Our latest ABA Executive Benchmark explored fundraising revenues generated and expenses HR policies at arts and cultural organizations.
Highlights from the survey include:
In comparison to the last pre-pandemic year, 50% of respondents reported increased portions of contributed income over total operating revenue.
72% of respondents project an increase in fundraising in 2025/FY25.
For most surveyed organizations, individual giving constitutes over 41% of total contributed income and has increased compared to the previous fiscal year.
In the upcoming year, most organizations will focus on annual funds and major gifts as part of their individual giving fundraising strategies.
Over the last three years, only 9% of respondents decreased their budgets allocated to development and fundraising. All other organizations either maintained or increased their budgets. These trends will continue in 2025, with 94% of survey respondents maintaining or increasing their development budgets in 2025.
While 70% of development teams are relatively small (under 6FTE), over the past three years, more than half of surveyed organizations have hired new leadership and/or created new development positions.
Looking back at the last three years, close to three-quarters of organizations have an annual donor renewal rate greater than 50%.
