With the recession making it harder to raise money, 51 percent of nonprofit organizations now in capital or endowment campaigns have extended the length of their drives, and another 11 percent have reduced the amount they are trying to raise.

That is the conclusion of a survey conducted in January and February by two Chicago companies, Campbell & Company, a fund-raising consulting firm, and Slover Linett Strategies, a research company.

The goal of the survey of more than 300 nonprofit organizations — which either were in a current campaign or had completed one in the past decade — was to assess how charities handle budgeting for large fund-raising drives.

Campaign goals of the respondents ranged from less than $1-million to $1-billion or more, with a median goal of $13-million. Colleges and universities had the highest goals, a median of...

American fund raisers have much to learn from overseas charities, say Andrew Watt and Jon Duschinsky, who travel extensively to advise charities outside the United States.

In an audio interview with The Chronicle, Mr. Watt, chief programs officer at the Association of Fundraising Professionals, described his activities over the past three years to organize chapters overseas and to provide resources to fund raisers in many countries.

Both Mr. Watt and Mr. Duschinsky, a consultant, said donors are increasingly interested in solving problems rather than donating money to causes. Fund raisers, the two men said, must seek ways to help donors do that rather than just ask for money. Fund raisers, they said, too often think only about the amount of money raised, not about creating...

Many fund raisers seek relationships with estate planners and lawyers on the theory that those experts will influence wealthy clients to make charitable gifts.

However, research by Indiana University and Bank of America has found that, in recent years, wealthy donors have shifted preferences in terms of the experts they rely on for guidance in making gifts, said Tricia Ambler, a manager at WealthEngine, at a session today at the Association of Fundraising Professionals meeting. The Bethesda, Md., company provides online research tools to help charities identify potential donors.

While wealthy donors said that they relied on estate planners and lawyers for charitable advice in a 2006 study, she noted, a later study, in 2008, found them more likely to seek charitable advice from investment bankers, wealth managers, and other experts who help them build...

Nonprofit groups should be aggressively working to involve people in their 20s and 30s.

But Derrick Feldmann, president of Achieve, a consulting company in Indianapolis, said they shouldn’t expect young donors to open up their checkbooks quickly.

Nor should they expect to raise significant money, Mr. Feldmann told an audience at the Association of Fundraising Professionals annual conference in New Orleans.

But nonprofit groups shouldn’t abandon efforts to seek out young donors, even if the initial return is low.

“This is a long-term philanthropic strategy to engage young people,” he said. “They are not going to be young for long. The organizations that take this approach are the ones that are going to be very successful with reaching these individuals over the long term.”

In an interview with The...

The social-networking Web site Twitter is getting a lot of discussion among fund raisers gathered in New Orleans this week for the Association of Fundraising Professionals annual conference.

Many businesses in the exhibit area are inviting participants to join their Twitter groups — and the site has generated more than passing mention at several conference sessions.

Twitter is being discussed as a way to connect with younger donors, meet other fund raisers, and get ideas for improving their fund-raising efforts.

To help demystify the Twitter world, The Chronicle hosted its first “Tweetup” — a cocktail reception for fund raisers who follow its Twitter feed.

The event attracted local fund raisers as well as people from California, Indiana,...

Opportunities for new grants lurk in some unexpected places, said Gail Vertz, executive director of the American Association of Grant Professionals, at a session today at the annual meeting of the Association of Fundraising Professionals conference in New Orleans.

For example, she says, one place for grant seekers to check out is their local bank. Often family foundations that don’t want to oversee the foundation will appoint a bank vice president to manage it. When visiting a bank, she suggests, charity officials should check to see if anyone there is a contact person for a foundation, and should always be prepared to give a quick, concise speech about their organization’s mission and needs.

Similarly, she says, it pays to stay in touch with foundation program officers, who can sometimes tell you if new money becomes available because another...

Forty-six percent of nonprofit organizations raised more money last year compared with 2007, according to preliminary findings of an annual survey, released today by the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

Reflecting the toll exacted by the economic downturn, the percentage of fund raisers whose institutions raised more money last year was a new low in the eight years the survey has been conducted. In a typical year, 60 percent of fund raisers in the survey report being able to raise more money.

Traditional fund-raising events like galas are expensive and labor-intensive for small groups to organize. Plus, every nonprofit group in town has one. In these belt-tightening times, it’s even more important to look for novel special-events ideas that make fund-raising dollars go further, said Tracey Gainforth, executive director of Planned Parenthood Ottawa, in Canada.

At a session of the Association of Fundraising Professionals conference in New Orleans Ms. Gainforth offered some pointers for putting together a special event on a shoestring budget: Plan the event far ahead to increase your likelihood of securing donated space. Always ask for donations of everything needed to run the event. And when appealing to corporate sponsors to underwrite events or donate products or services, always give them a written statement showing what you will do with the money you...

Russell N. James, a researcher at the University of Georgia Institute for Nonprofit Organizations, in Athens, told participants at the annual meeting of the Association of Fundraising Professionals that he understands why many fund raisers ignore academic research on soliciting gifts.

Too often, he says, such research comes up with conclusions that most fund raisers already know from anecdotal experience, or it’s so specific to a particular institution that other organizations cannot apply it, Mr. James said.

But, he says, some research now under way offer insights fund raisers in many organizations can use.

To expand the amount and quality of research that fund raisers can actually use in their work, Mr. James said that the profession needs a peer-reviewed academic journal that would attract researchers and encourage additional studies.

Participants at the Association of Fundraising Professionals annual conference in New Orleans had an opportunity to help rebuild a city that is still attempting to recover from Hurricane Katrina.

Many participants who arrived early for the conference participated in construction projects in New Orleans on Saturday organized by Rebuilding Together, the national charity that mobilizes volunteers to participate in renovation efforts.

The organization is working to rebuild 1,000 homes in the Gulf Coast that had been affected by Hurricane Katrina.

The Chronicle has uploaded photos from the volunteer effort to its Flickr page.