Trust Fundraising Success Rates

I have the conversation about trust fundraising success rates (aka how many applications you have to send in order to secure a gift) frequently.

Many leaders are surprised at the number of applications it takes to be successful.  Whilst trust fundraising remains cost effective, it’s been increasingly competitive over the past few years. 

Charities have never been more in demand, following years of austerity, a reduction in local authority budgets, the Covid-19 pandemic, a ridiculous mini-budget in the autumn of 2022 which sent markets spinning out and mortgage payments through the roof and a cost of living crisis which shows no sign of abating.

Great.

Although not what charity CEO’s want to hear, knowing that success rates from trusts and foundations are lower than one might hope, reinforces the importance of best practice including:

• Research to properly qualify your prospects
• Quality of applications over quantity
• Regular, focused attention on trust fundraising
• Commitment to relationship building and stewardship.

As part of our benchmarking studies (you can download the 2021 report here), we gathered additional data on individual fundraisers’ experiences of their success rates.

Back in 2019

The average trust fundraising success rate was 1 in 7 applications (30 respondents)

Colleagues reported trust fundraising success rates as low as 1 in 12 for cold approaches rising to 1 in 3 for warmer, more established relationships.

What about two years later?

Of the 26 charities who replied to the relevant question:

The average trust fundraising success rate was 2 in 5 applications (40%)

However of the respondents:

• 57% were from charities with an annual turnover of £1m or more
• 76% had employed a professional fundraiser for at least three years (many of these had fundraisers for at least 10 years)
• 2/3 respondents to our 2021 survey were eligible for emergency Covid-19 funding

Health warning – there was a huge variance across the board in the trust fundraising success rates reported, everything from a 100% hit rate (woah!) to five charities succeeding with fewer than 1 in 10 applications.

The average number of applications sent across a 3-month period for all respondents was 30.

Four of the five charities with a low hit rate sent significantly fewer than this.

So, we can very tentatively assume that:

• Trust fundraising is a numbers game – the more applications you send, the more successful you’ll be (PLEASE don’t abandon quality though…)
• Trust fundraising success rates will likely be higher for larger charities (maybe because of track record / brand awareness?)
• That trust fundraising success rates will get higher the longer you commit – it’s a long game