The Blackbaud Index Reports 1.4% Increase in Overall Charitable Giving and 20.4% Increase in Online Giving
October 15, 2010
Nonprofits hopeful that year-end giving will rebound
CHARLESTON, SC – October 15, 2010 – Blackbaud, Inc. (Nasdaq: BLKB) today announced the release of a report focused on fundraising trends based on monthly findings from The Blackbaud Index and featuring commentary from Lynn Edmonds, president of LW Robbins. Additionally, Blackbaud announced the release of a new specialty index focused on the human services sector.
“With the exception of the monthsimmediately following the Haiti earthquake, the Index shows that humanservices organizations have struggled to maintain positiveyear-over-year growth in 2010,” said Steve MacLaughlin,Blackbaud’s director of Internet solutions. “Online fundraising hasbeen the exception to this trend and has continued to haveyear-over-year growth for the past 12 consecutive months. As nonprofitsenter the final months of the year, it will be important to watch forsigns of recovery and stability. The vast majority of onlinefundraising takes place during the final three months of the year, andyear-over-year growth during this timeframe will be very important toorganizations.”
The Blackbaud Index of CharitableGiving launched in June 2010 and was followed by the release of TheBlackbaud Index of Online Giving in July. These indices are updated onthe 15th of each month and are based on a three-month moving average ofyear-over-year percent changes in revenue. They represent the mostcomprehensive and timely sources of charitable giving available. (Readmore about the methodology at www.blackbaud.com/blackbaudindex.)
The Blackbaud Index of Charitable Giving
The Blackbaud Index of CharitableGiving reports that overall revenue increased by 1.4% for the 3 monthsending August 2010 as compared to the same period in 2009. This was amove back into positive territory from July’s 4.5% decline. This trendis based on $2.2 billion in 12-month revenue accumulated from 1,364nonprofit organizations.
Blackbaud also provides additional dataand analysis that reports on organizations by size. Here, the Indexfound that three-month overall revenue for small organizations (prioryear revenue of < $1 million) increased 11.2 percent during the 3months ending August 2010, while overall revenue at mediumorganizations (prior year revenue of $1 – 10 million) decreased 1.9percent, and overall revenue at large organizations (prior year revenue> $10 million) decreased 0.2% percent during the same period.
The newly released Blackbaud Index ofCharitable Giving for human services organizations reports an overallrevenue decrease of 19.3% for the 3 months ending August 2010 ascompared to the same period in 2009. This trend is based on $640million in 12-month revenue from 431 human services organizations.
The Blackbaud Index of Online Giving
The Blackbaud Index of Online Givingreports that overall revenue increased by 20.4% for the 3 months endingAugust 2010 as compared to the same period in 2009. This was anincrease over July’s positive trend of 12.4% growth. This trend isbased on $407 million in 12-month online revenue from 1,676organizations.
The Index found that three-month onlinerevenue for small organizations (prior year revenue of < $1 million)increased 28.7 percent in August, while revenue at medium organizations(prior year revenue of $1 – 10 million) increased 14.3 percent, andrevenue at large organizations (prior year revenue > $10 million)increased 23 percent.
The Blackbaud Index of Online Givingreports that human services organizations had an overall revenueincrease of 20.5% for the 3 months ending August 2010 as compared tothe same period in 2009. This trend is based on $48 million in 12-monthrevenue from 511 human services organizations and was an increase fromJuly’s 10.3% growth trend.
Lynn Edmonds, president of LW Robbins,a direct response fundraising agency serving national and regionalnonprofits, provided commentary on The Blackbaud Index in a reportthat accompanied this month’s update. “The summer months wereparticularly difficult as the economy took a hit and people’s attentionwas brought back to the economy,” said Edmonds. “The economy wasstarting to show some good signs, and then in May through July, themarket dropped thousands of points, people stopped spending, andunemployment hit a high; that particular period was very difficult. Theeconomy is bouncing back a little now. People who have somediscretionary income will hopefully support their charities in thefinal months of 2010.”
According to Edmonds, online giving ingeneral (without emergency giving) is a small percent of overallgiving, but is becoming a channel that donors are becoming morecomfortable with. “For a while, it was almost optional, but now, it isessential,” she said. “Most donors give to five to seven like-mindedorganizations.” She commented that organizations need to stay in frontof the donor in multiple channels to keep their awareness and brandfront and center.
Mark Crozet, Habitat for HumanityInternational’s senior vice president of resource development reportedthat the organization did see a spike in revenue earlier this year,largely around its Haiti response. “We haven’t seen the dip over thelast few months although revenue has flattened,” he said. “In directmail, we’re still up over last year at this time, although ourcorporate and major gift numbers are definitely down. We’re hopingyear-end giving reverses that trend.”
Visit www.blackbaud.com/blackbaudindex for further data on The Blackbaud Index, for monthly updates on the 15th, to view a video about benchmarking and metrics, and to download the latest report.
About Blackbaud
Blackbaud is the leading global provider of software and servicesdesigned specifically for nonprofit organizations, enabling them toimprove operational efficiency, build strong relationships, and raisemore money to support their missions. Approximately 24,000organizations — including University of Arizona Foundation, AmericanRed Cross, Cancer Research UK, The Taft School, Lincoln Center, TulsaCommunity Foundation, Ursinus College, Earthjustice, International Fundfor Animal Welfare, and the WGBH Educational Foundation — use one ormore Blackbaud products and services for fundraising, constituentrelationship management, financial management, website management,direct marketing, education administration, ticketing, businessintelligence, prospect research, consulting, and analytics. Since 1
981,Blackbaud’s sole focus and expertise has been partnering withnonprofits and providing them the solutions they need to make adifference in their local communities and worldwide. Headquartered inthe United States, Blackbaud also has operations in Australia, Canada,Hong Kong, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. For moreinformation, visit www.blackbaud.com.
