Q2 2026 Digital Fundraising Report

A seven-quarter Google Ads benchmark across Brand, Non-Brand, and PMax — showing how nonprofit programs held up through the deepest part of the off-season, and which channels earned their budget.

Managed Search Beat PMax Seven Quarters Straight

With the holiday surge behind it, Q2 shows how a program performs on its own strength. This issue draws on seven consecutive quarters of Google Ads data, Q4 2024 through Q2 2026, across 15 nonprofit organizations — the first year-over-year look at the off-season, tracking RoAS and cost per donation across Brand, Non-Brand, and PMax.

Three insights from this issue:

Managed Search keeps winning. Brand and Non-Brand Search combined out-returned PMax in all seven quarters.
Automation got bigger, not better. PMax carried 58% of reported donations in Q2, yet its average RoAS fell from 1.29x to 1.16x.
Brand RoAS dipped while cost per donation improved — a sign to look at gift value and attribution before cutting budget.

Download the full Q2 2026 issue for the complete benchmark data, campaign-by-campaign breakdowns, and what to watch through Q4.

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Delve Deeper into Digital Fundraising is written for nonprofit leaders navigating a changing donor landscape.

Written by Delve Deeper team members in the thick of the work, the newsletter explores practical solutions for challenges like disconnected data, weak segmentation, lack of personalization, and inefficient media.