Donations (Charitable, Political, fundraising)

Under Construction

National Averages:

Sources (2006) $296 B:

Individuals	75%
Foundations	12%
Charitable bequests	8%
corporations and corporate foundations	4%

According to Giving USA Foundation ™
In 2006 Americans gave over $296 Billion in charitable contributions.
This includes $1.9 billion that Warren Buffett paid in 2006 as the first installment on his 20-year pledge of more than $30 billion to four foundations.
About 65 percent of households with incomes lower than $100,000 give to charity, said George C. Ruotolo Jr., CFRE, chair of Giving Institute: Leading Consultants to Non-Profits.
A 2003 Barna showed 80% of all households donated some money to at least one non-profit organization and 63% gave to a religious institution.

Since 1998, charitable giving has been 2 percent or more of gross domestic product (GDP) following more than two decades below that mark. For 2003, total contributions are estimated to be 2.2 percent of GDP.
Source: Planned Giving Design Center

Beneficiaries (2007) $306 B:

Charity Category	Donation %
Religious congregations*	33%
Education	14%
Human services (e.g. Red Cross, YMCA)	10%
Foundations	9%
Health Organizations (e.g. American Cancer Soc.)	8%
Public Society Benefit	7%
Arts, culture and humanities organizations	4%
International Affairs	4%
Environment/animals	2%
Other	8%

Source: 2008Yearbook_PressRelease (word doc) from the Association of Direct Response Fundraising Counsel®

* Total charitable giving from individuals was about $225M in 2006 and from the religion section below $100M of individual donations or 44% goes to religious institutions.

According to several accounts, US citizens give more than double the amount of money (as measured by Gross Domestic Product)the people of the next most generous country give.

25 Largest in terms of giving (2007-8 data for Charaties and education, 2000-02 data for churches.)

Rnk	Organization	Giving $M
1	Roman Catholic Church *	$33,000
2	Southern Baptist Convention	$7,970
3	LDS - Morman Church	$5,300
4	United Methodist Church	$4,760
5	United Way	$4,236
6	Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)	$2,920
7	Evangelical Lutheran Church in America	$2,300
8	Episcopal Church	$2,230
9	Salvation Army	$1,998
10	Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod	$1,200
11	American Cancer Society	$1,039
12	Food for the Poor	$1,017

* Catholic Church Giving is a very rough estimate.

Rnk	Organization	Giving $M
13	YMCA of the USA	$1,004
14	Feed the Children	$933
15	AmeriCares Foundation	$873
16	Stanford U.	$832
17	United Church of Christ	$824
18	Catholic Charities USA	$801
19	Gifts In Kind International	$750
20	World Vision	$728
21	Habitat for Humanity International	$702
22	Boys & Girls Clubs of America	$697
23	Feeding America	$645
24	American National Red Cross	$643
25	Harvard U.	$614

20 largest Charities - In terms of Annual Private Support (2008):

Other well known and/or highly rated organizations
Rank	Name	Private Support $M annually	Net Assets ($mil)				Score 4
1	United Way	4,236	NA	92	86	100	*a
2	Salvation Army	1,998	10,853	92	82	39	*b
3	American Cancer Society	1,039	1,587	81	71	89	2
4	Food for the Poor	1,017	24	98	97	100	4
5	YMCA of the USA	1,004	NA	89	81	42	*c 3
6	Feed the Children	933	554	92	84	57	3
7	AmeriCares Foundation	873	220	99	100	99	3
8	Catholic Charities USA	801	32	93	89	73	4
9	Gifts In Kind International	750	68	100	100	96	2
10	World Vision	728	151	88	86	102	3
11	Habitat for Humanity International	702	1,639	87	83	62	*d 4
12	Boys & Girls Clubs of America	697	2,764	90	80	79	2
13	Feeding America	645	44	98	97	97	4
14	American National Red Cross	643	3,224	78	89	94	2
15	St Jude Children's Research Hospital	584	1,910	84	69	31	4
16	American Heart Association	533	815	83	77	81	3
17	Goodwill Industries International	490	2,948	96	88	68
18	Nature Conservancy	486	4,715	87	80	4	4
19	Campus Crusade for Christ	470	108	93	87	97	*b
20	MAP International	393	169	99	99	81	4
21	Boy Scouts of America	377	NA	87	87	50	*d 2
22	Mayo Clinic	367	4,309	91	97	-69	2
24	Compassion International	311	94	91	83	96	4
31	American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee	242	380	99	93	88	4
34	Susan G Komen for the Cure (breast cancer)	234	128	93	83	84	4
36	PATH	226	685	100	86	39	4
40	Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)	220	365	99	97	54	Av. 2.4 *e
49	Direct Relief International	199	58	100	99	137	4
55	World Wildlife Fund	181	317	90	81	47	4
83	Rotary Foundation of Rotary International	133	738	93	85	24	4
86	Children International	129	38	89	81	96	3
87	Conservation International Foundation	129	220	96	84	54	4
90	City of Hope	127	747	81	84	-3	4
105	Humane Society of the United States	107	207	88	84	93	4
106	Heifer Project International	104	116	84	76	77	3
136	National Public Radio (NPR)	75	428	96	82	15	Av. 2.5 *e
	National Christian Foundation	460		94			4
	American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals	60		83			4

