98% of donors say they are motivated to give when an organization works on an issue they care about. So that's the baseline, right? Issue alignment. Without that, it doesn't matter. But here's the data that the report flags as one of the clearest giving signals, right? It's clarity. Donors don't just want to support a mission in the abstract. They want a concrete line of sight between their generosity and the outcome it can help create. Hello and welcome back to Missions to Movements. Happy Summertime. I am your host, Dana Snyder. And today, instead of a guest interview, it's just me, and I am doing one of my favorite things, and that is diving into some data and some research. And today we are specifically going to unpack the 2026 Giving Signals Report from Bloom Ring. So you've probably heard of them before. If not, they're a donor management and fundraising platform built specifically for nonprofits. And they just released this giving signals report. It's their 2026 research study. I'm going to go into the methodology here in a second, but I think the data inside this report is refreshing, genuinely very useful. And as it's titled, gives you signals telling you what's moving donors to give, where might we be leaving money on the table. So if you want to get your own copy of the report and dive through it, it's also beautifully designed. The link is in the show notes. So you can check
that out in the show notes and in the blog. So I want to start by telling you what this is not report-wise. It's not another like doom and gloom headline about declining donations and eroding trust. Like there's been plenty of those. We've all seen them. And this report is not that. And I wanted to kick off the analysis talking about the specific methodology, because I think it matters in how we interpret any data, right? So Bloomerang partnered with the Harris poll and they surveyed two groups of people. They surveyed just about a thousand US adults who donated to a charity or nonprofit in the past 12 months. So these are not people who used to give, not just the general public, but very active donors. And they were surveyed in March of this year. And second, 405 adults who work for a nonprofit and have decision-making responsibilities around fundraising. So you are getting an interesting donor view and the organizational view side by side here. So another note on the methodology that I wanted to share before we get into the findings is around Gen Z. So Gen Z respondents, they were ages 18 to 29. They were less than half as likely as any other generation to report having donated in the past year. So
they were screened out of the survey at a higher rate. So therefore, the Gen Z sample in this study is very small. It's only 41 people, meaning that those findings do not reach a statistical significance. So it's kind of directional only. So I will note maybe some Gen Z data and you can weigh it accordingly. So what I did want to dive into today is what we are seeing motivates donors to give, what moves them from caring to clicking the magical donate button, the trust piece, the friction piece, which should kind of concern all of us to be looking into the friction in our orgs, the millennial story, which I think is bigger than many organizations might realize right now, and a couple of opportunity gaps that are really fixable right now. So let's get into it. First section here is that generosity isn't declining, but it's becoming more intentional. Think about that as like our sub-headline here. And I want to start because I think the narrative a lot of us have been operating under is hurting how we think about fundraising, right? All the headlines I've been telling us donations are declining, trust is fraying, donors are pulling back. This report specifically talked about 97% of donors say caring about their community motivates them to give. 96% say wanting to make a difference does, 96% say caring about the future does, and 92% say giving is part of who they are. And one that I think is really interesting that might want to reframe how you write donor copy you produce for the latter half of this year is only 68% saying having money to give is a motivator. That was really interesting, right? Because we spend a lot of time in this sector talking about and worrying about economic headwinds, like donors are stretched, the cost of living
is up, disposable income is down. And totally, yes, those are all very, very real factors. But what this data is telling us is that financial capacity actually ranked dead last as a motivator. So what driving giving is not having necessarily a surplus of donors. I'm sure there's a connection there, but it was a surplus of purpose. And the report said this clearly, which I think we've probably always known is a bit true. And I know it's in my own giving habits are true is that giving is not primarily a rational decision. It's a values-led action that is shaped by identity and purpose and belief in what is possible, what we want and envision to be possible. I mean, I know this in the six or seven orgs that I give to monthly, is that is so true. I want desperately and believe in what I hope can be possible, and therefore I'm giving to them. So practically, what does this mean? Your copy needs to speak to who someone is. Again, not always just what they have. So the ask is not transactional. It should feel relational, it should feel identity driven. When we thank donors, this is a big one. We should not just be acknowledging a $10, a $25, a $50, a thousand financial transaction, but you are affirming who they are as a person. So tactical suggestion here, right? Again, instead of thanking you donors for making their generous gift, thank them for who they are. Thank them for being a generous person, a helper, a friend. That's a really big shift from most communication that I see from what they did to who they are, right? That's a complete change in a lot of how communication is drafted right now. And it lands totally differently. So that's the first one, being more intentional. Two, this I think was the clearest signal in the entire report. And it calls it out directly. And I want to make sure that it has the same dramatic emphasis here. The first section was about why donors felt inclined to give, right? Like those rankings. This next section is what actually moves them, which is what we all want, from intention to action. Like looks like a great cause. Oh, I'm actually going to give. And the answer, this might seem so silly and simple, but it I get it, is clarity. 98% of donors say they are motivated to give when an organization works on an issue they care about. So that's the baseline, right? Issue alignment. Without that, it doesn't matter. But here's the data that the report flags as one of the clearest giving signals, right? It's clarity. Donors don't just want to support a mission in the abstract, they want a concrete line of sight between their generosity
