Increasing Recommended Donation Values

At our latest Fundraising Fitness User Group, we tackled an increasingly important topic across the sector: Average Gift Values and how we approach recommended donation amounts.

With cost-of-living pressures, rising transaction fees, and donor behaviour evolving, we asked our user group:

Should you be asking supporters for more?

And if so, how do you tackle this?

💬 Here's what we heard from our community:

"We don't want to put people off."

"We're afraid donors will feel their small donation isn't enough and won't give at all."

"If someone can only give £10, we don't want to turn them away."

There's a clear sense of caution - and rightly so. Charities deeply respect their donors' generosity, especially in tough times.

But a powerful reminder reframed the conversation:

"It's not demanding. It's just recommending."

💸 Is a £10 donation worth it?

Absolutely. Every pound counts.

But we also need to ask: How much of that £10 actually makes it to the cause?

Between processing fees, platform charges, and operational costs, that £10 can quickly shrink. We shared our research that from an average gift of £12.16, only £7.40 reached the cause once operational and processing costs were accounted for (a 40% value decline rate). And that's before you factor in any stewardship resources.

In a landscape where mass-volume low-value gifts are increasing, reviewing your transaction fees, platforms, and ROI calculations is becoming increasingly essential.

One of our users stated:

"It is a concern. We calculate the ROI, but your point is interesting. What I don't know is whether the ROI calculation we get includes what you've just discussed, what's already been taken before we get the funds. So I'm going to ask that question."

🧠 Smarter Strategies for Higher Asks

While there's caution around asking for more, several charities shared success stories where a thoughtful, targeted approach led to strong results:

"It's our 35th anniversary this year, so we've recently sent a direct mail where we asked for £35 for the anniversary. That was quite different for our Hospice. It felt quite a large ask and we were a bit cautious about it. But actually we've had some really positive results - the actual average gift on that campaign was £57 when we asked for £35. And over the last 10 years with our other direct mails, the average gift has always been £35."

"Asking for them to increase their gift value, we know that it can be risky. We know it might get cancellations, but, we've never done it before into very small, targeted campaigns. It makes sense to try and increase it."

"We always tie the recommended ask to the appeal's key message. Context softens the blow and helps justify the higher amount. So if you do raise things but you put it so, it makes sense to people. It's not just we want more money off of you, it's in context of something very specific. That's what I think worked quite well for us."

"We've been looking at the FFTs very useful slider for projected income and forecasting, and it's really interesting to see how if you just increase that average value of gifts slightly, what a huge impact that can make. And it's got everyone's attention here."

Others highlighted the importance of audience segmentation and message testing, especially when testing higher asks or converting one-off donors to regular givers.

🔍 Questions to Ask Yourself:

• Have your recommended asks changed to reflect today's costs and donor expectations?
• Are you transparently showing what a gift will do?
• Are you tailoring your ask amounts by audience, campaign, and channel?
• Do you know what's actually hitting your bank account after fees, and what drop in ROI external fees have?
• Have you tested higher amounts on a small segment to assess impact?

Average gift value is more than just a number. It's the result of dozens of micro-decisions across UX, messaging, segmentation, and stewardship.

If we want to grow giving sustainably, we have to be smarter about how we ask and more confident in the value we're offering in return.

Let's keep the conversation going.