News/Stats/Studies

In a recent fundraising study conducted by Common Impact, 79 percent of nonprofits surveyed reported spending 2 percent or less of their operating budgets to support key infrastructure.

Most charitable fundraisers in the U.S. expect to raise more money this year than in 2009, a new poll says.

Sixty-one percent of 692 fundraisers responding to the poll, conducted on its website in April and May by the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

In comparison, 15 percent of those responding expect to raise the same amount this year as last year, while 23 percent predicted they would raise less this year.

The number of Americans who volunteer grew last year at the fastest rate in six years, according to a new report, defying the popular notion that hard economic times suppress civic participation.

The report, released today by the Corporation for National and Community Service, says that 63.4 million adult Americans­—nearly 27 percent of the population—volunteered to help charitable causes last year. That’s an increase from 2008 of roughly 1.6 million volunteers, the largest single-year jump since 2003.

More than 70 percent of grant makers say not enough is being done to assess the performance of foundations, according to a survey conducted by the LFA Group for the Center for Effective Philanthropy.

The biggest barriers to measuring performance are the difficulty of establishing a causal relationship between a foundation’s support and creating change, and a lack of time to conduct an evaluation, respondents said. LFA Group polled more than 500 foundation executives and program officers in February.

While direct mail is still king in bringing in funds, online fundraising remains an ever-growing channel that is vital to the future of every organization. Studying the trends and understanding where opportunities lie going forward as today’s online generation reaches prime giving age are musts. To that end, nonprofit technology provider Convio recently released its Online Nonprofit Benchmark Study.

Charleston, S.C. (June 15, 2010) – Blackbaud, Inc. today announced the launch of the Blackbaud Index of Charitable Giving, a broad-based fundraising index that reports revenue trends of 1400 nonprofit organizations representing $2.2 billion in yearly revenue on a monthly basis. The Index is based on actual revenue statistics from nonprofit organizations of all sizes representing arts, culture, and humanities; education; environment and animals; healthcare; human services; international affairs; public and society benefit; and religion sectors. (Read more about the methodology at www.blackbaud.com/blackbaudindex.)

The economy struck another blow to charitable donations last year, causing contributions from foundations, corporations, and individuals to decline by 3.2 percent, according to Giving USA, the annual tally of American philanthropy released this morning.

The dip comes after the first year of the recession depressed giving by 2.4-percent in 2008. Giving USA said last year’s drop was partly due to foundations, which decreased their giving by 8.6 percent. Corporate giving rose by 5.9 percent, although the report speculated that companies shifted their giving to goods and products and away from cash.

It is no surprise that charitable giving by the wealthy declined last year. According to a report released today by Giving USA and the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, individual giving fell an estimated 0.4% in 2009, to $227.41 billion–a fairly mild drop. Total giving, by the wealthy, companies, foundations and bequests, fell 3.9% to $303.75 billion.

Pew Internet Research has issued two studies that should be great interest to nonprofits in the advocacy and community action spaces.

The first, Neighbors Online, notes the increasing use of online tools by citizens interested in tracking community events, news and issues. Most folks still engage each other around such matters either face-to-face or over the phone (cell phone, these days), but online interaction is growing. In the twelve months preceding their survey:

Austin, Texas (June 8, 2010) —

Convio, Inc., today announced the results of its annual Convio Online Marketing Nonprofit Benchmark Index Study. This year’s study shows that online giving is growing steadily, there has been an increase in the number of online gifts and nonprofits are continuing to grow their email files. The full study is available at www.convio.com/2010benchmark

The study is designed to help nonprofit professionals evaluate beneficial online marketing metrics, evaluate the effectiveness of their organization compared to similar organizations and determine strategies for future success. The study focused on key areas related to online success, including: