23 Healthcare Fundraising Statistics That Show Exactly Where to Patch Your  Donor Pipeline

The Paradox: High ROI, But Huge Missed Potential

Hospital foundations consistently generate outsized value through philanthropy—returns hospitals could never match through patient revenue alone. In 2024, the average foundation raised $7.7 million in net fundraising revenue (NFR). To earn the same profit, a hospital with a typical 3% margin would need to generate $257 million in patient revenue (2024 AHP Report on Giving). 

• • • Academic medical centers: $16M NFR ($1.6M per FTE)

    • Community hospitals: $2.1M NFR ($625K per FTE)

    • Healthcare systems: $15.9M NFR ($1.2M per FTE)

Foundations also deliver impressive fundraising ROI, raising $4.53 for every dollar spent—making fundraising efficiency in healthcare among the highest in the nonprofit sector.

• Academic medical centers: $4.91 ROI

• Community hospitals: $4.15 ROI

• Healthcare systems: $4.61 ROI

The median cost to raise a dollar (CTRD) is $0.22, positioning healthcare philanthropy as highly efficient compared to other nonprofit fundraising benchmarks. 

On paper, these numbers look like a slam dunk. But the pipeline cracks become clear when we examine donor retention, recurring giving, and digital fundraising. (See below.) It's then that we realize how much these ROI numbers depend on constant new donor acquisition.  

Donor Retention is the Weakest Link

Healthcare philanthropy programs excel at attracting new donors, but we have a hard time hanging onto them. Fewer than 20% of first-time healthcare donors ever return (2024 AHP Report on Giving). This retention crisis destroys millions in potential lifetime value and forces healthcare nonprofits to constantly chase after new donors instead of nurturing existing donor relationships.

• Healthcare nonprofits retain only 40% of donors. (2025 Virtuous Benchmark Report)

• The donor lifetime value (LTV) for healthcare nonprofits ($427) is well below all nonprofit sectors ($784). (2025 Virtuous Benchmark Report)

• Small donors ($1–$100) fell by 11.1% in Q1 2025, but they still account for 57% of all donors. (Fundraising Effectiveness Project)   

• Across all nonprofit sectors, total dollars raised grew 3.6% in Q1 2025 despite a 1.3% decline in donors, indicating the sector-wide trend toward fewer donors giving larger gifts. (Fundraising Effectiveness Project)   

Recurring Giving is an Untapped Growth Channel for Healthcare Nonprofits

Create monthly giving programs and make them easy to join via optimized donation pages.

• • Monthly donors give 42% more annually than one-time donors. (2024 Philanthropic Landscape) 

  • Yet only 3% of healthcare philanthropy comes from recurring giving, compared to 13% sector-wide. (2025 Virtuous Benchmark Report)

  • Monthly giving already accounts for 20% of online revenue for healthcare nonprofits and 31% of online gifts across all nonprofit sectors. The gap between online performance and total giving reveals massive untapped potential. (M+R Benchmarks 2025, 2024 Philanthropic Landscape) 

• Digital-first donor acquisition strategies show 60% success rates, and 53% donor retention versus 41.5% for traditional methods. Despite these superior results, most hospital foundations haven't adopted digital-first fundraising strategies. (2024 AHP Report on Giving)

• New donors generated 44% of all 2024 online revenue for hospital foundations, the highest of any nonprofit sector. This acquisition strength makes the 80% retention failure even more costly. (M+R Benchmarks 2025) 

• For every dollar raised online, healthcare nonprofits raised just $0.35 through direct mail. (M+R Benchmarks 2025) 

• Healthcare nonprofits achieved 6% increases in average online gift size, reaching $125 per transaction in 2024. (2025 Virtuous Benchmark Report)

• Donor-Advised Funds (DAFs): Healthcare nonprofits raised just $0.01 for every digital dollar raised through healthcare philanthropy, compared to $0.13 across all nonprofits (M+R Benchmarks 2025). Use these donor survey questions to identify donors who are interested in planned giving. 

4 Ways to Patch the Pipeline and Retain More Healthcare Donors 

1. Create a year-long stewardship program for small and medium-sized donors
   With only about 20% of first-time donors returning, healthcare nonprofits are essentially operating as one-time transaction machines rather than relationship-builders. This creates a constant need to chase new donors instead of deepening existing relationships. Send quarterly impact reports to show donor impact, and use storytelling to help donors feel an emotional connection to their impact. Small donors who feel connected could become bigger donors over time. 

2. Launch a monthly giving program  
   The fact that monthly giving represents 20% of online revenue but only 3% of total giving exposes a strategic failure. Donors are clearly willing to give monthly, but healthcare nonprofits aren't asking them to do so. 

3. Invest more time and resources on digital channels
   Direct mail is expensive and has a significantly lower ROI than digital channels. And clearly, new donors are receptive to giving via digital channels. Start adding integrated digital touchpoints to your direct mail outreach.

4. Educate donors about the impact of giving via Donor-Advised Funds
   The $0.01 DAF ratio versus $0.13 sector-wide reveals healthcare nonprofits' biggest growth opportunity. DAF giving flows from established, trusted relationships where donors view organizations as worthy of their most thoughtful philanthropy.