Blackbaud 2013 nonprofit fundraising results examined by sector and size

Earlier this week we looked at the December results of the Blackbaud Fundraising Index and how 2013 ended in the world of nonprofit fundraising . The index is a great barometer for industry trends measuring as it does the performance of almost 4,000 nonprofit organizations in the US. Today we’ll explore the report further as we look at the patterns that emerged for fundraising by sector and size. For a full explanation of the index please visit Blackbaud here.

Nonprofit fundraising results by size

The Blackbaud Index offers great layered viewing of data and splits the performances of nonprofits based on their actual size in terms of revenues. Three categories exist, splitting nonprofits into ‘small’ – those with donations of less than $1 million, ‘medium’ $1 M to $10 M and ‘large’ greater than $10 M. The graph below benchmarks the performance of the different sized charities versus the overall trend in giving throughout 2013. The overall giving lines remain in orange and the sub-sectors in purple. The graphs below represent small, medium and large in order.

2013 nonprofit fundraising trends by size of organization, all data courtesy Blackbaud

You’ll instantly make some key observations from the data above. While the trend for the year overall was a strong beginning followed by a gradual fall and then consistency in the second half of the year the same trends weren’t universal for the different sized organizations.

Small (1st graph): Very revealing data from smaller nonprofits shows that the performance of these charities tended to go against the overall trend throughout the year. When fundraising was in decline the first 4 months they improved or held steady and in the middle of the year they under-performed which was followed by a better than baseline conclusion. Somewhat erratic data but across the year a good performance.

Medium (2nd graph): Nothing can be clearer than the fact that the medium-sized nonprofits had the most difficult year of the three groups. Never recovering from a high point in February the trend line remained below the baseline for all twelve months and the second half of the year shows some slightly worrying data. On the plus side for the year there was positive fundraising growth throughout.

Large (3rd graph): As you would expect the largest nonprofits almost matched the annual baseline which makes perfect sense as they dominate the data but overall with no exceptions their numbers were above (9 months) or essentially at (3 months) the baseline for the entire year. As such it was essentially a mirror performance of the medium-sized organizations.

The actual percentages to the left for the year reveal the percentage size of the variances against the composite baseline. Worth noting is that the data in 2012 was extremely similar overall, with the medium nonprofits again failing to reach the baseline month to month while the larger nonprofits performed above expectations. Once more the small nonprofits tended to do well against the tide, recording growth when the industry-wide trend was down and vice versa.

Nonprofit fundraising results by sector

The Blackbaud Index provides even more versatility by allowing you to review the data by nonprofit sector, diving the industry by nine different sectors. Space precludes me from delving in too deep at the data but the chart to the right shows that 2013 had a very mixed set of results dependent on the fundraising sector in question, moreover the trend heading into 2014 will cause understood optimism for some and concern for others.

Naturally some sectors have very seasonal trending such as education and faith-based  while others will see a large spike due to specific events that capture the attention of the public such as disaster relief overseas following a tragic event.

The variance between sectors is really large overall and most impressively ‘International Affairs’ saw the largest sector growth of 14.3% on the year and a remarkable 17% from May onward. At the other end of the spectrum ‘Medical Research’ grew at just 1.3% on the year a figure that included five months of shrinkage in fundraising results. The ‘Faith-Based’ sector saw the largest increase in online fundraising results for the year which helped establish healthy growth of 5.4% for the 12 months.

Now I can’t wait to see how 2014 begins.
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Miratel Solutions is a Toronto call centre, eBusiness, and letter shop mail house specializing in professional fundraising services including telephone fundraising, online fundraising, lottery services, donation caging, donation processing and other donor management services. We are committed to our CSR business values in all contact centre services and mail house operations and advancing the missions of the nonprofits we proudly serve.