News/Stats/Studies

The Associated Press is expanding its project to distribute content from nonprofit news organizations to newspapers through delivery technology that will make it easier for newspapers to find and use the material.

Newspapers, for the first time, will be able to request that feeds of nonprofit materials be delivered directly into their content management systems through AP's Webfeeds software. The project will begin testing with nonprofit organizations in California and will use Internet delivery feeds that have been put in place at newspapers over the past year.

American donors gave a lot less to charity in the first two years of the recession than they did in 2007, dropping their donations a total of about 20 percent from 2008 through the end of 2009, new data from the Internal Revenue Service suggest.

The decline is far sharper than experts had expected—and much more substantial than in previous downturns.

The new numbers from the IRS underscore just how big a financial hole nonprofits must climb out of as the still-fragile economy recovers.

Though religious congregations are slowly recovering from the recession, many groups are still feeling the pain, according to a new study. The study by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research combined the results of 26 polls taken to show the effects of the downturn and analyzed data from more than 11,000 congregations.

It found that more than 40 percent of congregations reported that their finances stabilized in 2010. About 10 percent reported increases in revenue last year and 22 percent saw a drop in revenue during the recession but have since recovered.

Nearly two-thirds of nonprofits say they pay some type of local or state tax, user fee, or other compensation to local governments to finance services and benefits supported by tax-paying entities, according to a new study.

The survey was conducted by the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies, in Baltimore, as part of the Listening Post Project, a research effort to examine issues facing tax-exempt groups.

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.