In case you did not see the plethora of coverage given to the Giving Institute and the Giving USA Foundation's announcement on charitable giving in 2009, you can find the basic numbers by clicking on either of the images below. Some highlights:
- Total giving dropped 3.6%
- Third consecutive year of total USA giving over $300B
- Charitable bequests fell by almost 24%
- Individual giving and foundation grants also fell (4% & 9% respectively)
- Corporate giving increased by 5.5%
- Sectors seeing a growth in giving: International Aid (+6.2%), Health (+3.8%) and Human Services (2.3%)
- Sectors seeing a decline in giving: Grants to Foundations (-8%), Public-Society Benefit Organizations (ex: United Way) (-4.6%), Education (-3.6%), Arts (-2%) and Faith-Based/
And some takeaways:
- It's a great sign that giving only dropped slightly, given all the economic troubles the United States and its citizens experienced during 2009.
- The realization of bequests will continue to decline as the death rate follows a similar trend. That being said, planned giving operations should not be shutdown. Rather, they should be more focused and the metrics used to evaluate success should consider the trend in bequest realizations. Also, your planned giving officers should be developing methods for approaching donors/prospects earlier than the field has historically. People traditionally write a will for the first time when they have kids. Consider making an initial approach to prospects when they are in the late-20's or early 30's. A potential strategy is to offer a flyer via mail or web that helps guide your constituents through the basics of writing a will/trust. Include a brief bit on why they should include your organization.
Images for the basic stats:
No comments:
Post a Comment