Nonprofit Fundraising Experiences Variable Results According to Latest Blackbaud Index

As we have entered the last quarter of the year organizations have begun to put their end-of-year nonprofit fundraising plans in place and increase their initiatives in an attempt to strengthen overall results. In a year in which there were both highs and lows it’s important to understand the performance of your efforts and as well as those of the industry. The Blackbaud Index continues to provide reliable statistical information on the state of nonprofit fundraising and most recently we wrote about results which reflected a modest increases and results on the summer’s mixed results. The trend of variable results seen in 2013 continues in the latest Index which covers the three month period ending August 2013 and compares it to the same period in 2012.

Overall fundraising data from 3,200 US based nonprofit organizations which collectively raised approximately $10 billion in revenue reflected an increase of 3.3% over the previous year, which is an encouraging result as the same period in 2012 saw a 0.2% increase over 2011. However, when compared to the results from the previous month, we did experience a slight decrease of 0.1%. If the trend mirrors that of 2012, then we can anticipate an upswing in results in the next month’s Index as 2012 saw an increase of 5%.

Broken down by organizational type, top performers included Environment & Animal Welfare with a 15% increase over the previous year, small organizations with a 6% increase and International Affairs with 5.2%. Those on the lower end of the spectrum included K-12 Independent Schools with a decrease of -6.9%, Healthcare with -1.6% and Human Services with -0.9%. Although International Affairs performed well, when compared to the previous months results it had the largest decrease amongst all organizational types with a decrease of -12%, followed by Healthcare with -8.6% and Human Services with -7.1%. Modest gains were experienced by Public and Society Benefit with an increase of 3.1% and Medical Research and small organizations tied with 2.8%

Online fundraising continues to experience growth with an increase of 12% over the 2012 results. Exceptional results were experience by the Art & Culture sector with an increase of 21.2%, followed by small organizations with an increase of 19.2% and International Affairs with 14.6%. The only sector to experience a decrease in online fundraising was Medical Research with -3% and those with lower results included Public and Society Benefit with 1.8% and Healthcare with 7%. When the current month’s online fundraising results are compared to the previous there were some modest increases including Art & Culture with an increase of 4% and K-12 Independent Schools and small organizations tied with 3.6%. Those who experienced a decrease included Medical Research -8%, Public and Society Benefit with -7.8% and medium sized organizations with -7.5%.

As the next index will include post summer results we should see a gradual upswing in results well into the fall and throughout the end-of-year push. Strengthen your end-of-year results with some recommended reading:

• 5 Tips for Stronger 2013 End of Year Nonprofit Fundraising
• 6 Tips for End of Year Nonprofit Fundraising Email Campaigns for Stronger Results

____________________________________________________________________________________

For nonprofit, nonprofit fundraising, CSR business and other news, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Linedin, Google+ and Pinterest or subscribe to our RSS feed.

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.