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November 20, 2009
Most Americans Intend to Make Holiday Donations This Year
Many charities are concerned that donations will suffer this month and next with the weak economy taking its toll on the normally busy giving season. But recent surveys suggest that year-end contributions, as well as donations next year, may not drop as much as some fund raisers fear.
In the latest such research, the American Red Cross commissioned a poll of more than 1,000 adults this month.
Despite the fact that nearly one in four Americans said their pay had decreased because of the economy, nearly 80 percent said that their holiday donations to charity would stay the same (62 percent) or increase (17 percent) this year.
While 20 percent of Americans said their holiday contributions would decline, the people polled were more likely to trim costs by economizing on holiday travel (44 percent), decorations (40 percent), and parties (31 percent).
Sixty-seven percent of respondents agreed with the statement that “because of the economy, it’s more important this year to give something to charity.”
November 19, 2009
Colorado Public Radio Holds a Pledge Drive -- for Another Group
Colorado Public Radio plans to hold a three-day fund-raising drive the week after Thanksgiving — but the beneficiary will be the Colorado Symphony Orchestra.
“Colorado Public Radio recognizes the CSO’s unique role as one of Colorado’s key cultural assets and petitioned the Federal Communications Commission for permission to conduct a one-time-only, on-air fund-raising drive to support its major classical music provider, the Colorado Symphony,” Max Wycisk, president of Colorado Public Radio, said in a statement.
The orchestra has been hit hard by the economic crisis, which forced the organization to reduce its current operating budget by $2.5-million. This fall, musicians agreed to salary and benefit concessions, which included a 12.5 percent pay cut, up to four weeks of unpaid furlough, and a suspension of employer contributions to the musicians’ retirement fund.
The special fund-raising appeal will culminate with a live broadcast December 2 of the orchestra’s sold-out performance with the cellist Yo-Yo Ma.
November 18, 2009
College Campaigns Meet Monetary Goals, Despite Bad Economy
Most capital campaigns by colleges and universities that seek to raise $1-billion or more are on track to meet their goals, despite the bad economy, according to a new report.
The report, by Marts & Lundy, a Lyndhurst, N.J., fund-raising consulting firm, analyzed 26 of the biggest campaigns now under way. Seventeen of the drives started before December 2007, when the recession officially began, and the nine others began in 2008.
Using regularly updated data on billion-dollar campaigns in higher education from The Chronicle of Higher Education and “big gifts of $50-million” or more compiled by The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Nelson Lees, a senior consultant at Marts & Lundy, conducted the analysis.
Mr. Lees first calculated the average monthly increase reported by all 26 campaigns. He then compared it with the average monthly increase it would take for those same institutions to reach their goal over a seven- to eight-year period, which was the average length of campaigns among all of the institutions.
By that measure, Mr. Lees said, the campaigns appear to be making sufficient progress toward meeting their goals. He said that other organizations now contemplating campaigns should be encouraged by the findings, as long as they have well-established constituencies and a well-organized campaign plan.
However, Mr. Lees did find evidence that the tough economy is affecting campaigns. Those started before the recession, for example, collect more in gifts and pledges each month than those that began later.
And gifts of at least $50-million to colleges and universities have slowed considerably, Mr. Lees said. So far this year, The Chronicle of Philanthropy has reported six such gifts, down from 31 last year and 43 in 2007.
Given this finding, institutions embarking on a campaign might do well to count on fewer multimillion-dollar gifts than they would otherwise — and concentrate on winning more contributions of $100,000 or more, said Mr. Lees. Doing that, he added, might require more fund raisers and drive up the cost of raising money.
A free copy of the report, Billion-Dollar Campaigns on Track to Meet Goals, is available online; free registration is required to access it.
November 17, 2009
AIDS Grant Making Grows
Thanks to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, American foundation support for HIV/AIDS-related causes grew 11 percent last year, to $618-million, says a new report.
But when the Gates organization is excluded, foundation giving actually declined 3 percent compared to 2007, said Funders Concerned About AIDS, a coalition of grant makers in New York.
In a new report, the coalition is urging foundations to step up their support for HIV/AIDS vaccine research, prevention, and other projects, saying the economic downturn threatens to erode recent gains in fighting the pandemic.
According to a survey of 79 foundations, 42 percent say they expect their AIDS giving to decline in 2008, 38 percent say it will remain steady, and 15 percent expect it to increase.
