It’s no surprise that online giving is becoming increasingly popular. We learned from our data analysis that the amount of individual donor revenue raised from online giving grew from 17 to 24 percent in just two years. This means that about one in every four fundraising dollars from individuals is now generated online.

This data suggests that as organizations move more of their fundraising online, they may unintentionally sabotage their revenue.

In addition, we see a significant increase in the proportion of donors who choose to do their charitable giving online. Two out of every five now donate online, whereas two years ago it was one out of three.

Our data indicates that online giving involves some harsh realities. When made over the Internet, gifts are much smaller than average; donors give only 1/3 as much online as they do overall.

What’s worse, those gifts are declining. Online donations have shrunk from 48 percent of the overall average gift in 2014 to 32 percent of the overall average gift in 2016. So even though more people give online, their donations are smaller than those given offline.

Read the full article on online fundraising by Heather Yandow at Stanford Social Innovation Review