February 4, 2014 | Read Time: 1 minute
Charitable donations grew by nearly 5 percent last year, according to a study of 4,000 nonprofits by the fundraising software company Blackbaud, marking the largest increase it has found since the recession started.
The survey captured giving worth $12.5-billion, compared with the more than $300-billion “Giving USA” estimates is donated to charities annually.
Every type of charity—environmental and animal-welfare organizations, health-care and human-services groups— raised more in 2013, Blackbaud says. Even some charities that had big declines in fundraising in 2012, such as international-affairs charities, grew last year, the company said.
Among other findings:
- Online giving increased 13.5 percent from 2012 to 2013, the second straight year it has grown by more than 10 percent.
- Online giving made up 6.4 percent of the charitable contributions the groups in the study received.
- Organizations that raise more than $10-million a year saw the biggest increase, at 5.7 percent.
- In online giving, groups that raise less than $1-million a year chalked up the biggest increase, at 18.4 percent.
The growth figures from Blackbaud are somewhat smaller than the 13-percent increase in donations the Atlas for Giving estimated in its report last month. “Giving USA” plans to release its 2013 estimate in June.