For the second time, Funders Concerned About AIDS issued its annual study of foundation giving on the same day as its European counterpart, the European HIV/AIDS Funders Group, in Brussels, released a similar report.
Foundations in Britain, Germany, and other Western European countries awarded $134-million to fight HIV/AIDS last year. That represents a 1 percent decline, but most of the grant makers say such giving will increase this year.
The studies say that for both American and European foundations, most of their giving for HIV/AIDS supports charitable efforts in Africa and other parts of the world.
Majority of Donors Plan to Keep Giving to Same Number of Charities Next Year
Despite the bad economy and rising unemployment rates, a majority of American professionals say they will give to the same number of nonprofit organizations next year as they did in the preceding 12 months, according to preliminary results from a new survey.
Fifty-eight percent of respondents in the survey said they will probably give to the same number of nonprofit organizations next year, and nearly a quarter said that they had donated more than $5,000 to nonprofit causes in the preceding 12 months.
The research, conducted by the American Society of Association Executives, was based on a survey of more than 5,000 adults. The respondents included its own members as well as members of five other associations.
Sixty-six percent of respondents predicted that their “employment situation” would be the same next year, and another 26 percent said they expected theirs to improve. Only 8 percent predicted that their job outlook would worsen.
Among survey respondents who said they had donated in the past 12 months, the most popular causes were religious organizations (61 percent), social-service groups (50 percent), health organizations (43 percent), educational institutions (33 percent), and disaster-response groups (28 percent).
A full copy of the research will be published in January.
November 16, 2009
New Report Shows Mixed Picture for Corporate Philanthropy
A new report offers a decidedly mixed picture of corporate philanthropy.
It says a majority of companies increased their giving in 2008, but overall the total amount of corporate giving dropped that year.
The report says 53 percent of the 102 large companies surveyed expanded their philanthropy despite the bad economy, while the rest decreased their charitable contributions. The growth was primarily in donations of products, services, and other noncash donations.
“These findings demonstrate that supporting community partners remained a top priority in 2008 despite the hurdles imposed by tight credit markets, a reduction
in consumer spending, and widespread economic uncertainty,” says the report, which was produced by the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy, a research group in New York.
However, it seems the increases did not outpace the decline in giving. Since 2006 the report shows that the total amount awarded by the big corporations has eroded. In 2006 they provided $10.7-billion, while last year they gave $10.03-billion.
The study, Giving in Numbers, did not look at 2009 giving but did ask chief executives and the officials in charge of giving what their priorities were given the shaken economy.
Of the CEO’s, the largest percentage, 56 percent, said their priority was to focus the company’s philanthropy on causes that relate to its business strategy.
For the corporate officers who oversee giving, the emphasis was on fulfilling existing commitments, with 44 percent saying it was important.
November 12, 2009
Small Charities Again Dominate Fund-Raising Contest
Little-known charities again struck big in America’s Giving Challenge, a contest designed to show the power of online social networks to raise small donations.
Groups participating in the month-long challenge competed to raise the largest number of gifts using the Causes application on Facebook. At stake was $245,000 in prize money from the Case and W.K. Kellogg Foundations.
Nearly 7,900 charities brought in 105,420 donations totaling $2.1-million in the competition, which ended last week. That was 17 percent more money — but 50 percent more donations — than last year’s contest, the first of its kind. More than twice as many groups participated this year.
While final results have yet to be announced pending a review of winning charities, it’s clear that smaller organizations outperformed larger groups.
Overseas China Education Foundation, a volunteer-run charity in Houston that raises money for children in rural China go to school, received the most donations — 13,722 for a total of $190,332. The group is likely to win the $50,000 grand prize.
The Prem Rawat Foundation’s Food for People program, which feeds poor people in India and Nepal using traditional recipes, raised the most money, 11,981 donations totaling $225,299.
Small charities likely fared better in part because they were more motivated by the prize money than were less-established groups, said Jean Case, chief executive of the Case Foundation. She said she had anticipated that some large groups would play a more active role in this year’s competition, but that “we didn’t really see that dynamic emerge.”
Another reason for the success of small groups could be that they have more readily embraced the “decentralized strategy” required of online giving contests, said Michael Smith, a vice president of social innovation at the Case Foundation.
“The most successful causes have hundreds of people that are out there and are trying to raise money on behalf of their cause,” he said. “It’s not a development director sitting in an office in Washington, DC.”
The Case Foundation spent the month before the contest providing tips and strategies to help charities raise money through social networks.
