A roundup of recent, notable research compiled by the Chronicle staff:
Few nonprofit websites are meeting the higher standards Google now uses to rank search results, a report from marketing and fundraising firm RKD Group found. As Google refines its search algorithm to privilege websites that meet its criteria for good user experience, it’s hinted that websites that don’t meet those standards will rank lower in search results. Potential new donors, volunteers, and clients will have a harder time engaging with a nonprofit online if they can’t navigate to its website by a Google search.
Using the search engine’s PageSpeed Insights tool, which grades websites on how well they meet key user-experience metrics, the report’s authors tested more than 2,000 regional, national, and international nonprofit websites. The results were concerning. Eighty percent of nonprofit websites received “poor” grades for their mobile performance, and 86 percent were graded “needs improvement” on their desktop performance.
While email marketing and digital ads are heavy hitters when it comes to driving website traffic, a significant portion of viewers still find their ways to nonprofit sites simply by typing queries into search engines. Marketers call this organic traffic, and it comprised 38 percent of nonprofit website visits in a study of 2022 data from 215 nonprofits.
The new report is the first to benchmark the nonprofit sector’s website performance. “We thought it was helpful to show that, right now, you’re not alone,” says Charles Lehosit, vice president of technology at RKD Group. “Everyone is doing poorly.”
For desktop performance:
- 16.6 percent of rescue-mission nonprofits had the highest share of “good” ratings — scores of 90 or above.
- 3.6 percent of service-animal nonprofits earned the lowest share of “poor” ratings — scores below 50 — for desktop performance.
For mobile performance:
- 2.3 percent of faith-based nonprofits posted the highest share of “good” ratings.
- 76.9 percent of health and disease nonprofits earned the highest share of “poor” grades.
What Givers Want
Nearly three-quarters of Americans strive to be generous, finds a new report from the Generosity Commission. “How and Why We Give” looked at the motivations behind why people donate and volunteer.
The report pulls its data from three categories: a media review, a survey of 2,569 Americans, and focus groups. In addition to finding high rates of generosity, the report notes that people believe there are many ways to be generous — including giving to nonprofits — and 73 percent of people are motivated to give due to a “desire to help people in need” rather than by tax incentives (6 percent) or impressing others (3 percent).
Of note to fundraisers, the report says that people want to feel confident about how their contributions are helping others, with 67 percent wanting to know all the details on how their donation would be spent. Donors also give most often when it’s convenient, the report says. Forty-four percent said they weren’t sure how to help. However, when helping was easy, people donated — with 61 percent saying they give through methods like rounding up at the grocery store.
Finally, the report segments donors into six types: supergivers, next-generation doers, civic-minded hopefuls, show-me scrutinizers, connection seekers, and apathetic nongivers. It then profiles each donor type, explaining their motivations and suggesting the best ways to engage with them.
Donor-Advised Funds With the Most to Give
Close to a fifth of DAF accounts at Vanguard Charitable have more than $250,000 to give, according to the fund’s report “Why Giving Matters.”
Donor-advised funds, which allow users to get immediate tax deductions for charitable contributions, have risen in popularity in recent years. While DAFs in the United States have more than $243 billion untapped dollars available for charities, they also provide donors privacy, which makes it difficult for nonprofits to know much about who has them or how to reach those donors.
The report aims to shed light on how Vanguard Charitable’s customers use their DAF funds. According to the report, the group’s DAF holders supported 52,000 nonprofits in 2022. In total, the organization had more than 27,000 DAF accounts, with 19 percent having balances of more than $250,000, 36 percent having balances of $50,000 to $250,000, and 45 percent having balances of less than $50,000.
The report also looked at the giving habits of donors. The average grant issued from DAFs was $2,313. The longer a person held a DAF, the more that person gave, the report found. Donors who had held their DAF more than 10 years issued grants 61 percent larger than donors who’d held their DAF less than 6 years.
Credit:Source link
