Giving Continues Steady Year-Over-Year Recovery

Charitable giving continued signs of resurgence, increasing for the 11th consecutive month during March 2012, and up 2.2 percent in the three months ending in March, according to the latest Blackbaud Index of Charitable Giving and Index of Online Giving.

And, online giving was up for the 12th month in a row, and increased almost 10 percent during the three months ending in March, as compared to the same period of time last year.

Arts and cultural was the only subsector to rise for the three-month period, jumping 14.4 percent, while healthcare organizations saw the biggest drop, down 17.5 percent. Other subsectors declined more modestly:

• -3.3 percent, human services
• -1.2 percent, international affairs
• -0.9 percent, public and society benefit
• -0.3 percent, environmental and animal welfare

Small organizations saw the biggest jump in the index, up 15.8 percent for March 2012 compared to the previous March, which was actually down from 17.4 percent for February. Medium organizations were up only 1.3 percent, the lowest figure in at least six months while large organizations were the only section to drop, down 2.1 percent.

For the whole of 2011, charitable giving was up 4.2 percent compared to 2010 while online giving soared 13 percent, according to the indexes.

The figures were more promising for online giving in first three months of 2012, with medium organizations leading the way, at a 15.3 percent clip, followed by small organizations at 11.5 percent, and large organizations at 4.1 percent. Each size of organization had been seeing mostly double-digit increases in online giving for several months.

With the exception of international affairs, down 5.1 percent, online giving also continued to see growth within each subsector, led by a 24.8-percent spike for public and society benefit. Other industries were up but not quite that much:

• 8.7 percent, arts and culture
• 7.9 percent, human services
• 6.2 percent, environmental and animal welfare
• 4.5 percent, healthcare

Released today, Blackbaud’s overall index has 2,512 nonprofits reporting overall giving trends, representing $7.4 billion in yearly overall giving, and the Index of Online Giving represents reporting from 1,832 organizations, representing $3491 million in yearly online giving. The majority of participants in the overall index are considered small organizations, with 1,463, while 914 are medium and 135 are large.