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This episode is presented by Bloomerang, the trusted, all-in-one giving platform that connects your data, streamlines your systems, and helps your mission go further. Learn more here.

What 1,000 Donors Are Telling You: Key Takeaways from 2026 Giving Signals Report by Bloomerang

Donors are still giving. They trust nonprofits. And they are telling you, clearly and specifically, what helps them move from caring about a cause to actually clicking donate. The 2026 Giving Signals Report from Bloomerang, conducted in partnership with the Harris Poll, is one of the more useful pieces of fundraising research to come out this year.

The methodology matters. Bloomerang surveyed roughly 1,000 U.S. adults who donated to a charity or nonprofit in the past 12 months. These are active donors, not the general public. They also surveyed 405 nonprofit professionals with fundraising decision-making responsibilities. Seeing both perspectives in the same study makes the data more useful than most sector surveys.

One caveat on Gen Z: respondents ages 18 to 29 were less than half as likely as other generations to report donating in the past year, so the Gen Z sample size landed at only 41 people. Those findings are directional only and do not reach statistical significance.

What follows is a breakdown of what the report found and what it means for your fundraising in the second half of 2026.

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Donors Give From Purpose, Not Just Financial Capacity

97% of active donors say caring about their community motivates them to give. 96% cite wanting to make a difference. 92% say giving is part of who they are.

Financial capacity, meaning having money to give, ranked last. Only 68% named it as a motivator.

A significant portion of nonprofit fundraising communication is built around economic anxiety: donors are stretched, budgets are tight, disposable income is down. Those things are real. But this data shows that financial capacity is rarely what holds a motivated donor back. What drives giving is a sense of purpose and identity.

This shifts how donor copy should be written. An ask that speaks to who someone is tends to land differently than one focused on what they have. The same is true for thank-you messages. Acknowledging a $50 transaction is not the same as affirming that the person who gave it shows up for their community. One is a receipt. The other reinforces an identity. Most donor communications default to the receipt.

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Specific Giving Language Converts at a Much Higher Rate

94% of donors are motivated when an organization tells them exactly where their money will go. 90% are motivated when they are shown the impact of their donation.

The report pairs these numbers with a before-and-after example. The before: Your gift today helps us continue our vital work serving families in need throughout the community. Every dollar makes a difference. The 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?

Donors preferred the second version 94% to 6%.

The first version makes a case for the organization. The second version tells the donor what their specific dollars do. Those are different asks, and donors respond to them very differently.

This does not mean every gift needs to be restricted or that you need to itemize every dollar. It means giving donors a concrete picture. If your donation page, email appeals, or landing pages open with broad mission language and bury outcomes further down, that is where motivated donors lose momentum. Lead with the outcome. Put it above the fold. Make it specific enough that someone can picture it.

Belonging connects directly to this. 87% of donors say they are motivated when an organization makes them feel like part of something rather than just a donor. For millennials considering a first gift, belonging ranked in the top three motivators. That means belonging is an acquisition driver, not just a retention strategy. When someone gives for the first time, they should be welcomed into the story, not just sent a confirmation email.

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Donors Prefer Email, But Most Nonprofits Lead With Social

69% of donors say email is their preferred fundraising communication channel. It ranked first across every generation surveyed, including millennials.

The gap in this finding is that nonprofits in the same study reported leading with social media. Social is not the wrong channel. But it is not the channel donors are asking organizations to lead with, and that mismatch is worth addressing.

Channel preferences do differ by generation beyond email. Direct mail remained important for baby boomers, with more than half preferring it. Social was more relevant for millennials. Text messaging showed broader appeal than many organizations expect, largely because of how much communication happens on phones across all age groups.

The practical move is to review your channel mix against who your actual donors are. Email more, and make those emails worth opening. A segmented, personalized email written for a specific donor segment consistently outperforms the same content copied across every platform. If you are running identical content across email, social, and a print newsletter without adjusting the format or tone, you are treating different audiences as one, and losing something in the process.

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Donor Trust Is Strong, and Transparency Keeps It That Way

95% of active donors trust that the nonprofits they give to use funds effectively. Across specific stewardship behaviors, including making giving easy, respecting communication preferences, thanking donors, and making donors feel valued, agreement rates range from 93% to 98%.

Among active donors, trust is not eroding. It is consistent and high. That is worth saying plainly, given how many sector headlines suggest otherwise.

Trust is the baseline. Proof is what deepens it. The report asked donors what most clearly signals that a nonprofit is effective, and the top answers were concrete. 69% selected clear reporting on finances and programs. 58% selected impact data and statistics. 48% selected beneficiary stories or testimonials.

