March 18, 2010 | Read Time: 1 minute
Fund raisers at older organizations such as the American Red Cross or American Cancer Society may feel a false sense of security about their ability to raise more money than smaller, less well-known organizations.
In an online presentation last week, Roger Craver, a direct-marketing expert, and researcher David Lawson shared a new analysis of data from the Internal Revenue Service, which found that charities created in 1969 or earlier raised a total of $205-billion in 2007. Groups created in 1970 or later raised $105-billion, or about half as much. The average amount that organizations created after 1970 raised grew steadily during every decade they were in existence. Newer organizations, Mr. Craver said, are able to raise more impressive sums than many fund raisers have realized.
Other research suggests that the older organizations are losing charitable dollars to newer charities: For example, quarterly surveys by Target Analytics, a Boston research company, for example, have found that the number of donors to 80 big, well-established charities have been declining for the last few years, said Mr. Craver. Meanwhile, giving overall has increased, suggesting that newer organizations are capturing more and more of the total that Americans give to charity.
Charities should pay more attention to how much other organizations with the same or similar missions are raising, say Mr. Lawson and Mr. Craver—even if those groups are smaller and less well-known.