1 - Percent of private support remaining after fundraising expenses.
2 - Charitable services as percent of total expenses.
3 - Percent of private support remaining after surplus.
4 - CharityNavigator Score

*a. United Way is evaluated location by location - Some examples: Bergen Co. NJ -2; Somerset Co., NJ - 3; Capital Area Michigan - 2; Greater Twin Cities - 3; Denver - 3; Orange Co, CA - 3; Austin - 4, Berks Co., Reading, PA - 4; Baltimore - 2; Central Mass. Worcester - 1; Orlando - 3; Albuquerque, NM - 4; King Co, Seattle, WA - 4; Boston - 2; Atlanta - 3; San Antonio - 4; Philadelphia - 2; San Jose, CA - 1;

*b. CharityNavigator doesn't evaluate religious organizations because they are exempt under Internal Revenue Code from filing the Form 990. As a result, there is not sufficient data to evaluate their financial health.
See Religious Stewardship below.

*c. YMCA is evaluated nationally and location by location - Some examples: Orlando, FL - 2; Natl. Council, Chicago - 3; NY, NY - 3; Atlanta - 3; Los Angeles - 3, Houston -4

*d. Habitat for Humanity and the Boy Scouts are evaluated location by location and Nationally/Internationally.

*e. Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR) are evaluated location by location. Most are given a score of 2 or 3 because of high marketing and administrative costs.
E.g. WHYY Philadelphia = 2 (Fundraising and Admin.= 38%); WGBH Boston = 3 (Fundraising and Admin = 26%); Minnesota Public Radio = 4

Note: Some organizations like the Sierra Club are not included because they are 501(c)(4) organizations and spend a substantial portion of their revenue on lobbying.

Sources:
The 200 Largest U.S. Charities - Forbes.com
CharityNavigator.org
The 50 largest US charities ranked by total income at csmonitor.com

Evaluating Charitable Organizations:
Info at www.give.org - BBB Wise Giving Alliance - Gives Administrative and Fund Raising Expenses
Charity Navigator rates charities from 1 (poor) to 4 (exceptional) stars.
Ratings include Efficiency (Administrative and Fundraising expenses vs program expenses) and Capacity (sustained/grown programs and services over time, financial health)
- Information on their web site:
7 out of 10 charities evaluated spend at least 75% of their budget on the programs and services they exist to provide. What To Do When A Charity Calls

Charitable Donations: Give or Take? at FTC.gov
Charity Governance: Don't Be Misled By Administrative And Fundraising Ratios--These Are Largely Irrelevant Numbers

The American Institute of Philanthropy (AIP) also rates non-profits.

Personal Experience:
In 2009 I participated in the Tubbs Romp to Stomp out Breast Cancer Snowshoe Series
220 participants in a snowshoe 3-5K walk/run raised $8,100 for an average of $37 per person. I sent out email requests for donations to 24 people and got 6 responses (25%). These were fairly close friends.
I probably could have increased that with phone follow-up, but don't like twisting arms.
The most common donation was $25 with one $50 and one $100.
This was better than the 7% response I got for an American Cancer mailing to neighbors.

