By Marion Lee, CFRE
If you have not read the June 30th Chronicle of Philanthropy, you are missing out on one of the most interesting editions this year. The article, The View from the Top: What Nonprofit Executives Report, is a great birds-eye view from a CEO’s perspective, and the annual Giving USA report had some surprises.
For the last 56 years, the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University has published GIVING USA, an annual report on philanthropy. Think of it as a philanthropic report card that can be your best friend when evaluating your development effort.
Other than cumulative gifts rising or falling, the statistics of where the money came from, and where it went, have pretty much stayed the same…until 2010.
Normally, we see that overall giving is up, (in 2010 by 3.8% over 2009, for a total of $290.9 billion) go home, have a glass of wine, and be happy. But this year, we have to ask ourselves some questions:
- Overall giving from all sources, except foundations, was up, but did that increase go to support the missions of nonprofits or did it go to private foundations and donor advised funds?
- Giving to the arts, humanities and culture rose approximately 5.7%, while gifts to human services flat-lined for the first time in about 10 years. In fact, giving due to the earthquake in Haiti offset what would have been a much greater loss of funding. When adjusted for inflation, gifts to human services declined .3% – why?
- Giving to religion also declined (adjusted for inflation) by .8%, again –why?
- In 2010, there were 1,280,739 nonprofit organizations in the United States. By June of 2011, 275,000 of them had lost their IRS status for failure to file legally required documents for three consecutive years. Why did that happen?
We believe that the answers to all of the above questions lie in:
a) the resounding need for nonprofits to develop and maintain a systemwide process of cultivation and stewardship
b) a board of directors that is actively engaged in the fundraising process of the organization or lack thereof
c) the resistance of volunteers and staff to asking for defined amounts for specific needs
d) repeat (b) and you may have the answer–with the addition of board members working without training and appropriate education
Granted, some of these may seem like minor changes in the force field, yet we believe that subtle shakes like this are a portent of things to come.
We would like to hear your thoughts on these issues, so please chime in and give us your feedback.