New Index Finds Charitable Giving Is Up Compared With Last Year

June 15, 2010 | Read Time: 1 minute

Charitable giving during February, March, and April was up 12.1 percent compared to the same period in 2009, according to the Blackbaud Index of Charitable Giving.

The new index draws on fund-raising information from 1,400 nonprofit groups representing different parts of the nonprofit world. Together the organizations have annual revenues of $2.2-billion.

“Economic conditions, natural disasters, and market fluctuations have made it extremely difficult for nonprofits to make fund-raising decisions informed by the latest donor behavior,” Chuck Longfield, Blackbaud’s chief scientist said in a written statement. “That is why we created the Blackbaud Index of Charitable Giving — to provide fund raisers with up-to-date data on fund-raising trends and to couple that information with valuable analysis by leaders in the sector.”

Breaking down the information by organization size, the study found that fund raising rose 12.3 percent compared to the same period the previous year at charities with annual budgets of less than $1-million. The amount of money raised was down 2.5 percent at organizations with budgets of $1-million to $10-million but rose 19.2 percent at groups with budgets of more than $10-million.

Blackbaud notes that a significant portion of the increase was related to the outpouring of donations to charities providing aid to survivors of the deadly earthquake in Haiti.

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.