News/Stats/Studies

A growing number of idealistic students are taking it upon themselves to fix problems they see in society and are starting their own nonprofits to do it.

A study by the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement shows that 80% to 85% of incoming college freshmen have community-service experience prior to starting their higher education. Today's teens also plan to be generous when they get older. More than 75% say they will give regularly to charity, according to the Girl Scout Research Institute.

Donated income to charities remained strong in the U.K. last year despite growing unemployment and shrinking household incomes, according to the biennial State of the Sector survey by Third Sector and the sector consultancy nfpSynergy.

Forty-three percent of respondents said donated income at their organizations rose or stayed the same in 2011, with 32 percent saying it went down. Four percent said donations went up a lot, while 18 percent said they went up a bit.

It's been two years since the Nonprofit Technology Network released the first Nonprofit Data Ecosystems Survey report. NTEN revisted this topic this summer for the 2011 Nonprofit Data Ecosystems survey, and released the report this week.

The report provides a look at not only what particular technology tools and vendors the NTEN community uses for the different data management functions across their organizations, but also the grades they assign to those tools and vendors on criteria such as after-sale support and usability.

The Resource Alliance has launched its two flagship events, Fundraising Online and the International Fundraising Congress, as well as a new website for 2012.

Convio announced its key predictions and expected trends that will have the biggest impact on the nonprofit sector in 2012: social and mobile continuing to mature; peer-to-peer engagement having greater influence; and donors dictating terms of interaction.

View Convio founder Vinay Bhagat's five predictions for the nonprofit sector in 2012 here.

The nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation — which operates Wikipedia and related websites solely on donations — raked in a record-breaking $20 million during its just-concluded 2011-12 fundraising campaign. The San Francisco-based foundation has been conducting annual fundraisers since 2003.

The just-finished fundraising campaign collected money from more than 1 million donors around the world.

According to comScore, Wikipedia is the fifth most popular web property worldwide, attracting more than 470 million unique visitors every month.

Few Americans are seeing relief from the nation’s economic slump, but the finances of some nonprofits are much rosier as the nation’s wealthy stepped up their multimillion dollar gifts in 2011.

The biggest gifts announced by Americans totaled more than $2.6-billion, compared with $1.3-billion in 2010. (Twelve donations were included in the list because of two ties for the 10 biggest donations of the year.)

Nonprofits are stepping up their grantseeking efforts, and although a majority see no rise in grant awards, there is collective optimism that the outlook will improve over the next six months, a new study says.

Seventy-eight percent of the 928 nonprofits responding to an online survey say they applied for more grants in the first six months of 2011 than in the same period last year, says the report from GrantStation and PhilanTECH.

Meet the 2012 FundRaising Success Editorial Advisors.

Nancy Schwartz shares three free Getting Attention guides published this year — on messaging that resonates, marketing wisdom from your peers and books that can lift and energize you.

• Nonprofit Tagline Database & Report — Get inspired by 4,800+ nonprofit taglines and the guide to making yours great.
• The Nonprofit Marketing Wisdom Guide — Use these 127 lessons learned to strengthen your org’s marketing impact!
• The Book that Changed My Life: 129 book recommendations from nonprofit leaders around the world.