News/Stats/Studies

GuideStar has released a new report, "What Automatic Revocation of Nonprofit Tax Exemptions Means for You: A Review for Nonprofits, Grantmakers, and Donors," regarding the IRS Nonfiler Revocation List.

Publication of the first Nonfiler Revocation List will be a historic event for the U.S. nonprofit sector. As many as 321,000 organizations may be included on this initial list. The revocations will affect not only the nonprofits that have lost their exemptions but also nonprofits whose exemptions remain intact and the donors and foundations that support the revoked organizations.

A report released Monday by the American Association of Museums shows more than 70 percent of the nation's museums were under financial distress last year because most saw government and corporate funding reduced from an already bad year in 2009. At the same time, half of the nearly 400 museums in the survey reported increased attendance and educational programs. The median admission price remained $7 for adults.

Blackbaud released a report focused on fundraising trends based on monthly findings from The Blackbaud Index. Additionally, Blackbaud announced the release of a new specialty index focused on arts, culture, and humanities organizations.

Overall, charitable giving once again increased in the latest three month period, rising 3 percent over prior year results

Findings from the 2011 national Nonprofit Employment Trends Survey conducted jointly by Nonprofit HR Solutions and the Caster Family Center for Nonprofit and Philanthropic Research (University of San Diego) indicate that 60 percent of the nonprofit organizations in this years survey plan to hire in 2011 even though nearly one quarter of the organizations in this year’s survey trimmed staff in 2010. Findings also revealed that turnover remains low within nonprofit organizations.

In a sign that giving by wealthy people has recovered from the recession, the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund reported that contributions in the first quarter of this year reached $269-million—the second largest first-quarter total in 20 years and a 25 percent increase in the number of donations over the same time in 2010.

The Fidelity fund also reported that donors gave charities $293-million in grants from their accounts. That was another 20-year quarterly record and an increase of 8 percent.

The needs of underserved communities are the top priority of less than a third of 880 foundations and institutional grantmakers that give billions of dollars for health-related causes in the U.S., a new report says.

Only 28 percent of 363 foundations that that gave at least $1 million on average in domestic health grants from 2007 to 2008 dedicated at least half their grantmaking for the intended benefit of underserved communities, says the report from the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy.

According to a new report released by Commongood Careers and Level Playing Field Institute, nonprofit employees perceive that their employers value building diverse and inclusive organizations. However, their employers are doing little to back up that claim.

The report, titled The Voice of Nonprofit Talent: Perceptions of Diversity in the Workplace, is the culmination of a nationwide survey of over 1,600 nonprofit professionals.

Grants by the biggest U.S. foundations to support social justice totaled $3.1 billion in 2009 and accounted for more than 14 percent of their grant dollars, virtually flat compared to 2008, and 11 percent of their grants, a new report says.

Forty-seven percent of social-justice grant dollars supported international activities, says Key Facts on Social Justice Grantmaking, a report by the Foundation Center.

The number of charities and foundations in the U.S. reached nearly 1.3 million in 2010, according to new data released by the IRS.

That number will probably drop sharply later this year when the IRS is expected to rescind the charity status of small organizations that failed to file an informational tax form. Even without this change, the latest IRS figures signal a possible slowing in the number of charities created in the U.S.: 59,945 groups applied for nonprofit status in 2010, down 30 percent since 2007.

Health care fundraising showed signs of progress last year, but far from enough to erase two years of recessionary losses and cutbacks, according to members of the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy (AHP), who direct development efforts for more than 2,000 nonprofit hospitals and health care providers throughout North America.

While the vast majority (71 percent) of AHP members who answered a January survey reported negative effects on their programs in 2010 due to the recession, these responses represented a 16 percent improvement over 2009.