In a phone-a-thon for my son's prep school I got over a 75% response when calling previous donors.

Tips:

Be direct in your subject line on e-mail.
The indirect subject line had a 21% open rate, but only a 4% response rate.
The direct subject line had an 18% open rate and an 18% response rate.
Keep it short and simple

Response Rates:

Type of Donor	Response Rate Estimate
No previous association	< than 2%, most expect 1% or lower for good result
An association but no prior donation	0.1 - 7%, mostly 2-4%
Donor but not in past 18 months	2 - 20%.
Current regular donor	5 - 90%

Links:
10 Best Practices to Increase Email Response Rates for Fundraising

Religious Stewarship:
Close to two out of every three households (63%) donated some money to a church, synagogue or other place of religious worship during 2003. That percentage has remained constant since 2001, but is somewhat lower than the number of church donors identified in 2000 and in 1999 (66%).
From the above we see that total charitable giving from individuals was about $225M in 2006 and $100M or 44% goes to religious institutions.
When contributions are examined as a percentage of household income, giving to religious centers represents about 2.2% of gross income. 4% of the national population of households tithe (give 10%).
7-14% of born again Christians and 14% of evangelicals tithe.
Pollster George Barna writes, "Generally, the more money a person makes the less likely he is to tithe."
Source: barna.org

Other 501(c)(3) (tax exempt non-profits) organizations are required to file a form 990 with the IRS; Churches are not required to do this; as a consequence the data below are estimates.

2000-2002 Giving

Church US Members
(1,000) Total $M per capita

American Baptist Churches U.S.A. 593 $422 $712

National Baptist Convention, U.S.A. 7,500 ?

Southern Baptist Convention 15,222 $7,970 $524

Assemblies of God 1,585 $338 $213

Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) 527 $483 $915

Episcopal Church 1,806 $2,230 $1,234

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America 3,811 2,300 $603

Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod 1,908 $1,200 $631

LDS (Morman) ‡ 5,000 $4,900 $980

Presbyterian Church in America 247 $484 $1,957

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 2,525 $2,920 $1,155

Reformed Church in America 177 $264 $1,488

Roman Catholic Church 64,000 $33,000 $524

United Church of Christ 1,377 $824 $598

United Methodist Church 8,340 $4,760 $571

Average $660‡

† Average per NCC's 2004 Yearbook Giving includes congregational finances plus benevolence (10-15%) giving.
Source: Giving among Church Denominations at GenerousGiving.org
Their disclaimer: "This is a non-scientific table, not intended for republication or distribution to general audiences. It is designed only as a study aid for teachers and researchers for research purposes only. It is not authoritative and, therefore, its contents must not be cited in any published work."

Giving for Catholic, Morman (LDS) and some others comes from a variety of sources. ‡ Note: The Morman Church (Latter-day Saints - LDS) does not publish financial data, and these numbers come from other estimates.
A Time magazine article estimated US member giving was $4.9 B in 1997. With 5 million US members that works out to $980 per member. This seems low considering the high rate of tithing.

Giving per member is also a function of family size and the age at which children become members. We would expect Catholics and Morman numbers to be lower because of large family size.

According to adherents.com/:
Conservative Protestants give more than 3 percent of household income.
Mainline Protestants, 2 percent. About 30 - 45 percent of Latter-day Saints (Mormans), tithe.
Per-capita giving in the Assemblies of God exceeds 5 percent.
Seventh-day Adventists give more than 4 percent of their income.
Jewish per-family giving rivals that of Latter-day Saints, but give more to secular Jewish federations than to synagogues.

Well-to-due Church Giving Example (1999)
1,000 members; Around 290, half of the 580 giving units (roughly households), pledge.

