News/Stats/Studies

A steep drop in financial support from foundations and individual donors is still hitting nonprofit organizations hard, but many have shown a resilience to carry on programs and keep up with rising demands brought on by the recession.

The need for charity services, which many turn to in tough economic times, have overburdened nonprofits over the last few years while, at the same time, funding for such growing needs has diminished significantly, according to consultants and local charity organizations.

"Philanthropy in Israel is still based on a lot of foreign funding and the relative increase in Israeli donations doesn't reflect the wealth is Israeli society," claims Professor Hillel Shmidt, a senior faculty member at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and director of the Center for the Study of Philanthropy.

According to new data set to be published by the center, Israeli philanthropy makes up only 0.7% of the Gross Domestic Product compared with 2.1% in the U.S. and 0.73% GDP in England.

Rapidata’s Charity Direct Debit Tracking Report 2011 reveals positive growth in regular giving for the third consecutive year in the U.K.

While their assets, gifts and grants all grew in 2010 in the wake of the recession, community foundations are walking a fine line between focusing on immediate and long-term needs, a new study says.

Assets at over 250 community foundations participating in the annual survey by the Columbus Foundation grew 13 percent on average in 2010, compared to a decline of 12 percent in 2009.

Yet while nearly one-third of community foundations increased their overall operating expenses by 19 percent on average, roughly one-fourth reduced their expenses by 20 percent on average.

Wealthy people plan to increase their philanthropy to the levels at which they were giving before the recession, a new survey says. Forty-eight percent of the ultra-wealthy, or those with $5 million or more in investible assets, plan to give more this year, as do 38 percent of those with $1 million to just under $5 million, and 38 percent of those with $500,000 to just under $1 million, according to the 7th annual Wealth and Values Survey Investors' Outlook from PNC Wealth Management.

Here are some of the key findings from the U.S. edition of the 2011 Cygnus Donor Survey, Where Philanthropy is Headed in 2011.

A new research and community awareness project set to kick off next week will aim to zero in on the gender gap in the nonprofit sector — particularly why women nonprofit executives trail men in salaries.

The effort, called "74 percent: Exploring the Lives of Women in Nonprofits," is being launched by the Bayer Center for Nonprofit Management at Robert Morris University with funding from the Bayer USA and Eden Hall foundations.

Over the past decade, U.S. foundation support explicitly benefiting Native Americans declined from 0.5 percent to 0.3 percent of total foundation giving. According to Foundation Funding for Native American Issues and Peoples, released by Native Americans in Philanthropy (NAP) and the Foundation Center, total grant dollars targeting Native Americans dropped 30.8 percent in the latest year, compared to a 12.4 percent overall downturn in foundation giving.

A 501(c)(3) nonprofit can still generate earned income. And plenty do. The National Center for Charitable Statistics estimates that nearly 70 percent of the $1.4 trillion generated by nonprofits in 2008 came from the sale of goods and services.

Generating income frees organizations from total dependence on philanthropic dollars. At the very least, the income is a safety net; it also means more money to invest in the mission. Unlike many grants, earned income is unrestricted and can be used however the organization chooses.

The Royal British Legion, RSA and Comic Relief are the top three U.K.-based charities with the largest “social media presence” — in terms of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube engagement — according to a major briefing, Social Media League Table.

By specific social media “platform”, the Royal British Legion heads the Facebook rankings, with 1,875,926 ‘likes’; the Tate heads the Twitter rankings, with 304,987 ‘followers’; and the RSA heads the YouTube rankings, with 79,341 ‘subscribers’.