Broccoli’s Big Benchmark Bite

They’re here! M+R’s 2026 Benchmarks are now available. Is it just us, or does it never truly feel like spring until we’ve been showered with M+R’s downpour of data?

The Benchmarks are best known and oft cited for all things digital, but direct mail isn’t entirely overlooked. Being that we’re champions for keeping mail in your fundraising mix, here are a few direct mail findings from the 2026 Benchmarks you may have missed:

UP: Revenue from Direct Mail

9% increase in revenue in 2025 from direct mail, compared to a 3% increase in 2024.

TAKEAWAY: Seeing an increase is encouraging, but a large proportion of that comes from a spike in support for public media following US federal government cuts. Charities outside the US would not likely have seen a similarly sized swell of support for public media in 2025.  

UP: Number of Gifts from Direct Mail

4% increase in the number of gifts from direct mail in 2025 (yay!) but that comes after a 5% decrease in 2024 and 6% decrease in 2023.

TAKEAWAY: Public media had 11% more gifts from mail in 2025 compared to 2024, nearly doubling the 6% increase seen by environmental organizations, the next highest in year-over-year growth. The increase in 2025 is encouraging, but is far from closing the gap left by multiple years of decreases.

DOWN: Direct Mail Revenue compared to Online Revenue

In 2025, $0.66 USD was raised through direct mail for every dollar raised online. This is a drop from $0.78 USD in 2024, and $0.94 in 2023.

TAKEAWAY: A drop from $0.94 in 2023 to $0.66 in 2025 is significant but it may not be cause for alarm. As fundraisers get better at integrating online and offline tactics into their appeals, it gets more difficult to give credit for a gift to a single source. Our advice is to measure each channel to the best of your ability, but not get so lost in the details that you lose sight of the bigger, combined results picture.

Canadians, Fear Not!

Yes, there are some Canadian charities in M+R’s recent participants, but we think that in these direct mail sections of the Benchmarks, it would be incredibly valuable to see Canadian organization stats isolated and compared with other countries. The differences in scale, costs, and regulatory requirements each contribute to very different direct mail fundraising realities. 

If you’re interested in Canada-specific direct mail benchmarks, our friends at Good Works recently published their 2025 Direct Mail Benchmarks study, which you can access here.