This is the first of two posts on the year now ending. Today, a summary of giving for 2011 and some trends in direct mail.  Tomorrow, the 2011 Pulse of Agitator readers.

As we head for 2011’s fundraising finish line The Atlas of Giving on Friday reported that overall giving this year will finish 7.4% ahead of last year.

Key takeaways from the Atlas of Giving November report:

• In terms of sectors, ‘Education’ was the biggest gainer (up 9.3%) and ‘Religion’ posted the greatest decline (but still 6.5% greater than 2010). All other sectors remained posted gains in the 7% range.

• Corporate and foundation giving up 6.2% and 6.1% are forecast to account for the least growth, while individual giving will increase 7.7% and bequests +7.4%.

• There are some signs of weakening. Giving in November (+0.4%)  and the December forecast (+0.2%) are worrisome portends for 2012.

• We’ll know more when The Atlas of Giving releases its 2012 Forecast in mid-January.

Much like the CIA once monitored the wheat harvest in the old Soviet Union, Ethan Boldt over at DirectMarketingIQ reports the top 5 fundraising direct mail trends in 2011.

Using the remarkable database of direct mail contained in the Who’s Mailing What Archive  that includes 14 different types of fundraising mail, ranging from social action, through international relief, culture, health, politics, religion, sports, animal welfare and wildlife, Ethan summarizes the key trends as follows:

• Controls showed a slight uptick in 2011. This year 45% of all fundraising mail was with a control package (by his definition a package that appeared in the Archive for at least 1 year); that’s an increase of 1.8%.  This means that 55% of all packages were ‘new’—a hopeful sign that there’s considerable testing going on. [Or, asks Tom cynically, does this merely reflect desperation?!]

• Personalization and Variable Data Printing Hit Record Levels.  Today, according to Ethan, 60.3% of all fundraising mail is personalized either by copy or imagery—the highest point since the Archive began.  And, it increased by a full 8% over 2010, the previous record high.

• Surprising Increase in Larger Formats. Ethan examined all direct mail in the Archive and reports that the usage of envelopes smaller than 6″ x 9″s stayed constant over the past two years. “The only change was an increase in larger-sized formats (bigger than 6″ x 9″s), by 9 percent, with larger formats taking up a quarter of the mailstream with a big contribution from the fundraising industry.”

• The Self-Mailer is (probably) Out! In 2010 self-mailers accounted for only 4% of fundraising mail, but that represented a 12 percent increase over 2009. Bad economy? Bad thinking? Whatever the reason Ethan reports that the use of self-mailers declined by 21% in 2011, a trend also reflected in the commercial sector.

• Mailings with Premiums showed a 14% increase. In the commercial sector the use of premiums increased by 7% in 2011. Is the fact that premium use doubled in the fundraising sector significant? We’ll explore premiums in future Agitator posts, but the reality is that today 1 in 5 mail pieces contain a premium. [Again, Tom asks, a sign of pure desperation? He’d be more comfortable if he thought fundraisers were serious about measuring and evaluating the lifetime value of these premium responders.]

Your ‘premium’ for tomorrow?  Agitator posts that rang our readers’ chimes in 2011.

Meanwhile, what giving or technical trends caught your attention in 2011?

Roger