Donors want both evidence and meaning. Numbers show scale. Stories show what those numbers mean for a specific person. A quarterly impact update that pairs a clean financial summary with one strong beneficiary story covers both. It does not need to be a full annual report. A short video from someone your organization served, a plain-language summary near your donation form, or a single-page impact snapshot that is easy to find and actually informative will do the job.

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Hidden Checkout Friction Is Losing You Gifts

79% of donors say unexpected fees may cause them to reconsider giving. 70% say a tip prompt may cause them to reconsider. Both figures hold across all age groups. A donor who is ready to give, regardless of generation, can stop at a surprise on the checkout page.

Processing fees and tip prompts are different problems. Fees are unavoidable. A donor who understands they are covering a small processing cost will generally still give. The issue is when that cost appears without warning. A donor who enters $100 and sees $103.75 at checkout with no prior explanation is likely to feel misled. The fix is disclosure: show the fee clearly, make the checkbox visible, and confirm the total before submission.

Tip prompts are a different issue. These are typically inserted by the fundraising platform itself, asking donors to fund the platform on top of their gift to your mission. The donor already decided to give. Now they are being asked to give to something else entirely. Check your platform settings. Many allow you to turn the tip prompt off or default it to zero. That change takes minutes.

A useful audit: run through your own donation form as a first-time donor. Does it ask for a tip or platform support? Does it show fees for the first time at the final screen? Does the donate button appear below the fold on mobile? Does it require account creation before giving? Each of those is a place where a willing donor can walk away.

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Millennial Donors Are a Current Priority, Not a Future One

Millennials, currently ages 30 to 45, are still treated in many nonprofit strategies as a future donor segment. The data in this report does not support that approach.

75% of millennials expect to give more this year than last, compared to 49% of Gen X and 36% of baby boomers. 80% plan to give to at least one new nonprofit this year, compared to 52% of Gen X and 30% of baby boomers. 42% have already given through a donor-advised fund or other tax-advantaged vehicle, at a higher rate than older generations.

Millennials are not the largest donors by total dollars yet. But the giving habits and loyalties being built right now will determine what your donor file looks like in 10 years. A millennial who gives for the first time at 35 and stays engaged is a very different long-term asset than a donor acquired at 55.

What millennials look for when evaluating whether to give is specific. They check for reviews, look for matching campaigns, respond to personalized communication, and care about mobile-friendly giving experiences. More than any other group in this study, they want a sense of belonging. They want to feel like they are joining something, not completing a form.

If your fundraising strategy groups millennials into a general younger-donors category, it is worth building something more specific. Track how millennials are coming to your organization and what is keeping them. Test copy that leads with belonging and visible impact. Audit your mobile giving experience across email, social, and donation forms. The generation most likely to give to a new nonprofit this year is also the one most likely to tell you why they chose you.

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The Gaps Are Fixable, and Most Can Be Addressed Today

The 2026 Giving Signals Report does not describe a sector in crisis. Donors are engaged. They trust the organizations they give to. They are also telling you, with some precision, what is getting in the way of giving more.

Lead with specific outcomes rather than mission statements. Email your donors more often and with more intention. Audit your donation form for fees and friction. Build a millennial donor strategy that is separate from a general younger-donors approach. Pair impact data with real stories in your stewardship communications.

Most of those changes do not require a major budget or a full strategy overhaul. They require honest attention to the details that either earn or lose a gift.

The full 2026 Giving Signals Report from Bloomerang, including action steps for each finding, is available at bloomerang.com. It is a quick read and worth going through in full.

Resources & Links

This episode is presented by Bloomerang, the trusted, all-in-one giving platform that connects your data, streamlines your systems, and helps your mission go further. Learn more here.

See how one team surpassed a $1M match and raised $2.25M for their mission with Penny, Bloomerang’s AI-powered fundraising strategist. Learn more at bloomerang.com.

The Monthly Giving Builder is the only interactive tool that generates your entire monthly giving program with you, starting at $49.99/month.

My book, The Monthly Giving Mastermind, is here! Grab a copy here and learn my framework to build, grow, and sustain subscriptions for good.

Not sure where to start in building your program? Start with this $5 audit to know where your gap is. Takes 5-10 minutes max, and you’ll know where to start –> Monthly Giving Interactive Audit 

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dana Snyder
Dana Snyder is the founder of Positive Equation, creator of the Monthly Giving Builder, a sought-after keynote speaker and workshop facilitator, and the author of The Monthly Giving Mastermind: A Framework to Build, Grow & Sustain Subscriptions for Good. She is also the host of the global nonprofit podcast Missions to Movements, and host of the Monthly Giving Summit, a worldwide event for nonprofit professionals focused on building stronger recurring revenue programs.