News/Stats/Studies

It's been two years since the Nonprofit Technology Network released the first Nonprofit Data Ecosystems Survey report. NTEN revisted this topic this summer for the 2011 Nonprofit Data Ecosystems survey, and released the report this week.

The report provides a look at not only what particular technology tools and vendors the NTEN community uses for the different data management functions across their organizations, but also the grades they assign to those tools and vendors on criteria such as after-sale support and usability.

The Resource Alliance has launched its two flagship events, Fundraising Online and the International Fundraising Congress, as well as a new website for 2012.

Few Americans are seeing relief from the nation’s economic slump, but the finances of some nonprofits are much rosier as the nation’s wealthy stepped up their multimillion dollar gifts in 2011.

The biggest gifts announced by Americans totaled more than $2.6-billion, compared with $1.3-billion in 2010. (Twelve donations were included in the list because of two ties for the 10 biggest donations of the year.)

Nonprofits are stepping up their grantseeking efforts, and although a majority see no rise in grant awards, there is collective optimism that the outlook will improve over the next six months, a new study says.

Seventy-eight percent of the 928 nonprofits responding to an online survey say they applied for more grants in the first six months of 2011 than in the same period last year, says the report from GrantStation and PhilanTECH.

The nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation — which operates Wikipedia and related websites solely on donations — raked in a record-breaking $20 million during its just-concluded 2011-12 fundraising campaign. The San Francisco-based foundation has been conducting annual fundraisers since 2003.

The just-finished fundraising campaign collected money from more than 1 million donors around the world.

According to comScore, Wikipedia is the fifth most popular web property worldwide, attracting more than 470 million unique visitors every month.

Meet the 2012 FundRaising Success Editorial Advisors.

Nancy Schwartz shares three free Getting Attention guides published this year — on messaging that resonates, marketing wisdom from your peers and books that can lift and energize you.

• Nonprofit Tagline Database & Report — Get inspired by 4,800+ nonprofit taglines and the guide to making yours great.
• The Nonprofit Marketing Wisdom Guide — Use these 127 lessons learned to strengthen your org’s marketing impact!
• The Book that Changed My Life: 129 book recommendations from nonprofit leaders around the world.

Americans gave about $290 billion to charity last year. That was $10 billion more than the amount of charitable giving in 2009. The estimates are from the Giving USA Foundation and its research partner, the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.

The largest share of charitable giving goes to religious groups. Giving USA says the received 35 percent of all donations in 2010. Schools and other education-related organizations were second on the list. They received an estimated 14 percent of all charitable giving last year.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced that private donors have committed $18 million to the 23 highest-rated projects in the 2011 Investing in Innovation (i3) Fund competition, ensuring that they have met the i3 matching requirement and qualifying them to receive $150 million from the i3 program.

Earlier this fall, the U.S. Department of Education announced 23 applicants as the finalists to receive part of the $150 million available in fiscal 2011 i3 funding.

With less than two weeks left before the holiday giving seasons ends, many charities have already raised more compared with 2010 — and some are even expecting a windfall, a new Chronicle of Philanthropy poll finds.

Fifty-four percent told The Chronicle that they raised more money in November and the first part of December than they had at this point last year. One out of five of the 152 organizations in the survey said contributions are outpacing last year’s donations by 20 percent or more.