and the outcome it can help create. 94% are motivated when an organization lets them know exactly where their money will go. And 90% are motivated when an organization tells them about the impact of their donation. There's a story in the report that has like a before and after example that illustrates this perfectly. And I've been talking to so many clients about this recently. It's like we need to tell individualized stories, not broad, arching millions of meals. I just helped launch Tony Robbins' monthly giving program called The Next Meal. And it's part of this bigger challenge of 100 billion meals. And sorry, I'm going off on a little bit of tangent, but the storytelling I said we need to tell is the individual, there's a bunch of different partners they work with. And I was like, we need to tell individual partner stories, how one mom's life changed, how one kid's meal, like that's how we can visualize and think, not in the grandiose, like 100 billion meals. Like, what does that actually look like? So, in this, going back to what I say before, in this before and after example, in the report, this was the before language, they said. Your gift today helps us continue our vital work serving families in need throughout the community. Every dollar makes a difference. Said everyone ever, right? Does that not sound like so much copy that you've read versus after $50 buys a week of groceries for a family in our pantry program. 200 keeps the lights on at our family resource center for a day. Where would you like your gift to go? Now, I'm not saying to be that specific in the we want gifts to feel unrestricted when we can, but it's giving the sense of specifics, is the point I want to get across here. And donors preferred the second version by 88 percentage points, 94 to six. The first version says we matter. The second version is here's exactly what you are doing. So again, it's a difference between a very vague appeal and a very clear one. And donors clearly from this report are telling us very loudly that they prefer the second one. So how can you be more clear? How can you paint a picture? For I always say this in the copy. How can you visualize something for someone? If it's vague language, that's not visual, right? Paint a picture. So make sure the storytelling, the use of funds, how can this appear in the full above the fold in your websites, in your emails, your landing pages, your donation forms? Like, do not make donors hunt for this. Lead with the outcome. And one other thing from this section that I think is maybe underused a little bit is belonging. And I talk about this literally all the time with recurring giving. 87% of donors say they're motivated by organizations that make them feel like they are part of something, not just a donor, a participant in something that matters. This is extremely powerful. This came up in the especially for first-time donors. I would say all donors, but for millennials considering a first gift, belonging was selected as a top three motivator. This is huge. So belonging's not just a retention play, it's an acquisition play. So show a new donor that they are joining something, welcome them into the story. Okay. Number three, meeting donors where they actually are. So let's talk for a second about channel strategy because this is an area where there might be a gap between, well, and I would say what donors want, what they say they want, and what organizations might be currently delivering. And I will note we don't all the time know exactly what it is that we want. Like people might say, oh, I don't want text messages, but then that's the best way that they respond to you. So take this with a grain of salt and talk to your own audience. But this report found that 69% of donors say email is the preferred fundraising communication channel. So it is the top choice overall and leading across every generation. It wasn't social, it wasn't text, it wasn't email. But what's interesting is on the nonprofits report side. Remember, I said at the beginning there was a thousand donors and roughly 400 nonprofits. They say they lead with social media. So it's not that social is the wrong channel, but it's not the channel donors are asking you to lead with. And I think that gap matters. So this has been proven
by email more frequently than you think. So beyond email, preferences did get more segmented by generation. And this is where you just have to know your audience. Direct mail was still very important for baby boomers. More than half preferred it. Social, much more relevant for millennials. Texting, more appeal for millennials and older donors. Like not necessarily shocking, although I think texting across the board can work really well because we are all using our phones. And then the insight the report emphasizes around this is that a relevant message delivered in the wrong place can still miss. So when you can match message to medium, when I used to be in my digital marketing world, I said this all the time: platform-specific content. Do not repurpose identical content everywhere. This is where channel strategy really pays off. So practical move here: review your channel mix, understand who your audiences are because your language should change. How you write things would change, how you're going to appeal to them. Like start with email, think about your direct email, your social, maybe texting, and think about your channel specific plans instead of just copying and pasting content everywhere. Right. Number four, donor trust is stronger than you might think. And this is one that I want to say very clearly. Here's the data points in the report. 97% of active donors agree that the nonprofits they interact with seem aligned with what they care about. Okay. 95% trust that the nonprofits they donate to use their donor funds effectively, they do. And then even more broadly, 79% trust nonprofit organizations at large to use funds effectively. Now, 79%. I mean, I would hope that that would be even higher than 79%. I have to look back at the past. I don't have in this report, but like how does that gauge? But across specific stewardship behaviors, including making giving easy, respecting communication preferences, thinking donors, making donors feel valued. The agreement ranges from 93 to 98%. So I'd say that's pretty strong. And again, remember who the data comes from. These are people who give in the last 12 months, right? Again, not the general
