Blackbaud Index for May 2011

The Blackbaud Index of Charitable Giving and The Blackbaud Index of Online Giving provide fundraisers with up-to-date data on fundraising trends and to couple that information with valuable analysis by leaders in the sector.

Blackbaud updates these indices each month and they are based on a three-month moving average of year- over-year percent changes in revenue. This makes them less sensitive to small timing issues or large fluctuations over a short period of time. The latest Index data covers the 3 months ending May 2011 as compared to the same period in 2010.

Overall Fundraising Trends

The Blackbaud Index of Charitable Giving is a broad-based fundraising index that reports total revenue trends of 1,383 nonprofit organizations representing $2.32 billion in yearly revenue on a monthly basis, both offline and online. The Index is based on actual revenue statistics from nonprofit organizations of all sizes representing arts, culture, and humanities; education; environment and animals; healthcare; human services; international affairs; public and society benefit; and religion sectors.

The Blackbaud Index of Charitable Giving reports that overall revenue increased by 11.3% for the 3 months ending May 2011 as compared to the same period in 2010. Small and medium organizations had positive year-over-year growth, but large sized nonprofits showed a negative trend.

Online Fundraising Trends

The Blackbaud Index of Online Giving is a broad-based fundraising index that reports online revenue trends of more than 1,833 nonprofit organizations representing $427 million in yearly revenue on a monthly basis. The Index is based on actual revenue statistics from nonprofit organizations of all sizes representing arts, culture, and humanities; education; environment and animals; healthcare; human services; international affairs; and public and society benefit sectors.

The Blackbaud Index of Online Giving reports that online revenue increased by 6.7% for the 3 months ending May 2011 as compared to the same period in 2010.

New Report Available

This quarter’s report focuses on data through May, 2011 and features the introduction of a new specialty index focused on international affairs organizations with guest analysis from Chris Dann, president of Drakes Bay Fundraising and Kymberly McElgunn Wolff, senior vice president, resource development, CARE USA. Here are a few excerpts from the report:

“For the 10th consecutive month, The Blackbaud Index of Charitable Giving has shown positive growth, and for the first time in a very long time, that growth exceeds 10 percent for the three months ending May 2011 over the prior year. Also, for the first time since the start of the Great Recession, that growth is being experienced by organizations of all sizes…” – Chuck Longfield, Blackbaud’s Chief Scientist

“It comes back to the fundamentals. The first thing you do is pay attention to retaining the donors you have. Remember that no one ever gives you money because you need it, they give you money because you are accomplishing something they want to accomplish with their money.” – Chris Dann, president of Drakes Bay Fundraising

“You have to have a comprehensive philanthropic plan focused on long-term sustainability and capacity building because you can’t plan for those emergencies or the response. What we’ve found is that emergency donors respond very differently based on the emergency.” – Kymberly McElgunn Wolff, senior vice president, resource development, CARE USA

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Steve MacLaughlin

Steve MacLaughlin is the Vice President of Data & Analytics at Blackbaud and bestselling author of Data Driven Nonprofits.

MacLaughlin has been featured as a fundraising and nonprofit expert in many mainstream publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, USA Today, The NonProfit Times, Bloomberg, and has appeared on NPR.

He is a frequent speaker at events including the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), Association for Healthcare Philanthropy (AHP), American Marketing Association (AMA), Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), Direct Marketing Fundraisers Association (DMFA), Giving Institute Summer Symposium, National Association of Independent School (NAIS), Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN), Institute of Fundraising National Convention, Civil Society Conference, Resource Alliance’s Fundraising Online, and a keynote speaker at such events as the Crescendo Practical Planned Giving Conference.

Steve serves on the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN) Board of Directors and supports its focus on both the growth and professionalism of the nonprofit technology field as well as building knowledge and information sharing capacity throughout the sector.

He is a frequent blogger, published author of a chapter in the book People to People Fundraising: Social Networking and Web 2.0 for Charities, and is a co-editor of the book Internet Management for Nonprofits: Strategies, Tools & Trade Secrets. His latest book, Data Driven Nonprofits, became a bestseller in 2016.

Steve earned both his undergraduate degree and a Master of Science degree in Interactive Media from Indiana University.