Giving decreased nominally by 1.4 percent in 2019 compared to 2018, but remained 6 percent higher than in 2017, according to the Fundraising Effectiveness Project’s 2019 Fourth Quarter Report, published by the Association of Fundraising Professionals. The losses in donations were focused during the months of April to June of 2019, where giving year to date was down 5.7 percent through June. The charitable sector spent the remainder of the year climbing out of that deficit before ending up at a total loss of 1.4 percent.

One of the biggest questions facing the nonprofit sector in 2020—especially for nonprofits not directly serving the victims of the Coronavirus—is if they can attract new donors and keep existing donors engaged. But the difficulty in acquiring and retaining first-time donors is highlighted in the 2019 report. The number of new donors in 2019—and new donors from 2018 who gave again in 2019—saw drastic drops of 5.7 percent and 6.4 percent respectively, trends that are unsustainable for the long-term success of philanthropy.