Yearly church finance and benevolence giving

Num₁	Cum %₂	Pledge	Cumul.
19	3%	> $10,000	$285K
27	8%	$5,000-10,000K	$488K
47	16%	$2,600-$5,000K	$666K
31	21%	$2,080-$2,600K	$739K
29	26%	$1,560-$2,080K	$791K
54	36%	$1,040-$1,560K	$860K
39	42%	$520-$1,040K	$890K
44	50%	$1 - $520K	$900K
290	100%	$0	$900K

1. Number of giving units out of a total of
580 from 1,000 members.
2. Cumulative % is of all giving units.
Only 1/2 of giving units pledged.
Average: $3,000/ pledge per giving unit
In 1997 giving was $1,080/member.
In 2002 giving was $1,360/member.
In 2008 the same church gave $1.8M or $1,518/member.

Note: Actual collections are typically 33-40% higher than pledges because of people who don't Pledge and plate receipts from guests.
This is in an upper class area of the county with the highest median income (>$83K) in the country, so only a fraction tithe (give 10%).

Studies also indicate that roughly 75 percent of money is given by 25 percent of the people across all denominations.

Capital campaign for a $4 M building program
3 year giving total pledges.

Number	Cum	Amount	Cumul.
1	0%	$400K	$400K
2	1%	$250K	$900K
4	2%	$150K	$1.5M
5	4%	$100K	$2.0M
12	7%	$50K	$2.6M
15	12%	$30K	$3.0M
19	18%	$12K	$3.3M
25	25%	$10K	$3.5M
39	37%	$6K	$3.8M
50	53%	$3K	$3.9M
55	69%	$1.5K	$4.0M
100	100%	<$780	$4.0M

Educational Giving

Sources of Private Giving to Higher Education, 2006 and 2007

Category 2006 Share of 2006 Total 2007 Share of 2007 Total

Alumni $8,400,000,000 30.0% $8,270,000,000 27.8%

Non-alumni individuals $5,700,000,000 20.4% $5,650,000,000 19.0%

Corporations $4,600,000,000 16.4% $4,800,000,000 16.1%

Foundations $7,100,000,000 25.4% $8,500,000,000 28.6%

Religious organizations $375,000,000 1.3% $380,000,000 1.3%

Other organizations $1,825,000,000 6.5% $2,150,000,000 7.2%

Total $28,000,000,000 100% $29,750,000,000 100%

Top 20 Colleges and Universities in Fund Raising, 2007

Institution Rank in 2007 Rank in 2006 Total Raised
in 2007
$M 1-Year % Change

Stanford U. 1 1 $832 -8.7%

Harvard U. 2 2 $614 3.2%

U. of Southern California 3 6 $470 15.7%

Johns Hopkins U. 4 7 $430 14.1%

Columbia U. 5 8 $424 12.3%

Cornell U. 6 5 $407 0.2%

U. of Pennsylvania 7 4 $392 -4.2%

Yale U. 8 3 $391 -9.7%

Duke U. 9 9 $372 12.1%

UCLA 10 11 $365 14.1%

MIT 11 21 $329 39.7%

U. of Chicago 12 19 $328 38.5%

U. of Wisconsin at Madison 13 10 $325 -0.2%

U. of Washington 14 12 $300 -5.1%

U. of Michigan 15 16 $293 16.7%

U. of Minnesota 16 14 $289 8.1%

New York U. 17 13 $288 2.7%

U. of Virginia 18 22 $283 30.6%

Indiana U. 19 17 $279 12.5%

U. of California at San Francisco 20 26 $252 25.2%

UNC 21

UC Berkeley 22

Princeton 23

Texas 24

Ohio State 25

Purdue 26

Notre Dame 27

Northwestern 28

Illinois 29

Cal Tech 30

Source: Inside Higher ED and UNC Development Update 09-24-08.pdf

Rescue Squads:
Some states/communities have volunteer Rescue Squads which provide free ambulance service to hospitals funded by donations.
A local one here got a 37% household response rate with an average donation of $54.

Links:
Donation Letter help at FundraiserHelp.com
Non-profits
Exploring physical activity events as fundraising tools in the nonprofit sector International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing, Volume 8, Number 4, November 2003
Fundraising Market Study at Simon Fraser Univ. in Canada
http://www.smartgivers.org
The 200 Largest U.S. Charities - Forbes.com The NonProfit Times - The Leading Business Publication For Nonprofit Management

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last updated 10 Feb 2009