Nonprofit Research Collaborative Summer/Early Fall 2011 report

From the Introduction

While charitable giving forms about 20 percent of all nonprofit organizations’ funding in any one year, it is as much as 90 percent a year in many charities that do not have other forms of revenue, such as government grants, membership fees, or investment proceeds. As these and other revenue sources stay level or decline, charitable contributions become even more important for overall nonprofit organization funding.

Charitable giving comes primarily from four sources, according to Giving USA. Over the past 50 years, giving by living individuals constitutes approximately 75 percent of all charitable giving in the United States. Currently, foundations provide about 14 percent of the charitable giving total, estates provide about 6 percent, and corporations and corporate foundations give about 5 percent of the total.

Fundraising data are typically collected at the organization level and seldom aggregated across different types and sizes of charitable organizations. This Nonprofit Research Collaborative Summer/Early Fall 2011 report is one step in the direction to collect data about current charitable organizational practices around fundraising. The survey asked about the directions of change in giving in the first half of 2011, fundraising methods used, where organizations are investing more in fundraising, and when (or if) organizations track fundraising costs, including direct expenses and staff time. A special section of the survey asked about campaigns—including special projects, capital, endowment, or comprehensive campaigns.

This report provides a six-month glimpse into giving in the first half of 2011 with analysis of survey results from 813 responding charities. For most questions, we look at responses for all responding charities, then provide more detailed examinations by size of charitable organization, by region of the U.S., and by type of service provided (called type of recipient or subsector).

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