Digital fundraising is the fastest growing pathway for individual giving. Online giving grew by 14% last year while individual donations grew by only 4%.  Furthermore, individuals are the biggest portion of contributed income pie — 72% nationally and 50-70% for the arts, depending on discipline. (Data from League of American Orchestras, Theatre Communications Group, Opera America, Association of Art Museum Directors).

Individuals giving via digital pathways is growing, regardless of generation, year over year. 15 years ago digital giving meant accepting a donation on your web page.  Tools and pathways for digital giving have expanded significantly over the last 5 years, yet there has been little discussion of digital giving in the arts management field.  To fill this gap, AMT Lab is launching a survey to understand how arts organizations are adopting and using emerging tools. (click here if you would like to jump into the survey launch page now).

The results from the study and survey will help arts organizations understand how they compare nationally as well as by discipline, geographically and by budget size.  For perspective,

• Mobile bidding at live events increases revenue by 10-50% over the previous event.  One vendor, Bidpal, has helped 2,800 organizations raise more than $1 billion since 2008. 
• Peer to peer (P2P) pathways process 33% of all online donations.  66% of the Global Trends Giving Report participants already have a P2P program in place.
• Facebook Nonprofit Status offers nonprofits the ability to collect donations on Facebook via a 'Donate Button', build a customized nonprofit landing page, and encourage fans/followers to fundraise on their behalf.  93% of NGOs worldwide have a Facebook Page, and 71% of NGOs agree that social media is effective for online fundraising. 55% of people who engage with nonprofits on social media end up taking some sort of action.  (2018 Global NGO Technology Report and Mobile Fundraising Statistics)
• Of the overall NPO marketplace, 7% regularly send text messages to donors and the average gift via text was $107. 

The opportunities are significant for arts organizations, so understanding the current level of engagement in the field is a good first step. Please take 2 - 10 minutes (depending on your organization) and complete the survey from our launch page:  amt-lab.org/survey.