor remained steady with a slight year-over-year decrease of 0.9%. Many people supported food banks in 2025, but donor value did not grow.
Average gift up 7.4%
The average gift in 2025 was $170.88, a 7.4% lift from 2024. This increase in generosity was perhaps motivated by the increased need for food banks and their communities.
Gift frequency down 7.7%
From 2024 to 2025, gift frequency decreased 7.7%, with the average donor giving 2.7 times in the year. This decline may be due to new or reactivated donors giving late in the year, during the government shutdown.
New and reactivated donors up 76%
From 2024 to 2025, new and reactivated donors grew 76%, confirming the influx of disaster donors. It’s heartwarming to see such growth in supporters, but the challenge of donor retention has become more pressing.
Multi-year donors down 2%
The number of active multi-year donors in 2025 was 2% lower than that of 2024. This decline is small but not encouraging. It’s worthwhile to consider how to engage this group.
From 2024 to 2025, revenue from donors who gave every year for longer than two years increased about 10%, excluding gifts of $10,000+.
See how other causes performed
About RKD Group
RKD Group is the growth architect for nonprofits. We design fundraising and marketing programs that accelerate donor engagement and net revenue for your organization. We simplify complexity and scale your impact through bold strategy, creative orchestration and and audience-led insights.
What does that mean exactly? Simply put: We help your fundraising thrive.
Reach out to us and discover expertly crafted, optimized fundraising.