Food bank fundraising grows as recurring donors drive gains

Food bank fundraising picked up across nearly every major measure, and the biggest workplace lesson is simple: stronger donor momentum can buy development teams breathing room. For A Simple Gesture, where staff and volunteers rely on steady green bag participation, that means the focus can shift from constant replacement fundraising to deeper stewardship, better forecasting, and fewer last-minute appeals.

RKD Group’s 2025 Food Bank Benchmark Report, built on full-file data from 83 food bank clients across the United States from Jan. 1, 2015, through Dec. 31, 2024, showed overall revenue up 7%. When gifts of $10,000 or more were included, the increase widened to 10.6%. New and reactivated donors jumped 16.4%, recurring revenue from monthly sustainers rose 12.4%, and average gift size increased 5.9%.

The more important sign for nonprofit managers was not just that donor counts grew, but that existing support became more valuable. Active donor counts rose only 1.7%, yet revenue per active donor climbed 5.2%. RKD also said food bank revenue in 2024 was 69%, or $154 million, higher than pre-pandemic levels, core donors accounted for 70% of gross revenue in fiscal 2024, and donor value reached $409. Monthly giving revenue rose 3.4% and monthly donors increased 4.4% year over year, while new sustaining donors jumped 34%.

That mix matters for A Simple Gesture because its whole model is built around repeat contact. A Simple Gesture - Guilford County partners with dozens of local food pantries, and its near-zero-cost structure is designed to keep giving easy for donors while moving more food to the people who need it. The organization says one dollar converts to more than $30 of food going to food banks and pantries, a number that makes retention and reactivation especially valuable when staff are planning seasonal campaigns and volunteer appeals.

The same rhythm shows up in the field. A Simple Gesture’s Guilford County operation recruits volunteer drivers for green bag pickups and food recovery runs, alongside bag sorting, folding, special projects, and help signing up new donors. The food-recovery program also rests on a stark national problem: the United States wastes 30% to 40% of the food it produces. In Reston, the chapter’s bi-monthly collection schedule, with pickups six times a year, reinforces the same lesson as the fundraising data: recurring habits are easier to sustain than one-off bursts, and that is good news for chapter health as well as pantry partners.