Our latest study - giving down

Posted by: fraser in Untagged on Feb 22, 2010

This final dashboard of 2009 reports on year end giving, changes in revenue and the planning assumptions of Utah's nonprofits as they continue to meet the cultural, social and educational needs of our communities in 'the great recession'.

We are all familiar with the traditional year-end giving campaigns that nonprofits of all sizes and missions conduct after Thanksgiving. These donations can be crucial to an organization's annual budget. National philanthropy pundits predicted that Americans would continue reach deep into their pockets at the end of 2009 knowing the hardships faced by their neighbors. They forecasted more frequent, yet smaller, gifts and a possible increase in new donors, particularly those agencies serving low income individuals.

Our study found this prediction to hold true in Utah where the dollar amount of individual gifts decreased more significantly than either the total amount of dollars donated or the number of people giving.

28% of the 133 agencies reporting said the total amount of giving at year end was significantly lower in 2009 than 2008; and
nearly as many - 21% - said it was significantly higher.

Utah does not, however, compare favorably to the rest of the United States. A Chronicle of Philanthropy poll conducted in early January found that 48% of 181 agencies saw an increase in holiday season giving in 2009 compared to 200 – more than twice that of Utah.

Down load the full report here. pdf DashboardJan_2010.pdf