Austin, TX based Convio has released their 2010 “Online Nonprofit
Benchmark™ Study”. This study was released by Convio as a guide for nonprofit marketers to get a better understanding of their online marketing efforts and also includes some really interesting data.

According to Convio, nonprofit web traffic grew from 2008 to 2009, but at a slower rate of 6%. This was a sharp change from double digit growth in previous years. Convio also found that conversion rates for nonprofits (visitors to newsletter subscribers) fell to 2.12% and email click through rates were down during 2009.

Web traffic across nonprofits is also an interesting part of the Convio study, including the big winners and losers in traffic during 2009. Associations, Christian Ministries, and Animal Welfare sites saw the biggest gains, while Disaster & International relief sites suffering the worst losses. Of course, with the Haiti earthquake happening in 2010, I suspect next year’s report to show huge gains for Disaster & International relief websites.

At 48 pages, the Convio study provides a very in depth look into the world of online marketing for nonprofits, including data on donations, email marketing, fundraising click/response rates, and revenue.

If you are running a nonprofit’s online marketing efforts, this study is definitely worth a read.