Target Analytics has just released its Index of National Fundraising Performance for the 12 months of activity through the 2^nd Quarter of 2010.

With essentially flat revenue and donor growth from the first half of 2009 through the first half of 2010, there are still some rays of sunshine in an otherwise pretty dreary fundraising sky.

Here’s a summary of Target Analytics report:

• Donor declines continued in the first half of 2010, but were smaller in magnitude than were in 2009, partly because of the Haiti-related giving.

• For 4 years the Index reported a steady decline in the number of donors, but in the first half of 2010, new donor numbers rose for the majority of organizations in the Index. Six of the eight sectors in the Index had new donor increases.

• Don’t celebrate too fast unless your group is disaster-related. Disaster-related fundraising accounted for most of the increases in sectors with the highest growth rates. But the authors do note that “for many other organizations across the Index new donor increases in the first half of 2010 are likely at least partially a rebound from severe declines in previous years.”

• Both First Year and multi-year retention rates declined in the first half of 2010, although per-donor revenue rates finally rose again in the first half of 2010 after a decline that lasted throughout 2009.

As many Agitator readers know, new donor rates have been dropping over the past six years – at an annual rate of 2.2%. And in the now-ending recession the rate of decline accelerated to an annual rate of 5.5%.

Amidst this dark and stormy backdrop spring rays of sunshine for advocacy organizations, which appear to now be on the mend … and religious organizations that have continued to hold their own and even grow during the recession.

According to the Index, the most pain through the 2^nd Quarter of 2010 has been felt by the arts/cultural sector (a 12.2% decline in retention rates) and the health sector with a 7.2% decline in retention.

The Index’s findings on the health sector were reinforced this week when The Association for Healthcare Philanthropy announced that gifts to nonprofit hospitals dropped 11% (that’s down $944 million) last year – the first fundraising dip since 2002.

Target Analytics’ Index of National Fundraising Performance is compiled from direct marketing giving for 81 organizations and includes 38 million donors and 73 million gifts, totaling over $2 billion in revenue.

To see how organizations in your sector have been affected and to gain other insights into the state of a big chunk of direct response fundraising, you can download the Index free of charge by clicking here.

And please let us know if the trends you’re seeing match those in the Index.

Roger