News/Stats/Studies

Almost half of U.K. cultural organizations believe it will take 10 to 20 years for philanthropy in the arts to benefit the industry at the desired level, according to new research published by Arts Quarter.

In December, culture secretary Jeremy Hunt announced plans to promote philanthropy to give the arts a boost in financial support. But only 11.5 percent of organizations see the “agenda being realised and effective within the lifetime of this current parliament."

Best Friends Animal Society and Susan G. Komen for the Cure are the two most-trusted nonprofit name brands in the country, according to the 2011 Harris Poll Equitrend study, conducted by Harris Interactive, a market-research firm.

The two organizations were followed by Shriners Hospitals for Children and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, which tied for No. 3 in the poll.

Giving to churches rebounded slightly in 2010 after two years of steep decline, but churches fear efforts to trim tax breaks for charitable donations could be an obstacle to the post-recession recovery, according to a new study.

Some 43 percent of churches say their donations increased in 2010, according to the survey of 1,500 church leaders. Only 36 percent of the groups reported gains in 2009.

Oasis Center and Stars Nashville both work with troubled youths, so on one level the two Nashville charities are natural competitors. But they are also collaborators. The two organizations jointly raised $8-million for the facility that they share, and they have deepened their bonds since moving into the building in February 2009.

The partnership between the charities exemplifies a trend that the Bridge­span Group, a nonprofit consulting organization, noticed in its latest survey of how charity leaders have coped with the economic downturn and the tepid recovery.

Connected Texas released its first assessment of the broadband market in Texas, revealing that nearly all households in Bexar County have terrestrial broadband service availability. The nonprofit organization is working with various entities, including the Texas Department of Agriculture, to increase the availability of terrestrial broadband in Texas. Bexar County ranked among the more connected counties with 99.94 percent of households able to get broadband service with speeds faster than 768 Kbps and 99.93 percent having access to service with speeds at least 3 Mbps.

Bill Gates, the college dropout who started the world's richest charitable fund, said needy people depend on self-made millionaires and billionaires to donate money before passing their wealth on to less-generous heirs.

"Our experience worldwide is that first-generation wealth is actually more generous than dynastic wealth," Gates, the richest American, said Thursday in a news conference in New Delhi. "Both here in India and U.S. and other countries, the biggest givers are those who are receivers of first-generation wealth."

A majority of charities surveyed saw their fundraising revenue remain stable or increase last year, according to the 2010 Year-End Survey of the Nonprofit Research Collaborative (NRC), a coalition of six fundraising and philanthropic organizations. The survey also showed that strong fundraising results were more likely when organizations invested resources in fundraising staff and infrastructure, including volunteer management.

Fewer charities reported declines in fundraising last year compared with 2009. But a larger percentage of organizations reported bringing in about the same amount of revenue both years, says the report by the Nonprofit Research Collaborative, a coalition of six organizations that focus on philanthropy.

Just over half (52%) said they met fundraising goals, about the same (53%) as in a similar 2009 survey conducted by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, a member of the collaborative.

Twenty of the top 30 fundraising races, walks and other endurance events increased donations last year, a big change from 2009 when 20 such events lost money, according to the Run Walk Ride Fundraising Council’s fifth annual study.

Overall, the 30 fundraising events produced $1.65-billion in revenue in 2010. That was an increase of 1.6 percent, or $25.9-million, from the year before.

America's nonprofits are expecting 2011 to be another tough year for their organizations, and for the people they serve, according to a survey released today by Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF), with support from the Bank of America Charitable Foundation. The survey of more than 1,900 nonprofit leaders in markets nationwide found that while there are some signs of hope, many nonprofits are straining under year-after-year increases in the demand for services.