News/Stats/Studies

Razoo, a giving and fundraising website, announced that its board of directors has named Lesley Mansford to serve as the new chief executive officer. Interim CEO Brian Fujito will remain in his position as CTO.

The Charity Direct Debit Cancellation Rate for August 2011 has been recorded at an all time high at 4.58% in the U.K. This is the highest cancellation rate seen in the month of August since Rapidata Services Plc, the charity transactions processing agency, began tracking regular giving trends eight years ago in 2003. The figure exceeds the August 2008 mid-recession figure of 4.4%.

GuideStar — the leading source of nonprofit information — published its 2011 GuideStar Nonprofit Compensation Report, the only large-scale analysis of its kind that relies exclusively on data reported to the IRS. The report, which was GuideStar's first look at how the "Great Recession" affected salaries and benefits across the nonprofit sector, showed that the economy undoubtedly played a role in lessening compensation. In 2008, median increases in incumbent CEO compensation were generally 4 percent or higher. In 2009, increases were generally 2 percent or less.

Nonprofit organizations in the U.S. were better at retaining donors and shored up their net losses in donations in 2010, according to the latest report of the Fundraising Effectiveness Project (FEP). The FEP, a report of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) and the Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy at the Urban Institute, compares gains and losses of donors and donation amounts. The FEP indicates year over year growth by comparing how many new donors are acquired with how many stopped giving, and the donation levels of each.

UBS and Insead released a study on Asian family philanthropy. According to the report, the number one reason for Asian families to engage in philanthropy is ensuring the continuity of family values or creating a lasting legacy. The study’s findings indicate that while family philanthropy is growing rapidly in Asia, there are still challenges Asian families face in terms of developing a more effective philanthropic sector.

The Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs and Good360, formerly Gifts In Kind International, have completed the first year of a unique, ongoing collaboration designed to measure the impacts of corporate gifts-in-kind to non-profit organizations.

The collaborators have focused on evaluating the effects on community nonprofits of Framing Hope, a partnership between Good360 and The Home Depot Foundation in which unsold merchandise from Home Depot stores is donated to participating nonprofit organizations. More information and preliminary research results may be seen at http://www.indiana.edu/~spea/research/interdisciplinary_research/index.shtml.

People expect nonprofits that provide disaster aid to use social networks to communicate, according to a new survey by the American Red Cross.

Eighty percent of Americans said they expect national relief groups to monitor their social-media feeds and websites where disaster victims might make urgent requests for help. And they expect those groups to act quickly. About 35 percent of respondents said that it is reasonable to expect assistance to arrive within an hour after a request for help is posted online.

A new survey reports that two out of three Americans (68 percent) say they will cut back on giving to charity in the coming months because of economic uncertainty or personal financial blows.

The study of 487 adults who donated at least $20 in the past year was conducted in mid-August by the market-research firm Campbell Rinker for Dunham+Company, a Dallas firm that advises nonprofits on fund raising and management.

The Meyer Foundation and CompassPoint Nonprofit Services released The Board Paradox, completing a series of three briefs based on a national study of more than 3,000 nonprofit executive directors. The briefs report survey results and findings not included in the Daring to Lead 2011 main report, which was released in late June. The three briefs in the series are:

• Leading Through a Recession
• Inside the Executive Director Job
• The Board Paradox

After about two years of turmoil and uncertainty, Radio KDNA in Granger, Wash., may be headed for better days under the reins of a west-side nonprofit. Sea Mar Community Health Centers based in Seattle could officially begin operating the Spanish-language station known as "the voice of the farm worker" Aug. 12, said Sea Mar Executive Director Rogelio Riojas.

Sea Mar is waiting for the station's board of directors to officially sign off on the deal, which could happen as early as this week.