public. These are active donors. And among this group, right, trust is not eroding. It was strong, it was consistent. And I thought it was worth naming. But here's the nuance, right? Is trust is the baseline and proof is what strengthens it. So when donors were asked what most clearly signals that a nonprofit is effective, the top answer was transparency. 69% selected clear reporting on finances and programs. 58% selected impact data and statistics, and 48% selected beneficiary stories or testimonials. So we want donors want both evidence and meaning. We want to see measurable outcomes and they want to understand those outcomes in human terms. So data and story have to work together. I think this is also just people learn in different ways, right? I'm a very visual learner. So to me, just seeing a whole bunch of numbers might not do it, but having a story of a transformation that would. So takeaway, again, in this report, trust is there. Your job is just to reinforce it with proof, right? What could this look like for you? A really creative, different, compelling, quarterly impact snapshot. Could it also be with a video from a stakeholder in your organization? Does it have a short, simple one story, right? Is there a plain language, easy to read summary right near your form or in your donation page? Is all of this visible and easy to find, right? Not heavy lifts. Next section. Friction. Is friction costing you gifts? So the checkout experience. Two numbers from the report that should make every nonprofit leader stop and double check your donation platform settings today, maybe right now. Pull up your phone. 79% of donors say unexpected fees may cause them to reconsider giving. Wow. Nearly 80, like basically 80%. 70% say a tip prompt may cause them to reconsider giving. So unexpected fees versus tip prompt, and these numbers are consistent across all age groups. A donor that is ready to give, regardless of age, can be stopped cold by a surprise at checkout. Now, the report makes an important distinction here. Fees and tip prompts are not the same problem. So therefore they don't have the same fix. Fees are an unavoidable cost of processing and donation, right? The problem isn't that they exist because they're going to. So if somebody is ready to give 100 and then they hit a checkout
page and it now says like $103 and 75 cents, and that wasn't clear, like they're not able to see that there was a check mark already previously chosen or something, and it just feels pre-selected, but wasn't obvious. That could feel like a bait and switch. Like, wait, what? So the fix is just transparency. So disclose fees, the checkbox, make it very visible. Check with your tech platforms to make sure it is so that it showcases it like kind of like final confirmation deck. So expected fees framed honestly. I think that will rarely stop a motivated donor because they get it. Tip prompts are a completely different problem. I think a tip prompt is a discretionary ask. Your fundraising platform is usually inserting into a donor's giving experience. So you should choose whether or not you want to have that on or off. So the donor just decided to give to your mission, right? And now they're being asked to fund something else entirely. In this report specifically, 70% say that that might make them reconsider. So double check yours if tipping is something that you have on right now. Check and see how it's set up there. Could you turn it off? Maybe even A-B test one form where it's on or you have it visible. And then maybe you take it off for a month and see if that makes a difference. But you have to do like the same amount of obviously like pushing people to the page to look at the web traffic to determine if there was a conversion rate difference. The fix is usually like I'm saying, turn off the prompt or make sure it defaults to zero. And that again takes seconds to change. So quick friction audit for yourself here. Run through your donation form, ask yourself does it ask for a tip or platform support? Does it feel like it's surprising donors with fees at the end? Or does it feel like it gave them the right preparation? Does it bury the give now button below the fold on mobile? Does it like require account creation before giving? I've seen really wonky things before. So just make sure that each step you think about is a friction point in this day and age. So, and that friction point is a gift that might walk away. So double check these things. Section six. I kind of love this one because I'm a millennial. So millennials aren't the donors of tomorrow. They're right now. And I want to spend some time here because I felt this was so compelling. Who are millennials right now? We are talking about people who are roughly 30 to 45 years old today. And this is not like a younger donor segment in the way that old framing used to imply, right? That it was like the 20-somethings. We are adults in the peak years of we are building careers and families. And yes, our philanthropic habits. The wealth transfer piece matters here. We are in the early stages of the largest intergenerational transfer of wealth in history. And millennials are highly likely the recipients. And some interesting data points here. 75% of millennials expect to give more this year than last. That's compared to 49% of Gen X and 36 of baby boomers. That's crazy, right? 80% of millennials plan to give to at least one new nonprofit this year. That's compared to 52% of Gen X and 30% of baby boomers. And 42%
