Online Giving Jumps Year-Over-Year

Online giving soared 13.7 percent amid a 3.6-percent spike in overall giving during this past January compared with the same time period in 2012, according to the latest Blackbaud Index.

The Charleston, S.C. fundraising and software firm tracks more than 3,000 organizations monthly that use its software, making up about $8 billion in annual charitable giving. The index is weighted for scale.

Small organizations saw the biggest spike in giving in January, up 7.6 percent, better than twice the increase of large (2.3 percent) and medium (3 percent) organizations. All three categories saw double-digit spikes in online giving, led by medium organizations, which jumped 16.9 percent while small nonprofits were up 12.7 percent and large charities up 11.2 percent online.

All seven subsectors within the index saw double-digit hikes in online giving while just two subsectors failed to see positive growth in overall giving. Public, society benefit organizations were down 7.8 percent compared to January 2011 yet spiked 16 percent in online giving, and environment/animal welfare was down barely (-0.2 percent) but up 15.3 percent online.

International affairs had the biggest increase, up 18.1 percent overall, with an 11.9-percent jump online. K-12 independent schools had the largest rise in online giving, 23.3 percent, while overall giving was up 3.7 percent. Other sectors fared well: arts and culture organizations jumped 6.9 percent overall and 13.3 percent online; healthcare groups were up 5.9 percent, 12.1 percent online, and human services, up just 0.7 percent overall yet 18.3 percent online.

Large international affairs organizations had a very big December and a good January that’s carrying over, said Steve MacLaughlin, director of Blackbaud’s Idea Lab. But, public and society benefit organizations struggled in the first part of 2012 and he said it’s starting to trend back that way.

He attributed the healthy jump in online giving for human services partly because of a good end-of-year online giving season, though it’s still a smaller portion of their overall giving.