Biggest Jump In Giving Since Great Recession
Blackbaud is out with its 2013 Charitable Giving Report documenting the largest year-over-year increase in charitable giving since the Great Recession of 2007-2008.
As you’ll see from the infographic below (click here to enlarge), based on its analysis of $12.5 billion in giving to 4,129 organizations, Blackbaud reports that overall giving grew by 4.9% in 2013 while online giving jumped 13.5%.
I spoke with Steve MacLaughlin, the report’s author and head of Blackbaud’s Idea Lab. For the first time in years he could report that giving was up in all 9 sectors tracked by the Blackbaud Charitable Giving Index.
Steve noted that perhaps the increase is attributable to an above-average boost in the stock market, perhaps to the increased use of technologies and better techniques. Whatever the reasons here are some memorable highlights from the report.
- International Affairs organizations saw the greatest increase in overall giving (13.2%).
- Faith-based had the greatest increase in online giving (18.1%).
- There’s evidence that organizations aren’t quite as dependent on year-end fundraising as they once were. The report shows that there are opportunities to diversify giving throughout the year with events like #GivingTuesday and end-of-fiscal-year campaigns in June.
Steve points out that rather than rely so heavily on year-end fundraising, more organizations should make more efforts at driving giving throughout the year. This includes testing major campaigns earlier in the year to avoid betting so heavily on year-end appeals and conducting campaigns at times of the year when the mailbox is less crowded.
You can download the full 2013 Charitable Giving Report here.
And you can watch Steve’s summary of the 2013 Charitable Giving Report by clicking on the video below.
How did your organization do in 2013?
Roger
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