Navigating 2025 Advancement Trends: Dollars are up, donors are down

As the Head of Partner Success at GiveCampus, I spend a lot of time listening to advancement leaders and uncovering the pain points fundraisers are facing. At GCPC 2025, I presented a session alongside my colleague, Casey Fish, that unpacked the key trends shaping advancement strategy and execution today—drawing on industry data, insights from across the GiveCampus partner community, and real-world examples from institutions across the country.

I’m excited to bring this popular session to a wider audience in this four-part blog series. In each post, I’ll break down one of those trends, explore what it means for your institution, and share actionable strategies to help you navigate it with confidence.

To kick things off, let’s start with a challenge you and your team are likely all too familiar with: Dollars are up, donors are down.

Unpacking the Trend: Dollars are up, donors are down

Fundamentally, people are more likely to give when they feel financially secure. In 2024, a strong economy, rising consumer confidence, a solid stock market, and easing inflation all helped create an environment in which people were more likely to give. 

According to Giving USA 2025: The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2024, charitable giving in the U.S. hit a record $592.5 billion last year—up over 6 percent, and for the first time in three years, it outpaced inflation. Donations specifically to education were over $83 billion, an all-time high and a 13 percent increase from educational philanthropy dollars raised in 2023. 

Even with giving totals up, the number of donors continues to shrink. In 2024, donor counts dropped another 4.5 percent—the fourth year in a row we’ve seen a decline. So, more dollars are coming from fewer people, with high-dollar donors shouldering an ever larger share. It’s getting harder to get new donors and to keep existing ones. 

Who’s Giving and Who’s Not

Micro donors—those giving $1–$100—still make up more than half of all donors, but their numbers dropped nearly 9 percent last year—and that group alone accounted for about 75 percent of the total decline in donors. Meanwhile, major and supersize donors increased. Again, this means overall dollars are still growing, but they’re coming from a smaller group of people at the top of the pyramid. 

This trend isn’t new—but it’s accelerating. The Pareto Principle—the idea that 80 percent of outcomes come from 20 percent of inputs—has long been applied to fundraising. Today, we’re edging closer to 90/10, or even 95/5. That kind of concentration creates real risk: fewer donors today means fewer leadership donors tomorrow.

The solution? Prioritize retention and reactivation—especially of smaller donors. Strategies like recurring giving, frictionless donation experiences, and personalized engagement can help rebuild that base and ensure a steady pipeline of future leadership donors.

Navigating the Trend: Dollars Up, Donors Down

1. Ramp up your recurring giving program

Retention is everything—especially now. When donors are down, it’s essential that you retain the ones you have. Building a strong recurring giving program is one of the smartest ways to hang on to donors. Recurring gifts don’t just help you raise more money—they foster the type of long-term relationships donors are craving. But that only happens if institutions  engage, steward, and upgrade recurring donors over time.

Many schools are already seeing the payoff from investing in this strategy. Below are two standout examples from our Partners. 

Kentucky Country Day School added a recurring gift incentive during their annual Giving Day, promoting the long-term impact of sustained giving. The result? Thirty new recurring gift commitments.

The Groton School streamlined its approach by defaulting loyal donors to a recurring form during fiscal year-end appeals—securing 31 new recurring gifts this FYE. 

These examples show how even small adjustments to how you position and promote recurring giving can have an outsized impact—helping institutions lock in steady revenue today while building a more resilient donor pipeline for tomorrow.

2. Lean in and elevate online giving

Online giving is one of the few channels where both donors and dollars are growing—so lean in and optimize the experience. This isn’t just about technology—it’s about meeting expectations. Thanks to Amazon, Apple, and Uber, people expect fast, intuitive, low-friction digital experiences.

When a donor lands on your giving page, they’re not comparing it to another school—they’re comparing it to their favorite apps. And guess what those apps are doing—they are personalizing the experience to each person with more targeted algorithms every day. If it’s slow or confusing, they’ll bounce. If it’s clean, personalized, and mobile-friendly, they’ll give.

One great example of this comes from Johns Hopkins University, which recently tested a direct mail campaign designed to seamlessly connect offline outreach with online giving. Each mail piece included a QR code that directed donors to a personalized giving form—pre-filled with the last designation they supported and suggested gift amounts tailored to their giving history. The result? A smarter, more frictionless experience. In fact, data from GiveCampus Partners revealed personalized giving forms like these can convert at up to twice the rate of generic forms.

3. Level-up your crowdfunding efforts

Crowdfunding creates more entry points for donors by connecting them with the causes they care about. While unrestricted giving is essential, targeted opportunities can inspire lapsed and first-time donors to step up. 

Tulane University offers a strong use case. Its Wavestarter crowdfunding program highlights a wide range of initiatives—from the campus food pantry and student radio station to environmental law projects, ultimate frisbee, and even support for campus service dogs. This breadth ensures there’s something for nearly every donor to connect with, bringing in new supporters while deepening engagement with existing donors.

Wrapping Up Trend #1: Dollars Are Up, Donors Are Down

The reality is that while giving totals are climbing, the donor pool is shrinking—and that creates real long-term risk for advancement. Institutions that want to sustain and grow their impact need to double down on retention, reactivation, and donor experience. 

Whether through recurring giving programs, more seamless online donor journeys, or expanded crowdfunding opportunities, the goal is the same: broaden the base and strengthen the pipeline of future leadership donors.

But keeping donors engaged isn’t just about how easy you make it to give—it’s also about how you communicate. Which brings us to the next trend we’ll explore: Inbox Exhaustion Is Real. In Part 2 of this series, I’ll dive into how email overload and digital fatigue are shaping donor behavior, and what you can do to stand out in a crowded inbox.

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