Key
Messages from Giving USA 2006
By Jeffrey Byrne,
President & CEO
Kansas City
Now
in its 40th year of tracking charitable
giving in the United States, the data
released last month by Giving USA confirms
that Americans are among the most generous
in the world when it comes to helping
those in need and the causes they care
about.
Since 1987, each year
has brought an increase in charitable
giving in America. This trend continued
in 2005 with a larger increase (even adjusted
for inflation) than that of the increase
in 2004 over 2003. In fact, giving in
2005 showed the biggest increase in American
giving since 2000. This has borne true
even with Standard & Poor’s
reporting a flat market in 2004-05.
In my opinion, the report offers two key
messages that nonprofit professionals
can “take home” to your organizations:
- Disaster relief had a positive
impact on overall giving.
As with giving following 9-11 and
2004’s Tsunami, Americans continued
to show compassion and a willingness
to dig into their pockets even deeper
to help those in need without taking
away from other causes that are important
to them.
- Individuals continue to
make up the largest piece of the giving
pie. While corporate giving
rose an unprecedented 22.5% –
largely due to disaster relief response
– people like you and me are
by far the largest source of gifts
to charity in the United States, averaging
more than 83% of the pie when you
include bequest giving.
Both of these
messages offer good news for nonprofits!
Except for the arts (which
has proven to be more market-sensitive)
and health (which has shown slight declines
over the past few years), giving was up
in all nonprofit sectors. Surveys of nonprofits
used to compile the report showed that
while 59% of the organizations reported
increases in giving, only 28% reported
decreases – the lowest percentage
of decreased giving since the report has
been tracking organizational reports.
The remaining percentage held their ground
with steady giving levels in 2005.
With greater awareness
of human need generated by more pervasive
media reports of disasters here at home
and around the world, nonprofit professionals
are well-advised to count on more Tsunamis,
hurricanes and floods. If recent history
is a guide, however, this will not mean
reduced giving to your nonprofit . . .
IF you pay attention
to the second key message.
That is, focus
on the individual.
It’s not unusual
for the average board member to say “We
need to raise money. Let’s hire
a grant writer and get some corporate
and foundation contributions.”
Giving USA tells us that
that all the Gateses, Rockefellers, AT&Ts,
Carnegies and national foundations and
corporate giants combined only make up
a fraction of what’s available to
your nonprofit from Mr. and Mrs. Jones
right in your own back yard. And while
corporate giving is up and made up a slightly
larger share of the pie last year, the
data on individual giving is not a one-year
blip. Individual giving in the range of
75 percent or greater for annual gifts
and 83 percent or greater when you include
after-death giving, has remained at these
consistently high rates for the past 40
years.
While grant-writing is
certainly a part of a well-rounded development
program, it’s the individual who
counts when you are looking to grow your
fundraising. And, if recent history is
a guide, you can expect greater returns
even in the face of disasters if you focus
on that individual and connect them to
your organization and your cause.
