News/Stats/Studies

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.

Despite the dreary economy, the nonprofit sector in Maryland is growing, with jobs and nonprofit startups both on the rise, a new study says.

While the state endured a drop in total employment of 3.2 percent in 2009, nonprofit jobs were up 2 percent, says the report from Maryland Nonprofits. And over the five-year period from 2004 to 2009, nonprofit employment rose 9.5, compared to a decline of 2.1 percent in overall employment in Maryland.

Aid flows from OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) donor countries totalled USD 129 billion in 2010, the highest level ever, and an increase of 6.5 percent over 2009. This represents about 0.32 percent of the combined gross national income of DAC member countries. While the 2010 figures demonstrate a commitment to the neediest countries, they also confirm that some donors are not meeting targets they set.

Looking ahead, a recent OECD survey shows that most donors plan to increase aid over the coming three years, though at a sharply reduced pace.

Here are key findings from the 2010 Nonprofit Fundraising Survey:

• Fewer nonprofits reported decreased contributions.
• Online giving increased at 58 percent of the organizations.
• Major gift and events income increased for half of the nonprofits.
• Many organizations received contributions for general operating expenses.
• 52 percent of the organizations received a significant portion of funds during the last quarter of the calendar year.
• The majority of participants expect contribution levels to increase in 2011.

The country's more than 76,000 grantmaking foundations gave an estimated $45.7 billion in 2010, virtually unchanged from 2009. According to Foundation Growth and Giving Estimates (2011 Edition), released today by the Foundation Center, 2010 giving remained just 2.1 percent below the record high of $46.8 billion awarded by foundations in 2008, despite the fact that foundation assets were still close to 10 percent below their 2007 peak.

Thirty-one percent of foundations that give money to improve people’s health direct at least half of those grant dollars to poor communities, according to a new study by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, a watchdog group in Washington, D.C.

Meanwhile, 4 percent give at least a quarter of their health grants to advocacy and organizing work.

A recent study conducted on behalf of Harvard University's Institute of Politics found that around a third of four-year college students said using online tools like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube has a greater impact than in-person advocacy.

The "Survey of Young Americans' Attitudes toward Politics and Public Service" study, conducted by Knowledge Networks in February, found that 32 percent of college students with Facebook accounts believe advocating for a political position using online tools has more of an impact than advocating in-person.