October 15, 2010 | Read Time: 1 minute
Donations to a national sample of charities increased by 1.4 percent in the three months ending in August, compared with the same time in 2009, according to a new analysis of contributions to 1,364 charities.
The analysis, by the software company Blackbaud, found that fund-raising results varied by size of the organization: Small charities with revenues under $1-million did the best. They reported an 11.2-percent increase in donations for the three months ending in August, compared with those months last year.
In fact, small charities did much better than medium-size groups with revenue of $1-million to $10-million; those groups reported a 1.9-percent decline in giving. Large charities with revenue over $10-million reported a 0.2 percent drop.
The Blackbaud analysis also provided a snapshot of giving to 431 human-service charities that help the needy and earn $640-million in annual revenues. Charitable giving to those organizations decreased by 19.3 percent in the three months ending in August, compared with the same period last year, the analysis found.
Blackbaud officials did not speculate on the reason behind the decline in giving to human-service charities. But Irv Katz, president of the National Human Service Assembly, which represents more than 75 national social-service organizations, said it could reflect donors’ fatigue with the long-running bad economy, which in 2008 and 2009 caused many Americans to give more to groups that serve the poor. What’s more, he said, many human-service agencies are focused on fighting decreases in government funds, a losing battle for many, and may not be putting enough resources into raising money from elsewhere.
One bright spot in the Blackbaud analysis was online contributions, which grew by 20.4 percent in the three months ending in August, compared with the same three months in 2009. Increases in online giving were found for organizations of all types and sizes.
