An Uneven Recovery at Nation’s Big Charities

As America’s economy seesaws, the biggest nonprofits are barely able to make up the fundraising losses they sustained in the Great Recession.

Donations to the Philanthropy 400, the charities that raise the most in America, grew just 4 percent last year, slightly more than half the gain in 2011. And the forecast from 88 groups that provided estimates for 2013 is even more grim: It shows a projected decrease of 1 percent.

A tally by The Chronicle shows how unevenly the gains are spread even among the 400 groups that together raise $1 of out every $4 in America.

Only about half of the charities on the Philanthropy 400 are raising more than they did in 2007, when the recession started.

Among the biggest recovery stories since the recession are organizations that create charitable funds for donors and those that depend on America’s wealthiest philanthropists.

This year, gifts of $1-million or more are booming; in early October, such commitments stood at twice the level they were by the same point in 2012.

Many more traditional charities, however, which rely on a broad pool of donations from Americans at all income levels, continue struggling to win support.

And the still-uncertain economy—made even bumpier this fall by the federal government shutdown, wrangling over the debt ceiling, and fears of a return to recession next year—threatens to hinder fundraising by many groups.

Even so, fundraising by the largest organizations is outperforming the rest of the nonprofit world: In June, “Giving USA” reported that donations rose only 1.5 percent in 2012 after inflation.

A Struggling No. 1

A sign of the struggle: The No. 1 organization, United Way Worldwide, is treading water.

The organization raised $3.9-billion in 2012, less than a 1-percent gain over 2011. Since 2007, its private donations dropped by more than 16 percent.

“Where we are is the case of so many nonprofits: We have not returned to pre-recession levels,” says Sherrie Brach, executive vice president for investor relations at United Way Worldwide. “I think the whole sector is trying to regain lost ground, and we are one of those organizations.”

Hot on United Way’s heels is Fidelity Charitable, at No. 2 for the second year in a row. The organization, which promotes donor-advised funds, collected $3.3-billion in 2012, a gain of more than 89 percent over the previous year.

Other organizations that offer donor-advised funds are also doing well. Of the 20 groups whose donations grew by the largest percentages from 2007 to 2012, five were community foundations, businesses, or others that offer the funds, which allow donors to put aside money to give away anytime they want—and get immediate tax benefits.

The list’s biggest one-year gains were logged by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Last year it didn’t make the list at all; today it is No. 122, after raising $181-million in 2012, an increase of more than 400 percent from 2011.

The donations were fueled by a campaign started in 2009 to expand the museum, which met its goal of $555-million three years ahead of schedule and is now aiming to bring in $610-million.

On the Road

Some charities found success by doing more to meet potential supporters face to face.

Compassion International (No. 23), which runs child-sponsorship programs in developing countries, hit the road in pursuit of donors. It created a traveling interactive exhibit, housed in tractor-trailers, that is displayed at churches and mall parking lots.

Visitors don headphones to learn the stories of children who have been helped by the charity’s sponsors; the exhibit lets them hear and see the conditions in which the kids live in Guatemala and India.

“It’s bringing the reality of poverty to America, without actually having to jump on a plane to do it,” says Mark Hanlon, the charity’s senior vice president of global marketing and engagement.

The exhibit, which has been traveling for 18 months, has helped woo new donors and reaffirm the commitment of those who already give, he says.

More than 7,000 people who had not previously sponsored a child before did so because of the experience, and the group says the exhibit is one reason it raised $596-million last year, up nearly 9 percent from 2011.

The Brookings Institution (No. 196) raised $112.9-million last year, a third more than in 2011.

Ever since the financial downturn, the think tank has concentrated heavily on attracting big gifts, says Kim Churches, vice president for development.

It expanded scholars’ work to include international topics that many of its donors wanted to support. It persuaded all of its trustees to give, accounting for 25 percent of the $393-million it has raised so far in a campaign it hopes will raise $600-million by 2016.

And this year, it will embark on a “road show” of sorts, sending its scholars out to give lectures in cities where wealthy potential donors live, such as Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and Greenwich, Conn.

