Winter 2024 analysis: the results

Now in its third year, this study aims to provide fundraisers with the trends and insights they need to make the right fundraising decisions. We’d like to say thank you to all of the charities who took part, and to the hundreds of fundraisers who joined our webinar on 6th February to hear the results. You can view a copy of the presentation here.

Setting the scene

2024 was another year of instability. With global pressures including elections, escalating humanitarian crises, and climate records broken at an alarming rate, there was no shortage of urgency when it came to making a case for support.

And although we may have surpassed the peak of the cost of living crisis, elevated interest rates remain high with many people still feeling the pinch.

Yet despite economic uncertainty, high competition, and shifting donor behaviours, for many charities, end of year campaigns remain a crucial opportunity to engage both warm and cold charity audiences.

So what happened?

The results: Warm mail 

Warm mail stagnated this winter, with 45% of participants reaching or exceeding their income targets, a 1% decrease from 46% in 2023.

Less than half of charities met their income targets and 21% were well below target.

Just 45% of charities saw their average gift rate at or above target, considerably less than 2023’s 72%. But in positive news, 70% of charities are seeing response rates at or above targets.

In contrast to 2023, in 2024’s end of year fundraising, charities experienced a higher number of donors giving lower amounts.

Volume of mail remains similar to previous years with the highest proportion of organisations sending two warm mailings for their winter appeal, and just over a third sending one.

On a very small sample, three mailings correlated with the best results, while two mailings saw a dip in performance – suggesting the need to optimise reminders. 

The results: Warm email

For warm email, 51% hit or exceeded their income target, slightly down on last year’s 62%.  

Interestingly we saw a shift in supporter behaviour for this channel vs warm mail. 73% of organisations met their average gift objective, but just 47% hit or exceeded response rate targets. 

Sending four or six warm emails correlated to a stronger performance.

Warm activity: overall

A great example of organisations reacting and responding to past results was seen in the willingness to integrate, innovate and test in 2024. Almost half of participants were integrating their campaigns, 33% tested new inclusions or incentives, and 22% changed their channel mix.

The results: Cold activity

Up 4% from our last survey, 52% of participants see winter as their main fundraising event of the year for cold activity – and it comes with its challenges.

However, the appetite to test and improve is high with many charities making changes to targets and prompt amounts; with a record-breaking 48% of charities changing their channel mix in response to tough times.

For those who did, this correlated with slightly better results compared to the previous year. A promising signal to charities looking to build on results for a more successful end of 2025.

What next?

Christmas 2024 was another tough year for charities but on the bright side, many are making positive changes to move in the right direction; for a crucial fundraising moment for many fundraisers, it’s never been more important to get ahead with planning.

Our recommendation is to plan early, test and diversify through the year, and then scale at Christmas.

For cold acquisition, winter continues to be a difficult time of year and diversification is desperately needed to optimise every interaction to its full potential; especially in the face of recent Meta changes.

Diversifying in cold, particularly digital diversification, is key and face to face can help with scale. Talk to us about our dialogue product which enables fundraisers to gather leads and data to generate a positive outcome for site, street, and door to door fundraising.

And for warm activity, we need to focus on the details and think outside the pack; getting into strategic programmatic testing allows fundraisers to confidently optimise with the right activities that drive results.

Start earlier than you think – and get in touch if you’d like our help to move in the right direction.

Thank you for joining us for another insight-filled start to 2025 – same again next year?

Research notes

• 106 charities took part in the study
• Not all charities answered every question in the survey (either didn’t do the activity or didn’t have the data)
• Exact figures weren’t required