There is Reason for 2013 Nonprofit Fundraising Optimism According to Latest Blackbaud Index Results

The Blackbaud Index continues to be a reliable source for current data on nonprofit fundraising as it provides a broad glimpse into how organizations (of varying size and sectors) are performing which serves as a benchmark to compare results. Recently I highlighted the Blackbaud year in review in the post Charitable Giving Report – How Nonprofit Fundraising Performed in 2012 which indicated flat results throughout the year and this past month I also reported that the Blackbaud Index indicated a slow recovery in 2013. The latest Blackbaud Index which covers a three month period from December 2012 to February 2013 reveals positive results measuring the same period year-to-year, but a downward trend within the same three month period.

Overall giving results from 3,000 organizations raising approximately $8 billion in US based fundraising revenue saw an increase of 2.9% across the board in the reporting period when compared to the same period in 2012. Small organizations (with annual fundraising revenue of less than $1 million) saw the largest increase with 8.0%, followed by International Affairs with 7.9% and Arts & Culture and K-12 Independent Schools rounding the top three with 5.1%. Public and Society Benefit saw the largest decrease with -5.4% when compared to the previous year, while Human Services was the only other organization type to see a decrease of -0.2%

Notable is that the period includes December, the strongest month of the end-of-year fundraising push and the -1.3% decline from January to February may be attributed to post holiday blues. The month to month downward trend has affected all organization types and sizes with the exception of small organizations which saw an increase of 3.5% and K-12 Independent Schools which saw no change. Public and Society Benefit on the other hand saw the largest decrease of -10.3% to the previous month, Human Services -4.8% and Healthcare -3.4%.

Online giving statistics from 2,500 nonprofits representing $500 million in online giving saw a healthy 10.8% increase when compared to the same time last year, with K-12 Independent Schools having the largest increase of 24.2%, followed by Small organizations with 19.9% and Environment and Animal Welfare with 18.1%. Across the board all organization types and size had increases however those on the lower end included International Affairs with 5.6%, Public and Society Benefit 6.8% and large organizations which posted an increase of 8.0%.

When compared to results from the previous month the only increases occurred in the Environment and Animal Welfare and small organizations with 3.5% and 1.4% respectively. Public and Society Benefit saw the largest decrease of -20.9%, while medium organizations declined by -8.8% and International Affairs by -5.1%. Overall online giving continues to grow despite losses occurring in certain organization types and represents 6.25% of overall fundraising revenue amongst the participating nonprofits results.

It is expected that the first quarter of the year gets off to a slow start. What is encouraging is that overall nonprofits are performing better than the previous year despite month-to month decreases. It will be interesting to see if steady growth will in fact continue throughout the year and have stronger results than 2012.

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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.