American Red Cross

A suburban Philadelphia philanthropist who believes charity is a powerful incentive thinks he can help get Americans back to work one donation at a time.

Gene Epstein, 71, is promoting a $250,000 effort called Hire Just One, with plans to make $1,000 donations to charity in the name of businesses that hire an unemployed person and keep the worker on the payroll for at least six months.

Blackbaud announced the release of a report focused on fundraising trends based on monthly findings from The Blackbaud Index. The Blackbaud Index of Charitable Giving reports that overall revenue increased by 1.4% for the 3 months ending August 2010 as compared to the same period in 2009. The Blackbaud Index of Online Giving reports that overall revenue increased by 20.4% for the 3 months ending August 2010 as compared to the same period in 2009.

Blackbaud announced its inclusion on Software Magazine’s Software 500 ranking of the world’s largest software and service providers, now in its 28th year.

Blackbaud ranked 121, with 2009 software and services revenue of $302.6 million and corporate revenue of $309.3 million. The ranking positioned Blackbaud as the largest provider of nonprofit software on the Software 500 list.

Despite the billions donated to Haiti after the disaster, L'Athletique and many other small groups are scrambling to stay afloat amid crushing demand. Less than 15 percent of the $4.7 billion pledged for 2010-11 at the U.N. donors conference in March has been disbursed, along with some debt relief, and donors tend to prefer large, known groups to small community ones.

In a struggling economy, many other charities will also be conducting year-end campaigns that mix e-mail, social media, traditional mailings, and advertising. What’s more, many of them will be making pitches for gifts right up until New Year’s instead of wrapping up earlier as they did in the past.

Charities have little choice, says Ms. Dyer. “This is a busy time of year for donors, and it is cluttered in terms of competing messages. It is all the more important for us to make a bigger impact.”

Mobile presents a huge opportunity for nonprofits to expand their fundraising and outreach efforts. Many nonprofits have already run successful fundraising campaigns; the biggest example to date is the mobile campaigns during the Haiti earthquake, where the American Red Cross alone raised more than $30 million using a common short code. 

American charities say they haven’t raised nearly what they need to help Pakistan’s flood victims.

Aid workers report that they are being forced to decide which assistance programs are most urgent, scale back plans to serve more people, and close clinics ahead of schedule because they lack sufficient cash.

Blackbaud announced the launch of BlackbaudTV, a new resource for the nonprofit community, with videos featuring nonprofit news, technology tools and tips, philanthropy in action, Blackbaud customers, partners, and events.

Blackbaud is holding the BlackbaudTV Inspire Contest to encourage nonprofit professionals to submit videos in response to the question, “How do you inspire supporters to take action?” The two winners receive free registrations to the 2010 Blackbaud’s Conference for Nonprofits – North America.

The charitable outpouring for Haiti has been huge. To date, Americans have phoned, texted and mailed in more than $1.3 billion, according to The Chronicle Of Philanthropy.

Much money was spent on immediate relief, but hundreds of millions of dollars remain in the coffers of nonprofit organizations from the American Red Cross to Oxfam.

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.)