Fundraising Trends to Watch in 2015

The dust is settling after the holidays, nonprofits are busy wrapping up their year-end campaigns, and the industry is looking forward to the year to come. We came up with three fundraising trends to watch this year — what would you add to this list?

Fundraising Trends to Watch in 2015

1. Increased Emphasis on Mobile Technology

Mobile traffic already accounts for a huge portion of total internet traffic, and that trend isn’t changing in 2015. More and more nonprofits are getting on board with mobile-friendly communications — mobile-optimized websites, mobile-friendly emails and newsletters, and easy payment options for smartphone users will all become more common. If you haven’t gotten on the mobile-friendly train, now’s the time.

Learn more here!

2. More Community Giving Days

Most fundraisers are familiar with #GivingTuesday and other major giving days, but they’ll become more common in 2015. Keep an eye out for community giving days for different states, regions, and even cities. University and cause-based giving days will likely become more common, too, as fundraisers realize the earning potential of large, community-wide giving events.

3. Growing Popularity of Causewear and eCommerce

Donors, particularly those in the millennial generation, are paying lots of attention to “causewear.” Causewear is anything that they can buy and wear (or use) to support the causes about which they’re passionate — think t-shirts, bracelets, hats, and more. Causewear is poised to get more and more popular in 2015. This also includes merchandise from nonprofits like fashionABLE, Sseko Designs, and other social enterprise organizations. Causewear’s rising popularity could throw some tricky obstacles in the paths of interested nonprofits (hello, PCI Compliance standards!), so this is one trend we’re watching closely.

These trends are just a few that we predict will affect the nonprofit industry in the coming year. What to YOU think?