When the spaces that once shaped generosity begin to empty, nonprofits must step in to create the “third spaces” where giving takes root.
The Illusion of Stability: Fewer Donors, Bigger Gifts
Recent data shared in an Avid webinar reinforces trends Streetlight Digital has been watching for a while: fewer donors are giving, and those that remain are giving more. As broad-based participation declines, nonprofits have become increasingly dependent on mid-level and major donors. While this reliance has helped nonprofits maintain year-over-year revenue growth, Avid asserted that this bubble will eventually pop, citing declining retention rates among mid-level and major donors, as well as steeply declining upgrade rates among this donor group.
The Missing Context: Declining Donor Formation
Streetlight sees these patterns, too, and while there are hopeful signals of growth (an uptick in new donor acquisition, for example), we can’t help but dig deeper. Are there underlying cultural shifts we need to pay attention to beyond channel trends and economic pressures? To really understand what is happening, we need to understand how donors are formed in the first place.
Historically, one of the most powerful engines of donor formation in the U.S. has been religious participation.
Data from Gallup shows that:
Church membership declined from ~70% in 1999 to 45% in 2023
Weekly or near-weekly attendance has dropped from ~40% in the early 2000s to closer to ~30% in recent years
At the same time, household charitable giving has steadily declined:
2000: 66%
2008: 61%
2010: 53%
2016: 51%
2020: 47%
This is not a coincidence. For decades, churches functioned as more than places of worship. They provided habit-forming systems, such as weekly tithing, to cultivate giving norms. Churches and other religious institutions provided consistent fundraising channels and early donor education environments.
In short, they produced routine, habitual donors at scale. As attendance declines, that system is eroding. Fewer people are being asked to give regularly, socialized into generosity, or included in communities where giving is normalized.
The impact may not show up all at once, but it may already be reflected in the data. Declining retention and falling upgrade rates among mid-level and major donors suggest a weakening foundation. And while an increase in new donors has boosted the pipeline, their long-term value remains uncertain if they haven’t been formed through consistent, habit-forming systems of giving.
A New Burden for Nonprofits, but Not Insurmountable
Nonprofits are now left with a new responsibility to actively shape donor behavior, as institutions like churches once did organically.
As religious identification declines, so too does one of the most consistent systems for forming habitual donors. At the same time, while online giving is often eclipsing offline channels in transaction volume, Streetlight’s position remains clear: offline engagement is not obsolete; it remains foundational, especially when shaping donor behavior.
The opportunity for nonprofits is not to replicate religious institutions, but to recreate the conditions that foster consistent generosity.
Rebuilding Belonging: Community as a Driver of Generosity
One of the most effective ways to do this is by cultivating a strong, community-driven identity. The most successful organizations today are building a sense of belonging among their supporters. In many ways, this mirrors what religious communities have long provided: a shared mission, a sense of connection, and a cultural expectation of generosity.
Offline touchpoints play a critical role here. Peer-to-peer events, especially those that are family-friendly, do more than drive revenue; they model philanthropic behavior. They introduce the next generation to giving, reinforce social norms, and weave nonprofits into the fabric of participants’ lives. Even if the final transaction happens online, these experiences are often what make the gift possible in the first place.
Creating Rituals: Turning Giving into Habit
A second opportunity lies in creating rituals of giving. Recurring donation programs and milestone-based campaigns provide structure and predictability, two elements essential for habit formation. Over time, these programs can normalize giving behavior, shifting it from a reactive decision to an integrated routine.
Contactability Over Attribution: Rethinking Measurement in a Multi-Channel World
Finally, nonprofits must prioritize consistent contactability across channels. Today’s donor journey is rarely linear, and channel attribution is increasingly difficult to measure with precision. Rather than over-indexing on where a gift occurs, organizations should focus on ensuring they are present across multiple touchpoints, such as direct mail, events, email, SMS, and digital platforms.
While this approach may look very different from the traditional act of passing a collection basket, the underlying principle remains the same. Providing repeated, accessible opportunities to give can reinforce behavior over time. In a fragmented, digital-first environment, it is the combination of these touchpoints that ultimately converts into a gift and, more importantly, reinforces the behaviors that lead to long-term donor loyalty. The organizations that succeed will be those that don’t just capture donations, but intentionally cultivate donors and actively shape the norms and habits that sustain long-term giving.
Sources
Gallup. How Religious Are Americans? Church membership and attendance trends, 2023. https://news.gallup.com/poll/358364/religious-americans.aspx
Lake Institute on Faith & Giving. Giving USA 2025: Trends in Religious Giving. July 15, 2025. https://lakeinstitute.org/resource-library/insights/july-15-2025/
University of Michigan Philanthropy Panel Study / Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. U.S. Household Charitable Giving Trends, 2000–2016 (PPS data). https://inequality.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Gilded-Giving-2020-July28-2020.pdf
Avid. Nonprofit Giving Trends Webinar, 2026.
