Faith Based/Religion/Churches

Houses of worship and other charities often aren't in competition for dollars but instead tend to reap donations from similar donors, a new study shows. Slightly more than 50 percent of people who financially supported congregations also gave to at least one charitable organization in the last year, according to a study conducted by Phoenix-based Grey Matter Research Consulting.

Researchers also found that the more Americans give to a house of worship, the more they donate to other groups. And the trend continues with the generosity of the donor.

The Jewish Federations of North America is launching a $5.5 million fundraising campaign for Ethiopian immigration to Israel. The campaign comes at the behest of the Israeli government, which agreed last November to bring up to 7,846 additional Ethiopians to Israel. Like Israel’s commitment, the federation’s campaign comes with an eye toward concluding mass Ethiopian aliyah; it’s called “Completing the Journey.”

The last federation fundraising drive for Ethiopian aliyah, launched in 2005 with a target of $100 million over five years, fell short of its goal.

A non-profit organization called Changing the Face of Christianity is working to reverse this pervasive image problem by helping Christians become more like Jesus Christ. "We are trying to help Christians actually change for the better. This begins by acknowledging we have a problem through heartfelt confession. We've launched 'My Confession'; a campaign mobilizing Christians to make public confessions on post-it type notes and on our MyConfession.org website." says R. Brad White.

AFP CEO Paulette Maehara shares her thoughts on Convio's positive 2010 Holiday Giving Survey findings.

The American Jewish World Service, an antipoverty and human rights organization led by Ruth Messinger, wanted a video to show donors at its 25th birthday party on Oct. 28. The film they commissioned, is different from the standard nonprofit propaganda, different enough to have been watched nearly a million times.

The film features a medley of Hollywood stars making light of Jewish stereotypes. Messinger says that the film has been an unqualified success.

Because we all want to be understood, we can be moved to help and give when we're made to understand the problems of others and the world. As fundraisers and other nonprofit professionals, you're aware of the way understanding leads so naturally to giving — of time, of talent, of treasure.

Convio estimates that US giving during the 2010 holiday season to nonprofit organizations will be more than $48 billion across all giving channels --including online, direct mail and  donation at checkout – as more than 174 million adult Americans plan to give money to charity between Thanksgiving and year-end. Online giving alone is estimated to account for more than $6 billion, an increase of more than 30 percent from this same period in 2009.

As many charities suffered a decline of 10 percent or more in annual giving, donations to religious organizations fared relatively well from 2007 to 2009, according to a new study released on Tuesday by the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.

Charitable contributions declined by just 0.1 percent among 1,148 religious organizations whose financial statements were examined by the council. Sharper decreases have been found in other surveys

During the first full year of the deepest recession since the Great Depression, church giving in 2008 as a percentage of congregation members’ take-home pay sank to its lowest point in the past decade, according to a report released Monday. It declined to 2.43 percent, equal to the second-lowest drop since 1968, when the data were first tracked; 1992 had the lowest, with 2.41 percent.

Both fundraising revenue and donor growth remain flat from the first half of 2009 to the first half of 2010, according to the 2010 Target Analytics donorCentrics Index of National Fundraising Performance: 2010 Second Quarter Results report.