Virtuous Benchmark Report Signals Shift Toward Deeper Donor Relationships in U.S. Nonprofit Fundraising

New updates have been reported about Virtuous.

Virtuous has released its 2026 Nonprofit Fundraising Benchmark Report, positioning the company at the center of how mid-sized and large U.S. nonprofits understand giving trends and recalibrate fundraising strategy. Drawing on data from 771 organizations across key verticals, the AI-powered fundraising platform reports that sector growth is increasingly driven by higher donor lifetime value, larger median gifts, and more frequent giving from existing supporters rather than expanding the donor base.

For Virtuous and its clients, the report underscores a structural shift: donor lifetime value rose nearly 18%, median gifts climbed about 20%, and recurring giving now accounts for roughly 21% of sector revenue, even as first-to-second gift conversion remains weak at about 25.8%. CEO Gabe Cooper said top-performing organizations are focusing on trust-based, personalized engagement, with leading nonprofits retaining nearly 7 in 10 donors and achieving average gift frequencies above six gifts per donor annually, and Virtuous is embedding these insights into its CRM, automation, and analytics tools to help customers benchmark performance, optimize portfolios, and lean into deeper, data-driven donor relationships that could support long-term platform adoption and revenue growth for the company.