From Benchmarking to Better Decisions: 7 Trends Reshaping Fundraising

Insights from the first national meeting of the Epiphany Benchmarking Community, where fundraising leaders used near-real-time nonprofit benchmarking data to identify emerging trends, compare strategies, and turn insight into action.

Launched by CDP and ROI Solutions in late 2025, the Epiphany Benchmarking Community was created to help fundraising leaders move beyond retrospective reporting and toward more informed, timely decision-making.

The community combines near-real-time benchmark data with facilitated peer discussion, creating opportunities for organizations to identify emerging trends, compare experiences, and evaluate strategic responses while those trends are still unfolding.

Today, the community includes more than 30 participating organizations representing a broad range of nonprofit and public media missions.

Earlier this month, 16 participating organizations representing national nonprofits gathered for the community’s first national meeting, a two-day virtual discussion facilitated by Deb Ashmore of CDP and Susan Paine of ROI Solutions. The organizations represented a diverse range of missions, including advocacy, conservation, health, hunger relief, animal welfare, international aid, and other mission-driven sectors.

Collectively, the 16 organizations participating in the meeting represent millions of active donors and over $1.3 billion in annual fundraising revenue.

While their missions vary considerably, many of the same questions surfaced throughout the discussion.

How should organizations respond to declining donor files? 

Which acquisition channels are producing long-term value?

What role should sustainers, donor-advised funds, and emerging channels like SMS play in future growth strategies? 

And perhaps most importantly, how should organizations adapt when donor behavior continues to evolve in response to economic uncertainty and changing communication preferences?

The conversation revealed a fundamental shift in how many leading organizations are approaching fundraising performance.

Historically, benchmarking has been a retrospective exercise. Organizations would review annual reports, compare performance against peers, and identify trends long after those trends had already influenced results. The challenge with that approach is that by the time insights become available, the opportunity to respond may already have passed.

The Epiphany Benchmarking Community was built around a different premise: benchmarking should support decision-making, not simply measurement.

With data updated monthly, participating organizations can identify emerging patterns, compare experiences with peers, and evaluate strategic adjustments while those trends are still unfolding. The value lies not only in the benchmark itself but also in the ability to interpret the data collaboratively and translate insights into action.

That distinction became increasingly clear throughout the meeting. The most valuable discussions were rarely about the numbers alone. Instead, participants focused on what the numbers meant, what actions they suggested, and how organizations were adapting their strategies in response.

One organization reported significant gains from automated recovery of recurring payments. Others compared results and implementation approaches. Discussions about donor-advised funds quickly evolved into conversations about pipeline development and stewardship. Conversations about acquisition channels shifted toward lifetime value, retention, and long-term sustainability.

In each case, the benchmark data provided context. The discussion created understanding.

Taken together, seven trends emerged that are reshaping nonprofit fundraising and influencing where many organizations are focusing their attention next.

The Real Value Isn’t the Dashboard

One theme surfaced repeatedly throughout the meeting: data alone isn’t enough.

Every organization participating in the community has access to benchmark reports. Yet the value lies in the conversation that follows. The reports identify trends and highlight opportunities, but the most meaningful insights emerge when participants compare experiences, challenge assumptions, and share what is actually working in their programs.

When one organization shared dramatic improvements from automated payment recovery, others immediately compared results and implementation strategies. When participants discussed donor-advised funds, SMS acquisition, sustainer conversion programs, or attribution challenges, the conversation quickly moved beyond the numbers and into practical application.

Traditional benchmarking often relies on data that is six months, twelve months, or even older by the time organizations gather to discuss it. In today’s environment, that lag can be significant.

Consider how much has changed in just the first half of 2026. Economic uncertainty, inflationary pressures, shifting consumer confidence, and rapidly evolving global events have all influenced donor behavior. Conversations grounded in data that is only a few weeks old create a fundamentally different experience. Organizations are not simply reviewing what happened in the past; they are evaluating trends that are unfolding right now and discussing potential responses while there is still time to act.

The result is a richer, more meaningful, and ultimately more actionable discussion.

The dashboard revealed the trends.
The conversation revealed what to do about them.
That’s the difference between benchmark reporting and a decision-making community.

1. Revenue Growth Is Increasingly Driven by Donor Value Rather Than Donor Volume

The long-term decline in donor counts remains one of the defining challenges facing the nonprofit sector. Yet the benchmark data revealed a more nuanced story.

Across many participating organizations, donor files have continued to shrink while revenue has remained stable or grown. Higher average gifts, stronger mid-level performance, successful donor reactivation efforts, and increased donor value have helped offset declines in overall donor volume.

This shift suggests that growth is becoming less dependent on acquiring ever-larger numbers of donors and more dependent on deepening relationships with existing supporters.

Discussions throughout the meeting reinforced a broader realization: in many organizations, success is increasingly being driven by donor quality, engagement, and lifetime value rather than donor volume alone.

For fundraising leaders, this raises an important strategic question: should success be measured primarily by file growth, or by the long-term value created within the donor file?

2. Sustainers Are the Foundation of Organizational Stability

If there was a single area of broad agreement among participants, it was the growing importance of sustaining donors.

Organizations consistently pointed to monthly donors as a critical source of revenue predictability, retention, and long-term value. Benchmark data showed sustainers outperforming one-time donors across key metrics, including retention and lifetime value.

The implications extend beyond fundraising performance. In an environment characterized by economic uncertainty, shifting donor behavior, and periodic surges in mission-driven giving, sustaining donors provide a measure of stability that many organizations increasingly view as essential.

