News/Stats/Studies

What’s the biggest marketing lesson you learned (or re-learned) in 2011? Please take two minutes to share your lesson with Nancy Schwartz, president of fundraising consulting firm Nancy Schwartz & Co. and author of the Getting Attention! blog — the survey closes Dec. 23.
Schwartz will summarize the trends, and share the lessons submitted by you and your peers in the field, in the 2012 Guide to Nonprofit Marketing Wisdom. You’ll get a free copy when you share your biggest marketing lesson learned!

Contributions declined at more than half of Catholic parishes from 2008 through 2010, according to a new study. Roughly 20 percent of parishes said giving remained flat during that time, while 13 percent reported that contributions decreased at first and then rebounded. About 10 percent of parishes said donations rose.

The Center for the Study of Church Management at Villanova University analyzed the data 390 Catholic parishes provided as part of the Faith Communities Today survey, which was conducted by the Cooperative Congregational Studies Partnership.

Developed countries and funding agencies are putting the brakes on growth in development assistance for health, raising the possibility that developing countries will have an even harder time meeting the Millennium Development Goal deadline looming in 2015, according to new research from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.

Older Americans give to charities and other important causes more generously than most other Americans, according to a survey released by Chase Card Services, a division of JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Over the past decade, U.S. foundation support for programs benefiting Hispanics and Latinos has held steady at approximately 1 percent of overall foundation funding, even as the Hispanic population in the country has grown significantly, a new report from the Foundation Center finds.

According to Foundation Funding for Hispanics/Latinos in the United States and for Latin America, total grant funding targeting Latinos in the U.S. between 2007 and 2009 averaged about $206 million a year, while funding for Latin America averaged roughly $350 million annually.

The National FFA Foundation announced it raised a record $16 million through corporate and private financial contributions to support FFA in 2011.

The foundation welcomed 40 new corporate sponsors in 2011, raising the total number to 1,212. Three new corporations combined for a $3 million gift to FFA. The foundation also drew more than 80 new companies and organizations as exhibitors at the 2011 National FFA Convention & Expo, the nation’s largest gathering of students. More than 53,350 FFA members, teachers and school administrators attended the 2011 event.

Chapman Cubine Adams + Hussey (CCAH), a full-service direct marketing firm serving global nonprofit organizations, announced that the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) has chosen the company as its direct marketing agency of record. CCAH will be responsible for developing and implementing NWF’s multichannel fundraising initiatives to help increase the organization’s revenue, expand monthly giving and improve donor retention.

After a tough couple of years, things are finally looking up for legit nonprofits, but they're still living hand-to-mouth on a day-to-day liquidity basis. Those are among the findings of a couple of economic reports recently released by Theater Communications Group, the grant-making, advocacy and networking org of U.S. theater nonprofits.

According to TCG's Theater Facts 2010, there are signs of hope, particularly in a metric TCG calls the Change in Unrestricted Net Assets, which measures all forms of a theater's income vs. all expenses.

After 16 years, a program that gives University of Oklahoma business students real-world management experience on Saturday reached the $1 million mark in donations to local charities from the profits of student-run firms. Through the years, students in the Integrated Business Core program at the Price College of Business have sold beach towels, water bottles, flash drives and playing cards — most carrying an OU logo.

In nearly 90 percent of high net worth households, women are either the sole decision maker or an equal partner in decisions about charitable giving, according to the Bank of America Merrill Lynch 2011 Study of High Net Worth Women’s Philanthropy.