New Study: People Who Don't Support Nonprofits

"There are some industry consultants who act as though they have a magic bullet for attracting people to give," Sellers said. "Maybe that would be possible if there were only one perceptual obstacle. But non-donors often hold a combination of opinions that act as barriers to getting them to give.

"A majority of non-donors feel it should be someone else's responsibility to support nonprofits; someone with more money. The problem is, even the people with more money often claim they don't have enough to give, or that whatever they could afford to give wouldn't be enough to make a difference," he continued.

Sellers also pointed out that nonprofits themselves may not be blameless for the fact that many Americans aren't providing any financial support.

"Most non-donors have at least some concerns that nonprofits aren't really solving any problems, or that they're not using the money efficiently. And only a third feel confident they could find a good one to support should they wish to do so. The industry needs to address these perceptions if organizations hope to have much success turning these non-donors into donors," he said.

Study Details
The study was conducted by Grey Matter Research, a research and consumer insights company located in Phoenix, Arizona. Grey Matter has significant experience with research related to nonprofit organizations, with numerous donor-supported organizations as clients. The sample of 458 adults is accurate to within ±4.6 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level with a 50 percent response distribution.

The study was conducted in all 50 states. Respondents' age, education, household income, geography, racial/ethnic background and gender were carefully tracked and weighted to ensure appropriate representation and accuracy.