Fund Raisers See Slight Rise in Optimism, but They Remain Wary

December 16, 2009 | Read Time: 2 minutes

Charities’ confidence in the fund-raising climate has risen slightly since this summer but remains low, according to the latest biannual survey of fund raisers conducted by Indiana University’s Center on Philanthropy.

The December 2009 Philanthropic Giving Index — based on the average of two measures in which fund raisers rate today’s giving climate and how confident they feel about the next six months — is 71.1.

That is an 8.7-percent increase since the summer, when the index was 65.4, and a 9.8-percent increase over this time last year, when the index stood at 64.8.

The survey was mailed to 404 fund-raising executives and consultants. Of those, 146 people responded, an overall response rate of 37.1 percent.

Fund-raisers’ assessment of their ability to raise money now is 62.5, an increase of 7.7 percent compared to six months ago when the rating was at 58, a historic low in the 11 years the survey has been conducted. Even so, it is still down 1.7 percent from this time last year, when the rating stood at 63.6.

By contrast, the rating that fund raisers gave for the current giving climate just two years ago, in December 2007, was 88.

Fund raisers from social-services organizations are substantially less optimistic about the current giving climate than those at other organizations, rating their ability to raise money now at 52.9.

Over all, fund raisers are more optimistic about their ability to garner donations in the next six months. The expectations measure, as it is called, is 79.8, an increase of 9.6 percent since the summer, when the figure stood at 72.8. It is an increase of 20.7 percent over last year, when the expectations measure was at 66.1.

Most of the fund raisers surveyed said that retaining current donors is a high priority for their organizations (92.5 percent). A much smaller percentage of fund raisers reported that cultivating prospective donors (69.7 percent) and re-engaging lapsed donors (56.3 percent) are high priorities for their organizations.

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About the Author

NICOLE WALLACE

Features Editor

Nicole Wallace is features editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy. She has written about innovation in the nonprofit world, charities’ use of data to improve their work and to boost fundraising, advanced technologies for social good, and hybrid efforts at the intersection of the nonprofit and for-profit sectors, such as social enterprise and impact investing.Nicole spearheaded the Chronicle’s coverage of Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts on the Gulf Coast and reported from India on the role of philanthropy in rebuilding after the South Asian tsunami. She started at the Chronicle in 1996 as an editorial assistant compiling The Nonprofit Handbook.Before joining the Chronicle, Nicole worked at the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs and served in the inaugural class of the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps.A native of Columbia, Pa., she holds a bachelor’s degree in foreign service from Georgetown University.