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Key Benchmarks on Donor Levels and Membership Programs

June 7, 2022

With the rise in inflation and the corresponding increases in living and business costs, many cultural institutions are reconsidering how they organize donor and membership programs.

Our latest Arts Executive Poll asked arts leaders to benchmark themselves on the changes to individual donor levels and corporate membership programs that help meet both donor needs and internal funding goals. Highlights from the survey include:

  • Coming out of the pandemic, most arts orgs have experienced individual donors staying at or increasing their giving to higher levels.

  • Relatedly, 40% of arts orgs plan to increase one or more minimum giving amounts in their individual donor levels in the future, however, mainly to keep up with inflation rather than leverage increased donor interest to give.

  • The majority of arts organizations are not changing or do not plan to change offered benefits within individual donor levels or the number of individual donor levels in a membership program.

  • Compared to 2021, most arts orgs are investing more into corporate memberships in 2022, and 32% are also planning to increase one or more minimum giving amounts in corporate giving levels in the future.

See the full data at the end of this page or click below to download a pdf version.