Digital Fundraising in 2025: key takeaways from the latest M+R Benchmarks
The digital fundraising landscape continues to evolve, and staying on top of the latest trends is crucial for any charity looking to sustain supporter engagement and income online. Thankfully, M+R and Rally’s latest Benchmarks Report is here, packed with fresh insights from across the UK and Ireland.
This year’s findings offer a timely snapshot into the land of online fundraising. But if you don’t have time for the full report, we’ve broken down the essential trends and takeaways below.
Beyond the headlines.
While overall online fundraising declined by just 2% on average, the headline figure masks bigger shifts between cause areas in the sector.
Disaster/International Aid organisations saw a notable decline in revenue this year. However, we know that donations, especially when it comes to emergency response, can rise and fall dramatically depending on news headlines, impacting overall income.
Animal Welfare charities bucked the overall trend, seeing an 8% increase in online revenue. This growth likely reflects strong donor loyalty, emotional connection to the cause, and effective use of storytelling and digital engagement. Supporters of animal welfare are more likely to give consistently for a long period of time and are kept engaged through compelling content and regular updates.
Cash giving declined by 6%, continuing a longer-term move away from one-off gifts.
Regular giving has increased by 8% and now accounts for 48% of all online revenue, with an average gift of £10.
These shifts in giving behaviour shows the major opportunities charities have to build sustained support, deepening long-term donors relationships and strengthening overall loyalty.
What this means for charities:
Look beyond the average: A 2% decline doesn’t tell the full story. Understand your cause areas trend in more detail and adapt your fundraising accordingly.
Prioritise regular giving: Monthly giving is now the backbone of online revenue. Now more than ever, we should be investing in compelling onward journeys that support long-term engagement.
Adapt to changing behaviours: Use streamlined forms, reduce the number of mandatory fields and offer multiple payment options on donation forms.. And don’t forget to focus on delivering clear messaging to encourage regular support.
Tell the long-term story: Show the impact of ongoing giving and always thank your supporters meaningfully. Consider incorporating thank you and impact videos into your ongoing communication - it’s important that donors continue to feel thanked and appreciated.
Email in 2024: still relevant, but evolving.
Email remains a powerful digital channel but its role is shifting as overall performance changes.
Email lists grew 4% in 2024, marking a slower growth compared to the two previous years.
Messaging volume jumped 31%, with the average charity sending 30 emails per subscriber per year. Whilst this is an increase on last year's average, messaging volume remains behind the average send rate from other countries.
Despite this, total email revenue fell, generating £58 per 1,000 emails. However, there were significant differences between sectors - for example, whilst Wildlife/Animal welfare charities received an average of £98 per 1,000 emails, Rights focused organisations received £30 per 1,000 emails.
So whilst more emails are being sent, they’re generating less income. This calls for a shift in strategy from simply increasing the volume of messages per donors to improving the strength and tangibility of the ask, targeting and creative execution.
What this means for charities:
Don’t automatically default to more: Volume alone won’t increase income. Focus on smarter segmentation to deliver compelling messages and asks that will resonate with your audiences.
Make it matter: Our inboxes are busy places. Strengthen subject lines and prioritise messaging and content to cut through inbox clutter with emotional resonance, delivering clarity, and purpose.
Be clear and concise: Strong calls to action should appear early and be easy to act on. It’s not just about what you want people to do, but why it matters.
It’s a two-way street: Use email to build trust, show impact, and say thank you. Prioritise building a relationship with your audiences. Not just asking for donations.
Digital spending: modest growth… big potential.
Ad spend rose by 6% in 2024, with some clear trends emerging:
56% of spend went toward fundraising, but smaller charities focused more on lead generation, using ads to grow their audiences with clear offers and simple sign-up forms.
Spending on multi-channel platforms like Google’s Performance Max increased by 129% and generated a strong positive ROAS at £1.22. These are big numbers and as Google continues to embrace AI for advertising and search, Google’s channels are likely to become increasingly important.
Meta remains dominant but with policy changes introduced in January 2025 having an impact on many charities' results, it’s important to continue experimenting and diversifying investment into other platforms that are able to offer stronger returns.
What this means for charities:
Balance your objectives: Ads can drive donations and grow your audience. It’s important to remember that both goals can live side by side and work together to grow your fundraising programmes.
Diversify platforms: Don’t rely solely on Meta. Test what works and follow the data.
Optimise for the channel you’re on: That means tailoring creative for each channel to make it feel native. Videos and statics work hand in hand to drive performance and deliver strong results.
Stay agile: Digital platforms evolve fast. It’s important to keep a close eye on ad performance, optimising creative where necessary and adapting quickly to make sure you continue to reach audiences with your message and asks.
Website performance: time to optimise.
One of the biggest opportunities for growth... Donation page.
Conversion rates remain in line with previous reports. 11% on mobile and 12% on desktop.
A majority of traffic is driven by mobile users, but revenue generated by those using desktop continues to hold up - driven 57% of donation revenue in total.
Larger charities had stronger conversion rates. Perhaps driven by stronger brand recognition and more streamlined donation journeys. By optimising forms and simplifying the user experience, smaller charities have a strong opportunity to close the gap and boost online revenue.
What this means for charities:
Build trust at every step: Start with a clear case for support that builds on the message and ask found in the initial ad. Highlight the need and reinforce the impact to help reduce any points of doubt.
Test and learn: Use A/B testing to refine messaging, imagery and even button text. The more we test, the more we learn about what drives our donors to donate.
Simplify donation forms: Reduce or remove unnecessary and compulsory fields, offer multiple payment methods (think Apple and Google pay for mobile users), and make the checkout fast and intuitive.
But more than anything, focus on getting the basics right: Whether you’re a large or small organisation, a streamlined, mobile-friendly donation journey can significantly boost conversions.
Moving Forward: Navigating an ever-changing landscape.
The latest M+R Benchmarks report makes one thing clear: the digital fundraising environment is not static. Donor preferences are changing and platforms continue to evolve. What worked even a year ago may no longer yield the same results today.
But with change comes opportunity. And if you’re feeling inspired to take action and strengthen your digital fundraising, we’d love to hear from you. Please get in touch with DTV on hellodtv@dtvgroup.co.uk today.
Bio
Adèle is a senior digital strategist at DTV with over eight years of experience in the sector. She started her career in international development, contributing to UK and global advocacy campaigns before moving into fundraising. Today, Adèle works with a diverse range of charities to develop digital fundraising strategies, better understand audience motivations, and improve overall donor journeys.