have already given through a donor advised fund or other tax advantage vehicle. Far More than older generations. So we are not the biggest donors yet. Keyword yet. But we will be. And the habits and the loyalties that we are building right now are the ones that will determine this is facts. These are the ones that will determine your organization's donor file in 10 years, in a decade, right? Because then we will be 40 to 55. What? That's crazy. That's so true. And here's what I want you to think about. The headline about this isn't just how much millennials give, but how they decide to, right? Millennials care about the cause. That part hasn't changed. What is different is the cluster of clues that they're using to judge whether a nonprofit is worth their gift. Just kind of like how we think about buying things. They check reviews. They look for, is there a matching campaign? Is there personalized communications? What's the story? Is it a mobile-friendly giving experience? What does the brands look like? How does it make me look for posting about it? What are the channels that they're using for outreach? And more than any other group in this study, they're looking for a sense of a belonging to feel like they're part of something, not just a name on a thank you list. Again, millennials don't see giving as something they do, they see it as part of who they are. We are. I am. And that is fundamentally a different relationship with philanthropy. And it requires a different fundraising response, right? This is nothing to do with like a different mission. It's just sharper execution of it. And the report is very clear. Millennial donors are not a niche audience to just fold into like a younger donor's bracket. We are a growth engine and telling you exactly what we're listening for. So show them the cause, show them the proof, show them they belong, give them a reason to be recurring, to come back and support you all the time. So practically, what's your millennial donor strategy that is right, not just part of a general young person bucket? Track their acquisition, track their retention. How are they coming to you? What's keeping them there? It's a really interesting CRM exercise. What's their average gift, right, in your dashboard? Test copy that leads with belonging and visible impact. How are you making sure to prioritize mobile friendly experiences across email, social donation forms, follow-up? And one insight from the report that came up was stand up a small feedback panel of 10 to 20 recurring millennial donors and test your messaging with them before you roll it out widely. Like, do you have a millennial or two or three on your board? Do you have an advisory committee? Right. The generation most likely to give to someone new this year is also the one probably most willing to tell you why. Okay. So lastly, I'm gonna wrap up with the opportunity gap section of this report because it's extremely actionable. You are doing a whole lot of right right now. You're doing a ton right. Donors are feeling good, they feel valued, they trust you. Most of the gaps between what donors want and what nonprofits are delivering are not fundamental, like these are tactical, fixable things. So again, to go through the list that we just kind of talked about, here's the mismatches a bit, the channel gap, right? Donors say email, love, love, love some email by a wide, wide margin across every generation, but nonprofits reported leading with social. So how do we rebalance that? Not abandon social, but make sure email is emailing, email more, segmenting, customizing, making those emails good, good emails, like legit. Is this a good email? Individual stories, visible messaging, right? Which leads into the message gap. Donors say they're asking for three things alignment with the cause, clarity on where the funds go, and proof of impact. So lead nonprofits are tending to lead with mission, the need, community, and those messages still resonate, but they're not enough on
their own. So donors want the legit like what's next spelled out alongside the why. Show them the issue, tell them what the gift does, prove that it worked in that order. The friction gap. 44% of nonprofits are still asking donors to tip at checkout, and 70% say that they may cause them to reconsider. That is a very clear, fixable mismatch legitimately today. The millennial gap. We are the donors most likely to give more and to give to someone new, and are the ones whose preferences are being at least consistently met, probably right. Reviews, ratings, matching, personalization, channel fit. Most nonprofit strategies don't reflect these preferences. And this might just be taking an audit day and looking at this. Okay. So let me wrap this all up, bring us home. The 2026 Giving Signals report from Bloomering is wonderful research. Again, not because it tells you everything is fine and dandy and you don't need to do anything. Maybe you don't. Maybe you're like, I do all these things great. And if that's you, congratulations. That's uh incredible. But it tells you specifically what these donors are asking for, very specifically where the gaps are and what many organizations are currently delivering. And I think it's about generosity becoming more intentional, right? Donors still give, they trust you. They're just telling you what helps them move from caring to giving relevance, transparency, belonging, convenience, confidence. They're just asking for maybe a little bit sharper execution. So I invite you to dive into this report. I give you some cliff notes, get your own copy of the full Giving Signals report, including their specific action steps for each finding. It's fabulous. I will drop the link in the show notes. It's quick, it's not heavy. They presented it in a beautifully designed way. So it's genuinely worth reading end to end. Thank you to Bloom Rang for sponsoring this episode, for putting out research that helps fundraisers and all of us do better work. So I will be back next week. And until then, I can't wait to hear about how your mission is turning into a movement.
SPEAKER_00Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode of Missions to Movement. If you enjoyed our conversation and found it helpful, I would love for you to take a moment to leave a review for every listening. Your feedback helps us reach more change makers like you and continue bringing impactful stories and strategies to the show. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button too so you'll never miss an episode. And until next time, keep turning your mission into a movie.