The preferences and attitudes of people who donate to animal causes are explored in Faunalytics’ reanalysis of data provided by the Blackbaud Institute and Edge Research.

Background

According to a recent report on philanthropy in the U.S., charitable giving has increased substantially over previous years. In spite of this upward trend, donations to charitable organizations representing animals and the environment (combined) make up just 3% of all donations.

The purpose of the current report is to provide animal advocates with useful information about people who donate to animal causes, and guide decisions about how, where, and from whom to solicit donations.

Methodology

The data for these analyses were collected and provided by Edge Research for a study commissioned by Blackbaud. We are grateful to the Blackbaud Institute, the company’s research arm, which drives insights to accelerate the impact of the social good community, for allowing us to conduct these additional analyses.

Key Findings

Some of the most noteworthy findings from the report include:

Most U.S. donors do not donate to animal causes: Approximately three-quarters of donors in the U.S. have not donated to animal causes in the past 12 months. This means that there is a lot of scope for ‘converting’ donors to animal causes. Organizations supporting non-companion animals receive a very small proportion of donations: When asked to name the one NPO or charity that is most important to them personally, only 24% of animal-cause donors named an animal-related organization at all. Of the animal-related organizations named, the vast majority focus on companion animal shelter and protection. Animal-cause donors use a wide variety of methods to donate: Animal-cause donors are more responsive than average to a wide variety of methods for soliciting donations, particularly donations at store check-outs and donations in memoriam. Relatedly, although animal-cause donors give the same amount of money annually as all-cause donors, they tend to donate smaller amounts of money to a larger number of organizations. Animal-cause donors care about organizational efficiency: Animal-cause donors are above average in their concern about the ‘overhead’ costs of the charities they donate to. (Note that this survey did not consider efficiency in the sense of number of animals helped.)

Animal-cause donors don’t mind direct appeals from the organizations they support: Close to half of all-cause donors say they are more likely to donate to a cause when they are approached by family or friends versus the organization itself. However, only about a third of animal-cause donors agreed with this statement. For animal advocacy organizations, this finding supports the effectiveness of direct appeals for donations.

What Else is Included in the Report

The following is the list of tables and figures from the report. Results on all these topics and more are included in the PDF report, which is available to anyone for download.

Table 1. Demographic Characteristics of Sample

Figure 1. U.S. Donors Who Have Given to Animal Causes in the Past Year

Table 2. Other Causes Donated to in the Past 12 Months

Figure 2. Number of NPOs/Charities Donated to in the Past 12 Months

Table 3. Total Amount Donated and Largest Donation

Table 4. Amount Donated by Cause

Figure 3. Hypothetical Donations to Animal Causes Among Previous Donors

Table 5. Non-Monetary Support in the Past 12 Months

Table 6. Support Perceived to Make the Biggest Difference

Table 7. Current Involvement with NPOs/Charities

Table 8. Donation Methods Used in the Past Two Years

Table 9. Donation Via Crowdfunding

Table 10. Giving Habits and Attitudes

Figure 4. Hispanic Respondents’ Preferred Language of Communication

Table 11. Online Activities Engaged in on a Regular Basis

Table 12. Regular Users of Each Online Service

Faunalytics and Blackbaud hope that this study summary and complete report help your organization navigate the sometimes-complicated and overwhelming world of donor outreach, to help make a difference for animals everywhere.