Giving Troubles Found in Studies

Nonprofit organizations continue to face declines in donations and an uncertain outlook for recovery, according to two recent reports.

In a new survey by GuideStar, a nonprofit group that distributes information online about charities, almost half — 48 percent — of the charities that responded reported a decrease in private donations through the first 10 months of 2002.

Results of the survey, which was conducted on GuideStar’s Web site in early November, were based on responses from 2,347 charities, about 8 percent of those polled.

Many charities cited a decrease in foundation grants as a primary reason for the decline.

Forty percent of the 378 grant makers who responded to the GuideStar survey said the amounts that their organizations awarded between January and October had decreased compared to the same period in 2001.

A separate report, released in December by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, says that fund raisers are less optimistic about the giving climate than at any time in the past five years.

The report, based on the center’s Philanthropic Giving Index, a semiannual study of the perceptions of fund raisers about the environment for charitable giving, reflects the views of 165 fund raisers, 38 percent of the total polled. They reported that corporate and foundation gifts are more difficult to obtain than they were six months ago, and that big gifts from individuals continue to dwindle as the economy deteriorates. Still, respondents were optimistic that fund-raising conditions would improve within six months.

The GuideStar report is available at http://www.guidestar.org or from the organization at 427 Scotland Street, Williamsburg, Va. 23185; (757) 229-4631. The study by the Center on Philanthropy is available at http://www.philanthropy.iupui.edu or from the center at 550 W. North Street, No. 301, Indianapolis, Ind. 46202-3272; (317) 274-4200.