Donations to International Charities Rose 6.6% Last Year, Study Finds

Charities that provide overseas aid were the only groups Giving USA said had seen an increase in donations over the last two years. Contributions to international causes climbed 6.6 percent in 2009, to $8.9-billion, a turnaround from 2008’s 2.8-percent drop. Even so, the picture for contributions so far this year remains mixed.

Some fund raisers hope the momentum sparked by an outpouring of generosity in response to the January earthquake in Haiti will keep giving for all international causes strong. Others worry that donors are focusing more on troubles at home.

“The people that would otherwise come to us to support hunger relief were instead looking at domestic hunger,” says Geoffrey Glick, director of external relations at Action Against Hunger, a New York group that runs nutrition programs overseas.

The group raised $3.5-million last year, slightly more than in 2008, but more than 11 percent short of its goal. It hopes to increase gifts this year mostly by expanding its Race Against Hunger program, a fund-raising event at middle schools across the country. Action Against Hunger has recruited 100 schools to participate this year, compared with 39 in 2009.

To attract more donors this year, the Center for Victims of Torture, in Minneapolis, is changing its fund-raising message to place more emphasis on the rehabilitation services it provides torture victims around the world than on its efforts to influence public policies. “People have empathy and the desire to help others even in hard times,” says Pete Dross, director of development. “We are doing a bit less in Washington and more on the service end and that is the compelling message we want to send.”

In February, the group restarted the telephone appeals it had halted last spring when too many donors were responding with stories of their own hardships rather than donations. The organization has also reinstituted its mailings to recruit new donors, though to save money it is sending far fewer than before—a planned 300,000 this year compared with 800,000 in 2008. It hopes to raise $2.2-million this year, down from last year’s $2.8-million.

IMA World Health, in New Windsor, Md., which provides medical supplies and aid around the world, plans to capitalize on the attention it received with its Haiti relief. Nearly half of the charity’s 900 donors contributed for the first time in response to to the group’s efforts in Haiti.

“I plan to phone each and every one of those donors to talk to them about what we have accomplished and what we can accomplish in Haiti and elsewhere,” says Douglas Bright, IMA’s vice president for institutional advancement.

The group is also planning to expand its new Churches in Action program, which provides customized fund-raising kits for church groups. The kits include a video, posters, inserts to place in church bulletins, and other materials for groups to organize their own appeals. IMA, which is on pace to raise far more than the $852,000 it brought in last year, is working on other materials that could also be used by non-church groups, like service organizations.

“We’re making all this as ready-made as possible and as tangible as possible,” Mr. Bright says, noting that the appeals are based on raising money for specific relief items, such as $25 each for Safe Motherhood Kits that include sterile birthing supplies.