Six In 10 Charities Raise More Funds in 2013 Than in 2012; Religious Charities Lag

Sixty-two percent of charities raised more funds in 2013 than they did in 2012, according to the Nonprofit Research Collaborative’s Year-End 2013 Fundraising Survey, released last week at the Association of Fundraising Professionals International Conference on Fundraising.

The finding is part of a larger trend of increasing giving, as a year ago, just 58 percent raised more funds. This year’s result of 62 percent is the highest since 2007, before the global recession.

In addition, 67 percent of organizations surveyed met their fundraising goals, also the highest since the recession.

The NRC surveys hundreds of organizations and asks about specific fundraising methods as well as whether organizations met their goals and what they predict for 2014. Other key findings for 2013 include:

The four regions of the United States saw relatively similar increases in funds raised, with the South reporting just slightly higher than the other regions: South (68 percent), Northeast (64 percent), and Midwest and West (both at 63 percent).
However, among Canadian respondents, significantly fewer (52 percent) reported growth in funds raised in 2013 compared with 2012.

All subsectors, with the exception of Religion and Arts, Culture and Humanities, saw at least 60 percent of their organizations raise more money. In contrast, just 52 percent of organizations in the Religion and Arts categories raised more money in 2013 than in 2012.