Latest Blackbaud Report Promising for Nonprofit Fundraising

Social media is clearly proving to enhance the scope of nonprofit fundraising for both the small and large charitable organizations. The availability of these varied tools and analytics vastly expand the reach and exposure of the nonprofit and provide them invaluable insight into donor and donor trends. The compilation and accessibility of this data allows nonprofits to make informed, targeted decisions about their fundraising initiatives.

We have frequently referenced Blackbaud here on the Miratel blog and most recently we wrote about their Nonprofit Social Network Survey and the release of Blackbaud’s ingenious social giving infographic.

Blackbaud’s quarterly indexes report on two platforms: The Blackbaud Index of Charitable Giving and the Blackbaud Index of Online Giving which together reflect both on and off-line giving to present a big picture look at the total donations that are being collected according to a specific period of time.

According to their latest report:“For the 10th consecutive month, The Blackbaud Index of Charitable Giving has shown positive growth, and for the first time in a very long time, that growth exceeds 10 percent for the three months ending May 2011 over the prior year. Also, for the first time since the start of the Great Recession, that growth is being experienced by organizations of all sizes as fundraising at medium and large organizations grew by 10 percent in the same period, while small organizations (those with less than $1 million in annual fundraising revenue) grew by more than 17 percent.”

Blackbaud Nonprofit Fundraising Report image courtesy of blackbaud.com

The Blackbaud Index of Charitable Giving “reports that overall charitable revenue grew 11.3% for the three months ending May 2011, as compared to the same period in 2010. This trend is based on $2.3 billion in 12 months’ revenue from 1,383 nonprofit organizations.” While the Blackbaud Index of Online Giving “reports that online revenue increased by 6.7% for the three months ending May 2011, as compared to the same period in 2010. This trend is based on $427 million in 12 months’ online revenue from 1,833 organizations.”

Blackbaud’s latest report introduced a new specialty index focused on international affairs organizations and according to their website “Our newest index, representing organizations involved with international affairs, was up 13 percent reflecting significant post Haiti growth while fundraising at arts and culture organizations grew nearly 12 percent. The increase wasn’t universal however as human services and environmental organizations were still down from their year earlier results.”

In tough economic times, many nonprofits and worthy charities are competing for a finite amount of money as donors are not able to give as much as they once could. According to Blackbaud “with job growth flat the past two months and the economy weakening; a real challenge for all nonprofits going forward will be maintaining this momentum.” This means that charities have to be savvy and use all available tools and platforms to reach out and connect to their target donor base.

The upside is that the availability of these new tools and reports levels the nonprofit fundraising field between smaller and larger nonprofits so all can compete.

You can read the entire Blackbaud report including background here.

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