Fund Raising Barely Grew for Charities Last Fall, New Study Finds

Charitable donations from individuals, foundations, and corporations were essentially flat for the three months ending in November 2010—and that does not bode well for any serious rises in giving in 2011, according to a new analysis of giving to 1,468 nonprofit organizations.

The analysis, known as the Blackbaud Index of Charitable Giving, is based on data provided by selected members of the software company’s clients, with the goal of mirroring the types of organizations that make up the entire nonprofit world.

For the three months ending in November, the organizations in the index saw contributions grow by just 0.3 percent compared with those same months in 2009. The groups in the study raised a total of $2.25-billion from November 1, 2009, to November 30, 2010.

It was the fourth month in a row that the software company found a slight uptick in contributions, but the increases are so small that it is hard to be optimistic about gains in the coming year. Blackbaud predicted that 2011 will be characterized by “slow but steady improvement” for most charities.

In a separate analysis, the Blackbaud Index of Online Giving, the company found that donations made electronically to 1,747 charities rose 8.7 percent in the three months ending in November 2010. Those groups raised a total of $425-million online from December 1, 2009, to November 30, 2010.

The percentage gain was another piece of bad news for charities about the state of fund raising. It marked the first time in 2010 that online donations did not grow by 10 percent or more, Blackbaud officials said.