Charities That Rely on Mass Solicitations Fared Well in 2005, Study Finds

By Holly Hall

Giving to charities that rely on direct-mail and other mass solicitations has slowed in recent months, after a spike caused by the 2004 tsunamis and Hurricane Katrina, a new study has found.

But even with the slowdown, which came in the final three months of 2005, contributions grew by healthy margins last year, according to the study of 60 large charities.

Those organizations received donations from 35 million donors and raised more than $1.7-billion last year, primarily from direct mail, but also from telemarketing, online appeals, and special events.

Donations to groups in the study, which include many of the nation’s best-known charities, such as the American Heart Association, the World Wildlife Fund, and CARE, rose by a median of 5.8 percent last year, outpacing the 3.4-percent inflation rate.

The research, conducted by Target Analysis Group, a Cambridge, Mass., direct-marketing consulting company, also found that the median increase in the number of new donors attracted by the organizations was 4.4 percent, meaning half saw larger increases in new donors and half smaller. Meanwhile, the total number of donors to the organizations increased slightly, by a median of 1.6 percent.

Some types of charities fared far better than others. Gifts to relief groups surged by 44 percent and donations to animal-welfare organizations grew by 39 percent, largely because of donations made in the wake of catastrophes such as Hurricane Katrina. Both types of charities were able to increase the number of new donors to their causes by nearly one-third over the number they attracted in 2004.

Those new donors will be hard to hang on to, however, Target officials said. Less than 10 percent of people who make disaster-motivated gifts to relief groups, they said, continue to support those charities after the disaster has passed.

At Catholic Relief Services, one of the charities that participated in the study, fund raisers said that 140,000 new donors made a gift to the organization after the tsunamis, but only 8 to 10 percent of them have contributed since.

But the tsunamis have increased giving by some other donors: Another 90,000 people who had supported the relief charity in the past with disaster-related and other gifts — but had not made a donation for four to six years — were motivated by the Asian tragedy to start giving to the charity again. About 30 percent of those donors have now made an additional gift, said Jean Simmons, who heads the charity’s direct-marketing efforts.

No Sign of Depressed Giving

The unusually strong giving to animal-welfare and relief groups in the wake of disasters last year did not depress giving to other causes. Gifts to advocacy and environmental groups rose by a median of 3 percent and 6 percent, respectively.

And in what could be a sign of renewed giving to environmental causes, which has waned in recent years according to some studies, conservation groups recruited a median of 17 percent more new donors last year than in 2004, more than any other type of charity except the relief and animal-welfare groups.

Giving to health organizations was flat, declining by a median of 1 percent, and those organizations also saw the largest decline in new donors, with a median 12-percent drop in the number of contributors they recruited last year.

But the declines among health charities, Target officials said, had more to do with a change in their approach to fund raising than with the attention donors gave to disasters. Several health organizations, they noted, are doing more to persuade people to increase the size of their gifts so they are able to raise the same amount from fewer donors.

In the last quarter of 2005, a majority of the charities said they received less than they did during the same period in 2004. That was the first time in three years that last-quarter results dropped for more than half of the charities in the study.

Target officials said that the dip reflected a return to normal giving levels after the tsunamis of 2004 and other disasters prompted donations to rise.

A free summary of the results of the study, “Index of National Fundraising Performance,” is available at http://www.targetanalysis.com.