We are living in the future of digital fundraising. Innovations like artificial intelligence (AI) are transforming how we as nonprofits operate and how we connect with our audience. It can feel hard to keep up! But to keep donors engaged and revenue growing, it’s a wave we must ride. 

And it’s a wave we love to ride at Doing Good Digital! Technology for nonprofits helps advance digital fundraising and online giving by allowing organizations to reach donors in more personalized, efficient, and scalable ways. It helps optimize campaigns, streamline the donation process, and ultimately advance missions and make the world a better place. 

That’s not to say it’s an easy feat. We all want lasting, strong connections with donors. But when there is always a new tech to figure out, it can be tricky. Rest assured — we’ve compiled three relatively simple trends in digital fundraising to watch for 2025. 

1. Recurring donations. Consider all the subscriptions folks use: streaming services, custom delivery boxes, and even household essentials. Apply that philosophy to giving, and you have sustaining, monthly donors. 
   
   According to the latest nonprofit numbers, 31% of all online revenue was from monthly donors. Moreover, monthly giving increased by 6%, while one-time online giving decreased by 5%. We expect the trend of recurring gifts to continue to increase, especially with more Millennial and Gen Z donors. Cultivating monthly donors can be a tremendous opportunity to grow a community and generate sustainable revenue for your organization. 
   
   
2. Gamification. Let’s have some fun! We continue to see more creativity in donor engagement and a great response to more interactive elements. Gamifing online giving has expanded from crowdfunding and peer-to-peer campaigns, including leaderboards, achievement badges, SWAG item giveaways, and donation-based challenges. 
   
   Thanks to software like Blackbaud, gamification options and capabilities can be relatively simple to incorporate into your digital fundraising strategy. By adding fun game-like elements to your campaign, you can tap into people’s natural will to achieve, driving participation and retention. It also fosters a sense of accomplishment and togetherness, making donors feel more connected to the cause and each other, essential aspects of successful donor acquisition and retention. 
   
   
3. Automation. Learning new technologies for nonprofits can take time, but in the end, these tools are designed to give you more time than you could have imagined. Capabilities like automation, particularly email automation, allow you to do outreach and engagement far beyond what would be possible without it.
   
   There are so many ways to incorporate automation into your email strategy. For instance, our friends at the Roper St. Francis Foundation wanted to connect more effectively with their supporters and enhance the impact of their outreach. We decided implementing an automated abandoned cart campaign would be an effective strategy to re-engage potential donors who had begun the donation process but did not complete it. It was incredibly effective, attributing 36% of the gifts generated from the campaign to the automated follow-up emails. This would have otherwise been missed revenue or a massive effort without automation. 

As we move into 2025, trends like recurring donations, gamification, and automation are reshaping the digital fundraising landscape. And they’re here to stay! By embracing these strategies, nonprofits can boost donor engagement and maximize impact in an effective and worthwhile way. 

Whether you’re looking to build reliable ongoing support, put the “fun” in fundraising, or save time through automated email campaigns, a digital agency partner can make all the difference.

By Monica Schmidt