More Charities Report a Drop in Gifts This Year, Report Says

More than one-third of American charities say they have collected fewer dollars so far this year than in 2007, nearly double the share that saw such declines last year, according to a new survey.

What’s more, almost half of the charities that say they rely heavily on end-of-year gifts expect donations to be less robust for the rest of the year, the survey found.

GuideStar, a Williamsburg, Va., nonprofit organization that makes data about charities available to the public, surveyed more than 2,700 nonprofit groups about their fund raising during the first nine months of 2008.

Thirty-five percent of the organizations reported that giving was down so far this year as compared with last — the highest proportion of charities showing declines since 2003. Only 19 percent of the participants in GuideStar’s survey last year reported that giving was down in the first three quarters of 2007.

Thirty-eight percent of this year’s survey participants reported that contributions had increased so far this year, as compared with 52 percent who reported increases in last year’s study.

In both years, one-quarter of the survey participants reported that contributions had remained about the same.

“Reports that the economy is having an adverse effect on charities are not premature,” says Suzanne E. Coffman, a GuideStar spokeswoman.

“It was a common-sense feeling that things were bad, and now we are seeing the numbers,” Ms. Coffman says.

Regional Differences

The survey shows that fund-raising results this year have varied somewhat from region to region.

Fewer nonprofit organizations in New England and in the Southwest reported contribution declines — 30 percent and 31 percent, respectively — than groups in other parts of the country.

Charities in the Southeast and the Great Lakes region were most likely to have seen contributions decline this year — each region with 39 percent of area groups reporting drops.

Different kinds of nonprofit organizations have fared differently this year, too.

Health organizations and religious groups were the most likely to report fund-raising declines — 41 percent each — while public-safety groups and research organizations were among those with the smallest share — 29 percent each — reporting declines.

Fewer Donors Give

Among all organizations, the most common reason for fund-raising drops, cited by 63 percent of the participants, was that they had attracted gifts from fewer donors this year as compared with 2007.

Among the other reasons (survey participants could pick more than one), 60 percent said that, on average, gifts from individuals were smaller.

The next most frequently cited reason — smaller corporate gifts — was cited by only 34 percent of the survey respondents.

The report is available free online.