Charitable giving rose by only 1.7 percent in 2012 despite a year-end spike from Superstorm Sandy relief efforts, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Barron’s report, citing an annual study by nonprofit data-tracker Blackbaud.

The slight uptick represented a comedown from 2011, when Blackbaud reported a 4.2 percent rise. But there was good news for small nonprofits, whose fundraising gains significantly outpaced those of bigger peers, and online giving was up by 11 percent last year.

Blackbaud analyzed data from more than 3,000 organizations with a collective $8-billion in revenue. The results show that more and more donors want to give locally, and that there is “a real return for nonprofits’ use of digital tools,” particularly in disaster relief, said Steve MacLaughlin, head of Blackbaud’s Idea Lab.