2011 is now history and the good news appears to be that U.S. charitable giving is on the upswing. While many organizations are remaining silent as to their individual successes, or failures, industry service providers are announcing solid gains and general optimism about the state of giving. Both Blackbaud and Convio - two of the largest providers to the industry - are among the many announcing a strong finish to 2011. Blackbaud went even further, saying "... fundraising has returned to pre-recession levels. Through the first 11 months of 2011, overall giving is up 3.4% over 2010, and is now officially above the level of giving last seen in 2007." Online giving continues to grow, though perhaps not as strongly as was predicted a few years back. According to Blackbaud, for the three … Continue Reading
2011 Marks Banner Year for Online Donation to Israeli Organizations
by Abigail Pickus When it comes to supporting Israeli-based nonprofits and charities, more people are turning to the Internet to make their donations. According to IsraelGives, a provider of online donation solutions for nonprofits in Israel, 2011 was a watershed year for online donations to Israeli-based organizations. An analysis of the 853 Israeli organizations using IsraelGives for online fundraising in 2011 shows a 273% increase compared to the amount raised online in 2010. From January 1 through December 31, 2011, nonprofit organizations used IsraelGives to raise $2.3 million online (8.2 million NIS) with IsraelGives processing over 33,000 donations, a rise of 400% over 2010. The number of organizations using IsraelGives for fundraising rose from 588 organizations in 2010 to 853 in … Continue Reading
Blackbaud Index Shows Modest Upward Tick in Giving
The Blackbaud Index of Charitable Giving, a broad-based fundraising index that reports overall giving trends of 1,264 US-based nonprofit organizations representing $2.56 billion in yearly giving on a monthly basis, today reported that charitable giving rose 2.2% for the three months ending October 2011 as compared to the same period in 2010. The Blackbaud Index of Online Giving, comprised of actual revenue data from 1748 nonprofits representing $424 million in yearly online giving, reported that online giving rose 10.6% for the three months ending October 2011 as compared to the same period in 2010. The Blackbaud Index of Charitable Giving and The Blackbaud Index of Online Giving are updated on the 15th of each month (or the next business day) and are based on a three-month moving average of … Continue Reading
UK Credit Card Transactions Need Certificates
from ThirdSector: Charities without credit card transaction certificates risk fines Charities in the UK are at risk of being fined or banned from processing credit card transactions if they do not have a certificate that is being introduced by credit card companies, delegates at the International Fundraising Congress were warned yesterday. Jamie Jackson, chief executive of the consultancy Fundraising Initiatives North America, said credit card companies such as Mastercard and Visa had come together in 2005 to formulate collective security guidelines for tackling credit card fraud. He said any organisation that stored or processed credit card details would need a Payment Card Industry Certificate to show it was compliant with these standards. The credit card companies had so far been … Continue Reading
Priorities When Deciding to Accept Donations Online
[eJP note: While this post is geared to Israeli amutot and Friends of organizations, the checklist in the conclusion poses good questions all organizations should be asking when deciding to/how to accept online donations.] by Shuey Fogel Online donations are rising every year, becoming an increasingly important fundraising tool for nonprofit organizations. To facilitate the growing demand and varied needs of charities, the number of online donation processors has been expanding accordingly. As a result, charities have expressed their difficulty in sorting through the nuances and assorted extras to find the online solution(s) that’s right for them. For this reason, I was thrilled to co-produce an event early in July that hosted representatives from the leading Online Donation … Continue Reading
The Value of Your Housefile
Online fundraising is the fastest growing channel for nonprofits. … Continue Reading
Is PayPal the Best Option for International Fundraising?
by Shuey Fogel Paypal is one of the leading Internet-payment options in the world for for-profits and nonprofits, alike. With only a PayPal logo and some code easily inserted onto a website, payments are a breeze. And with over 230 million PayPal users worldwide, the chances are good that your customer or donor either already has a PayPal account or trusts the company enough to register for a new one. Combine the above with the one percent discount PayPal offers qualifying charitable organizations and you’re looking at a strong argument why PayPal should be the online payment-system of choice - for local donations. However, for international fundraising, PayPal’s “cross-border fees” should prompt nonprofits to tread carefully before jumping head first into this particular … Continue Reading
The Continuing Need for Integrated Direct Marketing in Fundraising
New Research Finds that Integrated Direct Marketing is Essential for Maximizing the Long-term Value of Online-Acquired Donors Blackbaud has announced the publication of the 2011 donorCentrics Internet and Multichannel Giving Benchmarking Report, which features research on nonprofit online giving in the context of an integrated direct marketing program. The Report also includes an extended analysis on the value of multichannel giving. Developed by Blackbaud’s Target Analytics company, the Report finds that although multichannel giving has become a popular objective of nonprofits as a way to build constituent support, it is not widely practiced. The large majority of donors give through only one channel and use only direct mail as their vehicle for donations. According to the Report, the only … Continue Reading
Latest Blackbaud Index Report Shows Slight Rise in Overall Giving
Index also shows decrease in online donations; Blackbaud debuts new specialty index focused on arts, culture and humanities organizations. The Blackbaud Index of Charitable Giving reports that overall charitable revenue increased 3% for the three months ending February 2011, as compared to the same period in 2010. This trend is based on $2.2 billion in 12 months’ revenue from 1,430 nonprofit organizations. Blackbaud also released additional data and analysis that reports on organizations by size. The Index found that three-month overall charitable revenue for small organizations (prior year revenue of < $1 million) increased by 6.4% in February, while overall charitable revenue at medium organizations (prior year revenue of $1 - 10 million) increased by 4.8%, and overall charitable … Continue Reading
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