The economy may have taken some toll on this year’s competition, as the average gift was smaller than in last year’s challenge. But Ms. Case said the competition has always been about revealing the power of small donors, particularly younger people with less money to give away.
“They don’t have a $50 gift to give,” she said. “They might be able to give $10, and that’s just fine with us.”
Most Charities Are Trying Social Media, But Few Can Measure Its Impact
Nearly all charities are experimenting with social-media tools like Facebook and Twitter to get attention for their groups, but few have found ways to measure the tools’ usefulness, according to a new survey.
The survey of 200 charity and foundation professionals, conducted by the public-relations firm Weber Shandwick, found that 88 percent of groups have tested the tools, but only 51 percent are using them regularly.
The majority (71 percent) said they would continue to use traditional forms of media (advertising, for example) while experimenting, either a little or a lot, with social media.
Just 8 percent said they were switching almost entirely to social media. Eleven percent said they would continue to exclusively pursue traditional media.
Overall, 85 percent of respondents said they would use social media more frequently in the future. For the most part, nonprofit professionals were happy with social-media tools.
Ninety-two percent of the executives surveyed said social media raises awareness of their organizations, 86 percent said it keeps people engaged, and 77 percent said it helped reduce costs because it is less expensive than advertising or using traditional channels.
All that said, nonprofit executives are finding it difficult to determine how valuable the tools are for their organizations. Seventy-nine percent said they hadn’t found ways to do so.
The survey, which was conducted between July and August with help from KRC Research, found that groups see social media as more effective in reaching general audiences (70 percent) than donors (42 percent), the news media (41 percent), and policy makers (30 percent).
Two other recent surveys on charities’ use of social media have also raised questions about the value of the tools for nonprofit groups.
They are:
- Social Networking and Mid-Sized Nonprofits: What’s the Use?, by the online journal Philanthropy Action.
- The 2009 Cone Consumer New Media Study, by the Boston marketing firm.
A slideshow of the report on the Weber Shandwick study is available below. The organization also discusses the findings on its blog.
Fund-Raising Advice for Community Organizers
Fund raisers at community-organizing groups need to be able to explain the work that their organizations do clearly and in a way that is easy for prospective donors to understand, according to a new fund-raising guide.
“Donors can’t and won’t support what they don’t understand,” the authors write. “And they can’t help you with introductions to other possible supporters if they can’t explain what you do.”
The article, Seizing the Moment: Frank Advice for Community Organizers Who Want to Raise More Money, was written by Aaron Dorfman, executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, and Marjorie Fine, who directs the Linchpin Campaign, a project of the Center for Community Change.
More people are aware of community organizing than ever, they write, in large part because of Barack Obama’s past experience as an organizer in Chicago and because of the scandal at Acorn, a large grass-roots group.
Despite the negative publicity brought on by the controversy and the lingering recession, community-organizing groups can raise more money, with persistence and the right approaches, write Mr. Dorfman and Ms. Fine.
One hurdle the organizations need to overcome is the idea that they don’t know any potential large donors.
The authors recommend that community-organizing groups cast a wide net as they compile a list of potential donors, and turn to board members, employees, residents they work with, current contributors, social networking sites, and other allies, such as a local clergy for suggestions.
Organizations also need to be able to communicate the impact that their work has had, with both hard numbers and personal stories from the people affected.
“You need to be able to tell a compelling story about the impact your organization has had and will have on people and communities,” the authors write. “And you’ll need to be able to tell that story in different ways to different audiences.”
Annual Reports: One Donor's View
Does your organization’s annual report matter to donors?
It might not be the most effective tool for reaching everyone, but it does matter to donors like Karen Ansara.
Ms. Ansara is a philanthropist who, with her husband, Jim, started the Ansara Family Fund, a donor-advised fund at the Boston Foundation, in 2005. The fund gives a total of $500,000 annually to organizations that work to fight global poverty.
In a recent live discussion with the Chronicle, Ms. Ansara said she considers annual reports to be a key measure of an organization’s strength.
“I look at the financials — the comparison of the quantities of income from various funding sources from year to year — and the list of funders to sense the stability of the organization,” she said. “I also read the program summaries.”
What are the other factors that drive Ms. Ansara’s philanthropy? Read the transcript of our recent live discussion with Ms. Ansara and fellow donor Anne Ellinger to learn more.
Copyright © 2009 The Chronicle of Philanthropy