News/Stats/Studies

Fewer nonprofits are using text-to-give fundraising technology, while more are turning to mobile Web-based media, with constituent-engagement emerging as the main motivation for nonprofits to launch mobile programs, a new report says.

Forty-seven percent of nonprofits using mobile media do not use it for fundraising, and as many as 50 percent of fundraisers say they are wary of early mobile-giving results, says New Directions, a report by Kaptivate and the Association of Fundraising Professionals based on a 2011 survey of 233 organizations.

Four fundraising experts discussed donor giving trends and what they mean for fundraisers at the Association of Fundraising Professionals Greater New York Chapter's Fund Raising Day in New York. Margaret Holman, president of Holman Consulting, tackled individual giving.

U.S. nonprofit healthcare organizations reported an average return on investible assets of 10.9 percent for fiscal year 2010, a decline from the average return of 18.8 percent registered in FY2009 but a significant improvement over the average of -21.2 percent recorded in 2008, the Commonfund Institute reports.

According to the 2011 Commonfund Benchmarks Study of Healthcare Organizations, the average returns on "investible assets" (i.e., endowment/foundation funds, funded depreciation, working capital, and other separately treated assets) for 2009 and 2010 represent the best back-to-back annual performance in the nine years of the study.

Three out of four fundraisers predict that donations to their organizations will drop if the White House’s FY2012 budget proposal to limit the charitable deduction is enacted into law, according to an online poll by the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP). More than half said that the proposal would have a significant impact on giving.

The U.K.’s 500 largest fundraising charities suffered about a $111.6 million real-terms fall in fundraising income to about $9.7 billion in 2009/10, according to research published last week.

The 1.1 percent decline marks the second successive year that fundraising income has fallen in real terms, according to Charity Market Monitor 2011.

The report, produced by Cass Business School and Caritas Data, looked at figures from charities’ accounts covering the year up to March 2010, which varied according to when the organisations set their financial year.

Sage North America announced the results of its recently conducted Sage Nonprofit Insights, Q2 2011, survey of U.S. and Canadian organizations, which focused on questions about nonprofits’ views and practices related to grant funding and success measures.

About half of the organizations responding to the survey (52%) said grantors are demanding more success measures than two years ago. According to the survey, grantors most often request information about the following types of success measures: financial accountability/stewardship (81%); number of constituents served (77%); program quality from a participant perspective (57%); program sustainability (57%).

Donations by wealthy individuals has significantly increased private giving by at least 50 percent since 2006 as a percentage of GDP to approximately $5 billion to $6 billion in India in 2010, says a study.

"The future of giving is poised to rise further, as the rich population in India grows and as the philanthropic system becomes more advanced," the study, "India Philanthropy Report 2011," by Bain & Co. said. The report also finds that 40 percent of wealthy individuals in India plan to increase philanthropic donations over the next five years.

Daring to Lead 2011, a new national study of nonprofit executive directors conducted in the aftermath of the deepest economic recession in decades, reports that a significant number of executives plan to leave their jobs within the next five years, citing frustration with their organizations’ shaky finances, under-performing boards of directors, and the difficulty of maintaining healthy work-life balance in their demanding roles.

The study was conducted by San Francisco-based CompassPoint Nonprofit Services and the Meyer Foundation in Washington, D.C.

About 80 percent of Jews age 18 to 35 have engaged in volunteer work during the past year, but by and large their volunteerism has been infrequent and not related to their faith, according to a new study.

The study, commissioned by Repair the World, which works to promote volunteerism among Jews, surveyed roughly 1,000 young Jews last fall and is believed to be the first in-depth look at volunteerism within a faith group, according to Jon Rosenberg, Repair the World’s CEO. Many of the findings apply to any religious group, he says.

Forty-four percent of Europeans contribute money or time annually to charity, with religion and a personal philosophy of helping others cited most often as the reasons for giving, according to The Wall Street Journal, which cites a new poll.

The Dutch are the most generous Europeans, with 77 percent giving annually, according to a survey of more than 17,000 people in 14 European countries by GfK CR Academy Brussels. Turkey ranked last at 9 percent.