Other groups also achieved fundraising success last year, and during the recession, by catering to the interests of their most-frequent donors.

Father Flanagan’s Boys Home, commonly known as Boys Town (No. 89), raised $218.2-million last year, a jump of more than 40 percent over 2011.

Giving to the organization has doubled since the start of the recession. The group thrived by doing the opposite of what many charities did last year: It increased direct-mail appeals while others were cutting back, and it stuck with using donor gifts like calendars, stickers, and greeting cards. The approach helped prompt donors over age 65 to give again, according to the Rev. Steven Boes, Boys Town’s executive director.

The group, he says, plans to invest more heavily in online giving, a preferred method of younger donors, and to use social media as well to make it clearer to potential supporters that Boys Town also serves girls.

The rising fortunes of the wealthy in the post-recession economy spurred a flood of multimillion-dollar gifts in 2012, a trend that has picked up speed this year, according to The Chronicle’s data.

Gifts of $1-million or more totaled slightly more than $8-billion as of early October, compared with just under $3.8-billion at the same point last year.

Shooting the Moon

The bullish stock market has played a role in getting wealthy individuals to open their checkbooks. But some organizations have also captured donors’ imaginations with invitations to support bold ideas and big projects.

The Smithsonian Institution (No. 95) raised $210.5-million last year, a jump of 30.4 percent, fueled in part by an increase in the number of people asking for money (the organization has added 30 fundraisers since 2011) and by attracting new and major donors through a drive to raise money for the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

The museum, now being constructed on the National Mall, is scheduled to open in 2015. So far the drive, which is expected to end by 2016, has raised about $135-million toward its $250-million goal. Among the gifts: A $12-million contribution in June from Oprah Winfrey, a board member.

The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center (No. 114), which raised $186.7-million last year, an increase of more than 114 percent since 2011, also wooed big gifts with a bold idea: its “Moon Shots Program,” begun in September of last year with the aim of supporting research to greatly decrease deaths from eight forms of cancer. (The name of the program was inspired by a 1961 speech by President Kennedy in which he set a national goal of putting a man on the moon.)

The effort to raise $1-billion by 2022 has so far raised more than $104-million, including a $50-million pledge in June from Lyda Hill, a Dallas businesswoman and heir of an oil fortune.

But even before the Moon Shots drive took off, the institution’s fundraising was soaring: Its gifts rose by nearly 34 percent since the recession.

“Moon Shots is not the only reason for our success,” says Patrick Mulvey, vice president for development. The cancer center, he says, has also done well by holding events for donors featuring prominent actors, sports figures, and politicians, as well as some of its 1,400 faculty members working on cancer research and new drug therapies.

Many faculty members have attracted gifts from former patients and other donors who want to support their work, Mr. Mulvey says. “They are the bone marrow of the institution’s reputation in research, patient care, prevention, and education.”

The ‘Nervous Years’

In some cases, steadily focusing on a charity’s mission is what has enabled fundraisers to open donors’ wallets.

The Conservation Fund (No. 248) didn’t alter its fundraising strategy much during the recession, and it kept a pledge to solicit supporters only once a year, in October.

“We stayed consistent even when the nervous years came,” says Alisa Borland, the environmental charity’s vice president of development. Donations to the group are now 7 percent higher than before the recession started in 2007.

In 2012, the group raised $90.3-million, a jump of more than 48 percent from 2011, spurred in part by a drive called the Rockford Woodlawn Project. The parcel of nearly 1,100 acres of land along the Brandywine River, site of a Revolutionary War battle, had been declared a national monument. The Conservation Fund raised money to buy the property for $20-million so it could donate it to the National Park Service. The move allowed the creation of the first national park in Delaware, the only state without one.

Ms. Borland says the organization will continue to focus on its mission rather than trying cutting-edge fundraising strategies at a time when political wrangling over the budget has made so many Americans nervous. “We acknowledge that this is a tough time for our country,” she says. “You know that people, especially government employees, are going to look closely at what they give at the end of the year.”

Maria Di Mento, Emma Carew Grovum, Sarah Frostenson, and Sam Speicher contributed to this article.