News/Stats/Studies

Blackbaud announced the publication of the 2011 donorCentrics Internet and Multichannel Giving Benchmarking Report, which features research on nonprofit online giving in the context of an integrated direct marketing program. The report also includes an extended analysis on the value of multichannel giving.

The report finds that although multichannel giving has become a popular objective of nonprofits as a way to build constituent support, it is not widely practiced. The large majority of donors give through only one channel and use only direct mail as their vehicle for donations.

The average cost of attending a four-year for-profit college surpassed expenses at both U.S. state and private nonprofit universities, a government report found.

Full-time students paid an average of $30,900 annually at the for-profit schools in the 2007-2008 academic year, almost double the $15,600 average paid at public universities, according to U.S. Education Department data released and included in The Condition of Education report. The average cost of attending a private nonprofit college was $26,600, the study said.

The Direct Marketing Association (DMA), through its ethics committees and board, announced it has modified and updated its Guidelines for Ethical Business Practices. The guidelines now include new provisions for social-media marketers, changes reflecting the passage of new laws and updated material addressing consumers’ recent concerns.

The guidelines provide individuals and organizations involved in the full spectrum of direct-marketing channels with generally accepted principles of conduct.

Endowments fared well last year, achieving investment returns of about 12 percent, but that is far less than what they achieved in 2009, when returns topped 20 percent, according to two studies — one of foundations and the other of charities — released by the Commonfund Institute.

While returns were smaller compared with last year, they were a marked improvement over 2008, when returns on investment portfolios dropped 26 percent.

Analysis of charities’ annual returns released by the Charities Aid Foundation shows that charity surpluses dropped by 60 percent between 2007 and 2009 revealing the true impact that the recent recession has had on the overall financial well-being of charities.

The figures, from CAF's recently launched website Charity Trends, definitively show that each registered charity in England and Wales had on average £24,507 ($39,558) of surplus in 2007, compared to £10,240 ($16,529) in 2009 (the last year of complete data).

Overall the charity sector’s surplus dropped from £3.59 billion ($5.79 billion) in 2007 to £1.45 billion ($2.34 billion) in 2009.

Private giving to the developing world fell slightly in the first year of the global recession, a new study says.

Private philanthropy from all developed to developing countries, plus remittances from migrants to their families and villages back home, totaled $227 billion in 2009, down from $234 billion in 2008, while government aid fell to $120 billion from $121 billion, says the 2011 Index of Global Philanthropy and Remittances, published the Center for Global Prosperity at the Hudson Institute.

Women are more passionate than men about getting involved in nonprofit causes and paying attention to them through social-media sites, while men tend to view supporting causes through social media as a fad, according to a study released last week.

The study, which analyzed responses to an online survey completed by 2,000 Americans, was prepared by Georgetown University’s Center for Social Impact Communication and paid for by Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide.

While both men and women put “feeding the hungry” and “supporting our  troops” as top causes, they differ on what else they consider important.

Nonprofits' grantseeking work may be finding its footing two-and-a-half years after the economy shattered, a new survey says.

Among 867 nonprofits responding to an online survey conducted by GrantStation and PhilanTech, 49 percent applied for more grants in the last six months of 2010 than they had in the same period a year earlier, and 34 percent applied for the same number of grants.

In the last six months of 2009, in comparison, 45 percent of respondents applied for more grants than they had in the same period of 2008.

Calling on prospective donors and getting boards involved in fundraising are among fundraisers' most anxiety-producing activities, a new poll says.

Among 838 people who took a Quick Poll on the website of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, about 26 percent of respondents said finding ways to involve board members in development is their most stressful activity.

A close second, at 25 percent, was making cold calls to prospective donors, causing more stress than asking for a gift from a major donor, which 18 percent said makes them most anxious.

Can drinking beer at the neighborhood bar help charities? Apparently so, in England at least. An unusual new survey of nearly 1,500 British pubs showed that the vast majority of them raised money for charities, contributing an average of $3,500 each.

The survey showed 77 percent donated money to charities last year, and 91 percent expected to donate this year. Raffles and quiz nights were the most popular fundraising events, followed by live music.

The survey was conducted by CGA Strategy for a trade association called Pub Aid, a group formed to spruce up the imagine of drinking establishments.