December 19, 2008 | Read Time: 1 minute
Fund raisers are less confident than ever in their ability to raise money now and over the next six months, according to a new poll conducted by the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy.
The survey, conducted twice annually since 1998, found that 65 percent of fund raisers, who were polled in November and during the first week of December, are confident in their ability to raise money. (That percentage is based on an average of their responses to two measures, one assessing confidence in the current fund-raising environment and another examining their confidence over the next six months.)
The 65-per-cent confidence rate is a new low since the survey was unveiled. The rating has ranged from a low of 72 percent in mid 2003 to a high of 95 percent at the end of 1999. Fund raisers’ confidence declined by 22 percent from the most recent survey, just six months ago, and by 27 percent compared to a year ago.
Those results are a direct result of the recession, said Patrick Rooney, interim executive director of the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy.
The results of the poll were not all bad: More than 40 percent of fund raisers reported that they had received increased donations from individual retirement accounts. That’s in part because Congress extended a provision that offers a special tax break for IRA donors older then 70 1/2.
