New ways for fundraising ...

... the cover story of FUNDStücke, the member magazine of the German Fundraising Association, deals with this topic and the future of the donor market. Interview: Jan Borcherding, Head of Bonsai Public, and Lena Laaser from the donation livestream Friendly Fire.

The background: The results of the German Donation Monitor 2023 have shaken up the fundraising sector: an eight percent drop in donations and a 48 percent drop in the proportion of donors.

However, Jan Borcherding, who accompanies the donation monitor for Bonsai , reassures us in the magazine article: "I don't see this as critical yet: in the previous offline survey (until 2021), the donation rate was around 40 percent, and during special donation events such as the tsunami in Asia or the Oder flood, it sometimes rose to 50 percent and then slowly fell back to the 'normal level'. We also had a special situation in 2022: the Russian attack on Ukraine led to an unprecedented willingness to help." Falling donor numbers were therefore to be expected for 2023.

The overall social reception of the multiple crises also plays a role in donation behavior. "We see, for example, in Deutsche Bank's Living Standards Index study, that there is a retreat into the private sphere," confirms Jan Borcherding in the magazine of the German Fundraising Association: "Most people in Germany say that they are actually doing quite well themselves at the moment, giving themselves an average of two minus, depending on their income." In view of the crises, many people "prefer to secure their own prosperity first" instead of donating. The result:

"The fundraising strategy must change. There will have to be much stronger one-off approaches that generate and activate interest. Organizations need to find out as much as possible about their target groups and at the same time keep coming up with new messages and new methods to reach and activate people."

The figures of the month from the German Donation Monitor, which FUNDStücke highlights in another article, fit in with this. The topic in this issue: social media. Particularly interesting for fundraisers: "Professionally used networks offer a great opportunity: 59% of users donate (compared to 49% of the population as a whole), and at an above-average rate."