Welcome to
Benchmarks X

The 2016 M+R Benchmarks Study — our tenth — is the most extraordinary, exceptional, extravagantly excellent examination of online fundraising, advocacy, and organizing in existence.

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Benchmarks X — M+R’s TENTH Benchmarks Study — gathers detailed information from 105 nonprofits, including performance metrics for email, web, social media, and more. It’s designed to help you solve for X, whatever your program’s unique X happens to be. Find out where your own program excels — and pinpoint the spots where you’re falling behind.

We are so excited to share Benchmarks X with you — you can download the whole thing for free right now! If you want to explore a bit first, take our brief tour to see what you can expect from Benchmarks X.

Top-line Email Metrics

How much email is too much? Benchmarks X will pull back the curtain on how other nonprofits approached online strategy in 2015, including the mix of fundraising, advocacy, and other types of email.

Top-line Email Metrics

Messages per Subscriber per Year

List Growth and Churn

Despite declining response rates, email fundraising revenue grew substantially in 2015. Continuing list growth is a key reason why.

List Growth and Churn

List Growth

Fundraising Email Effectiveness Part 1

Fundraising Email Effectiveness

Overall trends matter — but it’s the nonprofits most like yours that will give you the most relevant information. We’ve sorted participants into eight sectors, and split results into groups with small, medium, and large email lists.

Fundraising Email Effectiveness Part 1

Fundraising Response Rates

Fundraising Email Effectiveness Part 2

Fundraising Email Effectiveness

The bottom line: For every 1,000 fundraising emails delivered in 2015, nonprofits received $44 in revenue. Put another way, a single fundraising email landing in an inbox raised an average of 4.4 cents.

Fundraising Email Effectiveness Part 2

Email Revenue per 1,000 Fundraising Emails delivered

Change in Online and Email Revenue

Online revenue grew by 19% in 2015 — even better than the previous year’s 12% growth.

Change in Online and Email Revenue

Change in Online Revenue

One-time & Monthly Giving

Monthly giving grew at a faster rate than one-time giving for most sectors in 2015 — meaning more nonprofits are getting a larger share of their online revenue from more predictable, stable sources. The International sector was an outlier here, with a huge spike in one-time revenue likely influenced by donors responding to humanitarian crises in Syria and Nepal.

One-time & Monthly Giving

Change in Online Revenue by Type 2014–2015

Website Traffic

Every website visit is a chance to engage with supporters. The growth in website traffic in 2015 meant more opportunities for supporters to donate, take action, share content, or join an email list.

Website Traffic

Change in Number of Website Visitors per Month from 2014–2015

Social Media

For most nonprofits, email subscribers still far outnumber social media followers — but that doesn’t mean that you can afford to ignore these channels. Benchmarks X gives you an extensive rundown on how nonprofits are using social media — and how supporters are responding.

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Benchmark Yourself

Information

Fundraising Emails

Advocacy Emails

Other

Past Benchmarks

Select one or more reports below:

Welcome toBenchmarks X

Top-line Email Metrics