News/Stats/Studies
June 17, 2011
Different kinds of donors tend to support different kinds of charitable causes, a new study says.
Only a minority of religious donors support specifically religious work through nonprofits, for example, while black donors are twice as likely as white donors to support higher education, and the causes people choose to support often are quite dependent on their political views, says Heart of the Donor, a study commissioned by Russ Reid and conducted by Grey Matter Research & Consulting.
June 14, 2011
Communications professionals at America’s grantmaking foundations are responding to the digital age, according to a new survey from the Communications Network. The survey of 155 foundation communicators shows U.S. foundations are making use of all forms of digital communications, especially social media, a top priority. The survey results suggest the growth of social media and other emerging digital technologies is changing the way foundations communicate with target audiences.
June 13, 2011
Charitable giving in the U.S. totaled $29.56 billion in April, up 2.4 percent from March and 9.2 percent from April 2010, but is expected to begin slowing in June and continue fall through the end of the year, a new report says.
Giving overall in 2011 is expected to grow 4.3 percent, compared to 2010, although giving in the last three months of 2011 is projected to be less than in the same period in 2010, says the Philanthromax Atlas of Giving.
June 13, 2011
Despite the poor economy, U.S. nonprofit hospitals and health care systems managed an 8 percent increase in philanthropic donations last year, to more than $8 billion, with individual donors contributing almost 60 percent of that total. But fundraising costs climbed and return on investment dipped, according to the fiscal year 2010 Report on Giving USA issued by the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy.
June 9, 2011
A new Deloitte survey reveals that millennials who frequently participate in workplace volunteer activities are far more likely to be proud, loyal and satisfied employees compared to those who rarely or never volunteer. The findings come from the eighth annual Deloitte Volunteer IMPACT Survey. Further, more than one-third of those who frequently volunteer are more likely to be very satisfied with the progression of their career. These and other findings from the survey suggest a link between volunteerism and the quality of employee engagement as well as favorable employee perceptions of organizational culture.
June 9, 2011
One of the country’s largest charitable organizations is getting larger.
Research Triangle Park, N.C.-based Family Health International, a nonprofit organization that specializes in health care needs across the globe, is buying the Academy for Educational Development, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that specializes in global education, health and economic development.
The nonprofits will merge and call RTP its global headquarters. In 2009, Forbes magazine called FHI among the top 200 U.S. charities with $369 million in revenue.
June 8, 2011
Investments by nonprofits in information-technology staffing, as well as other tech areas, held steady in 2010, a new survey says.
Among nearly 1,200 nonprofit professionals who filled out the Nonprofit IT Staffing Survey sponsored by NTEN and The NonProfit Times, tech spending represented less than 3 percent of the annual budgets for all respondents' organizations, although the percentage was significantly higher among small organizations.
Tech spending either stayed the same or grew from the previous year for most of the survey respondents, a sample the sponsors say probably is not representative of the nonprofit sector overall.
June 7, 2011
In February 2011, Idealware surveyed 505 nonprofit organizations using Facebook as part of their communications mix. This report, Using Facebook To Meet Your Mission: Results of a Survey, sums up the results of the survey, with takeaways as well as overviews of how much time organizations are spending on Facebook, how many have set goals and how they’re keeping track of their results. Case studies and quotes from the interviews are included to shed light on what success means on Facebook and to provide ideas on how to use the site.
June 2, 2011
Ethnicity plays a role in how people perceive charitable and political causes they encounter on social networks and whether they go on to get involved with those causes, a new survey finds.
Out of 2,000 participants in the survey, 30 percent of black adults and 39 percent of Hispanics said they were more likely to support online causes rather than causes they encountered offline; 24 percent of whites said the same. The study was released by Georgetown University’s Center for Social Impact Communication and Ogilvy PR, a public-relations company.
June 2, 2011
The Fundraising Standards Board released its annual report, Confident About Fundraising, June 1, and reports that 18,442 fundraising complaints were received in the U.K. during 2010.
- Direct mail (addressed and unaddressed) accounts for 53 percent of all complaints.
- 'Poor' data and data protection lead to one-sixth of all complaints.
- Street fundraising incurs the highest proportion of complaints against volume at 0.17 percent.
