The 2025 holiday giving season for news organizations showed a growing base of support for news, with the number of donations increasing nearly 9% and donation revenue up about 5% from the prior year.
However, the major donors (giving $300+) weakened significantly, down 16% from the prior year.
Organizations entering 2026 should feel confident in their ability to acquire new donors but may need to specifically investigate why mid-to-high-tier donors pulled back this cycle.
How do we know this?
GlueLetter imports publishers’ reader revenue payments data as part of our “Conversion Tracking” features to deeply attribute and analyze how their marketing emails and newsletters drive revenue.
This analysis includes all reader payments received during November and December 2025 by GlueLetter publishers who have a voluntary donation model (it excludes required subscriptions).
While the early season (November) looked shaky with revenue down about 3%, a surge of giving in December successfully flipped the script. December 2025 payments were up 12% and revenue up 9% from 2024.
The major-donor slump
The most concerning trend is the sharp decline in high-value contributions. Payments of $300 or more dropped by 15.8% compared to last year.
This loss of major donors is the primary reason the Average Revenue per Donation fell by 3.8% (to $39). The industry is relying more heavily on the “grassroots” ($10–$50 donors) to make up for the absence of larger checks.
How you compare
More than 90% of GlueLetter publishers with donation models saw their payment volume increase. The strategy of attracting more people is working almost universally.
However, only 55% of publishers saw their actual revenue increase. This indicates that for nearly half the organizations, the surge in new small donors wasn’t quite enough to replace the lost revenue from missing major donors.
For publishers not yet using GlueLetter who are comparing their own year-end performance, here’s what you should know:
- Your number of donations in November-December should have increased. If not, you are behind most publishers.
- The total revenue from Nov-Dec donations increased for most publishers, but a sizable minority did not. So don’t feel too bad if you saw more payments but slightly fewer dollars.
- Major donors (giving $300+) declined steeply, so if you even held flat in major donors from 2024 to 2025, you did great.
See your own donations data
Publishers included in this analysis use GlueLetter to track and support their email fundraising efforts. The software can attribute each reader payment to the email activity that preceded it. It also provides tools for generating fundraising campaigns, and targeting emails to segments based on their interests and behaviors.
Connect your organization’s payments data to GlueLetter to see in detail how your revenue is trending, and which newsletters and fundraising campaigns drive results.
Visit our features page to learn more, and contact us for a demo.