2014 Nonprofit fundraising data shows encouraging signs through August

We’ve written a great deal about nonprofit fundraising results so far in 2014 compared with 2013 and seen some consistency in the overall results. Most studies have shown that this year is shaping up to be a healthy one in terms of fundraising revenues with the vast majority of organizations reporting either an increase in funding or support remaining ‘about the same’ as seen in 2013. Considering that last year returned good results for the sector these indicators would signal an encouraging set of performances for the year that’s still ongoing.

As we quickly head into the most important time of the year for most organizations the consensus from other reports showed that somewhere between 12 and 22 percent of charities have seen a downturn this year while as many as 50 or even 55 percent show an increase with the remainder reporting a similar year of results. Next year I’ll make a note to create a ‘poll of polls’ so we can build an ongoing aggregate of how the industry is performing which would be interesting to watch.

A new study which is actually a mid-year update from the Nonprofit Research Collaborative actually takes this data and drills down even deeper with results that are worth looking at today. We’ve written before about the NRC research here most recently in April and they do a remarkable job of measuring the pulse of fundraising results by region and sector and perhaps paint a clearer picture of what’s taking place in 2014 thus far. Their data was compiled in July and August of this year and I wanted to share some of the key findings.

More than half (52%) of all nonprofits surveyed reported charitable receipts increasing over the previous year based on six-month data which was an increase over the 46% who said the same a year prior. By way of contrast 26% report than donations remain about the same and 22% are reporting a decrease, remember though that this is year-to-date data and the final year end numbers may be quite different.

Across the United States and Canada the improvements are showing remarkable consistency at 52% in the US and 54% in Canada, regionally there is slightly more variance with the best increases seen in the West (57%) and the Midwest (53%) while in the North only 48% are showing gains so far. In terms of fundraising decline the South unfortunately tops the list with 31% saying that receipts are currently down versus 2013.

The size of the nonprofit organization is definitely making a difference in the year-over-year results which contradicts some of the other data that I have seen this year. Essentially the medium size nonprofits (receipts of $1 to $3 million) are reporting the best growth so far at 59% with slightly lower increases seen in the larger and largest nonprofits ($3 to $10 million and $10 million plus respectively) from which 52% and 57% of nonprofits in these brackets are showing an increase over 2013. It is the smallest organizations with revenues of less than $250,000 that are having the most difficult year so far with 41% showing an increase but 36% reporting a decline in receipts. The graphic below breaks the data down entirely and is quite informative.

Nonprofit fundraising by sector results are also very revealing per the image below which shows that the organizations that are more likely to report an increase so far in 2014 are those that in the international (62%) Arts (58%) and Education (58%) spheres, on the other hand those related to Environmental Issues (46%) Human Services (48%) and Religion (48%) are least likely to show improved revenues. The data sounds a lot more concerning than it actually is with all charity sub-sectors being far more likely to have maintained or increased receipts this year than the organizations that have lost some support. In all the sub-sectors show between 14% and 31% have shown any decline with the aggregate naturally being the same 26% as the report baseline.

One final chart I’d like to share is below which looks at fundraising changes per method based on the ‘less frequently used’ method to their approach. This is really interesting as these are not the primary methods for raising funds but show some great increases via Social Media and SMS/Text campaigns.

I’d strongly encourage that you review the entire report if you have time. The entire analysis also contains valuable information relating to results based on fundraising methods including planned giving, special events, online fundraising, mail fundraising and corporate giving.

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