While online revenues jumped 14 percent during 2008, the recession eventually caught up with Internet donations, causing growth to slow to 3 percent in the last quarter of the year, a new report says.
Overall, last year was a good one, showing growth in online fundraising, email files and website traffic, says the Convio Benchmark Study, which includes data from almost 600 of Convio's nonprofit clients.
The strong performance comes at a time when many traditional fundraising channels stagnated or contracted.
The number of online gifts grew an average of 14 percent, while average monthly website traffic grew 20 percent during 2008 and the number of email addresses on file surged 28 percent.
Large charities fared best, with revenue growth of about seven times the industry average.
But as the economic deterioration sped up in the fourth quarter of last year, online fundraising slowed.
While online revenues saw double-digit growth during 2008, the last three months of the year saw growth of only 3 percent, the study says.
During all of 2008, Convio processed $777 million in online donations and sent 3.1 billion emails on behalf of its clients.
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