Participants discussed sustainer acquisition strategies, conversion programs, onboarding journeys, and donor experiences designed to maximize long-term retention. Across organizations, the trend was clear: sustainable growth increasingly begins with sustainable donors.

3. Donor-Advised Funds Are Moving Into the Mainstream

Few topics generated as much interest during the meeting as donor-advised funds (DAFs).

What was once viewed primarily as a major-gift vehicle is increasingly becoming an important component of broader fundraising strategy. Participants discussed growing DAF revenue, adoption of DAF widgets on donation forms, and the role DAFs can play in developing mid-level and major-donor pipelines.

The benchmark data reflected that momentum. Across the cohort, DAF giving increased 164 percent over the past five years and 34 percent in the last year alone, making it one of the fastest-growing revenue categories discussed during the meeting.

Participants noted that DAFs are becoming an increasingly important bridge between broad-based fundraising programs and major-gift development, creating new opportunities to identify, engage, and steward higher-value donors.

At the same time, organizations discussed challenges around reporting, attribution, and long-term value measurement. Despite those challenges, there was broad agreement that DAFs will play an increasingly important role in future fundraising strategies.

4. Direct Mail Remains Important—But Attribution Is Changing

Predictions about the decline of direct mail have circulated throughout the sector for years. Yet the conversation suggested that direct mail remains a significant contributor to donor acquisition and revenue generation.

Several participating organizations reported direct mail results that exceeded expectations, reinforcing the idea that the channel continues to play an important role in donor acquisition, retention, and revenue generation despite frequent predictions of its decline.

At the same time, organizations increasingly acknowledged the limitations of channel-specific reporting.

Matchback analysis emerged as a recurring topic of discussion. Participants described situations in which donors received direct mail appeals but ultimately completed their gifts online, resulting in revenue being attributed entirely to digital channels despite mail’s influence on donor behavior.

These discussions reflected a broader shift away from channel-centric thinking and toward a more integrated view of the donor journey. As organizations become more sophisticated in their measurement practices, the question is shifting less from which channel deserves credit and more toward how channels work together to influence outcomes.

5. SMS Is Transitioning to Core Strategy

Text messaging generated some of the most active discussions of the meeting.

Participants shared experiences with SMS acquisition, sustainer recruitment, advocacy conversion, and donor engagement programs. While approaches varied across organizations, there was broad agreement that texting is becoming an increasingly important component of the fundraising mix.

Several organizations reported promising results among younger audiences and highlighted SMS as a channel that can create more immediate, direct relationships with supporters.

Questions remain around attribution, consent management, and long-term performance. However, the conversation suggested that many organizations no longer view SMS as an experimental tactic. Instead, it is increasingly being evaluated as a core acquisition and engagement channel alongside email, direct mail, canvassing, and digital advertising.

6. Retention Has Become a Strategic Imperative

Another notable theme was the growing emphasis on retention as a primary measure of fundraising effectiveness.

Throughout both days, participants repeatedly returned to questions of donor longevity, lifetime value, consecutive giving behavior, and long-term revenue contribution. Discussions that began with acquisition performance often evolved into conversations about which donors remained active years later.

This represents a meaningful shift in how many organizations evaluate success.

Rather than focusing exclusively on acquisition volume, fundraising leaders are increasingly examining whether acquisition investments generate sustainable donor relationships. Lifetime value, breakeven timing, retention rates, and long-term revenue contribution are becoming central metrics for strategic decision-making.

The result is a more disciplined approach to growth—one that prioritizes durable outcomes over short-term gains.

7. Operational Improvements Can Produce Strategic Results

One of the most practical discussions focused on a topic that historically might have been viewed as purely operational: failed payment recovery.

Several organizations shared experiences implementing automated payment recovery technology, including Revaly, which integrates with Revolution CRM to recover failed recurring payments.

What emerged from the discussion was a recognition that payment recovery is not simply an operational efficiency initiative. It is increasingly a retention-and-revenue strategy.

Participants compared recovery rates, implementation approaches, and operational lessons learned. For organizations managing large sustainer programs, relatively small improvements in payment recovery can have meaningful effects on both revenue and donor retention.

As monthly giving programs continue to grow, these operational enhancements are becoming strategically significant.

Looking Ahead

While the organizations participating in the meeting serve different missions and constituencies, their discussions revealed remarkable alignment around several priorities: strengthening sustainer programs, improving donor retention, expanding mid-level giving, integrating donor-advised funds more effectively, improving attribution across channels, investing in emerging acquisition strategies, and using data more intentionally to guide decision-making.

The first national meeting of the Epiphany Benchmarking Community highlighted seven important trends reshaping nonprofit fundraising. More importantly, it demonstrated a different model for how organizations can respond to those trends.

Benchmarking alone does not improve fundraising. Reports and dashboards can identify trends, but they do not determine how organizations should respond. Strategic advantage comes from understanding what those trends mean, learning from peers confronting similar challenges, and translating insights into action.

As the pace of change in fundraising continues to accelerate, organizations need more than reports that explain what happened in the past. They need communities that help them interpret what is happening now and decide what to do next.

That’s why Epiphany is more than benchmark reporting.

Epiphany is a decision-making community powered by benchmark data.

Following the success of the community’s first national meeting, CDP and ROI Solutions are onboarding additional organizations into the Epiphany Benchmarking Community and planning future mission-focused and technique-focused peer groups later this year.

As the community grows, participants will have more opportunities to learn from peers facing similar challenges and to benefit from insights emerging across a diverse range of nonprofit and public media organizations.

Learn more about the Epiphany Benchmarking Community through ROI Solutions or CDP.