Blackbaud Index of Charitable Giving Reports 12.1 Percent Increase in Overall Giving

New Index representing 1400 organizations with $2.2 billion in annual revenue provides most comprehensive and timely source of nonprofit giving data available

Charleston, S.C. (June 15, 2010) – Blackbaud, Inc. today announced the launch of the Blackbaud Index of Charitable Giving, a broad-based fundraising index that reports revenue trends of 1400 nonprofit organizations representing $2.2 billion in yearly revenue on a monthly basis. The Index is based on actual revenue statistics from nonprofit organizations of all sizes representing arts, culture, and humanities; education; environment and animals; healthcare; human services; international affairs; public and society benefit; and religion sectors. (Read more about the methodology at www.blackbaud.com/blackbaudindex.)

“Economic conditions, natural disasters, and market fluctuations have made it extremely difficult for nonprofits to make fundraising decisions informed by the latest donor behavior,” said Chuck Longfield, Blackbaud’s chief scientist. “That is why we created the Blackbaud Index of Charitable Giving – to provide fundraisers with up-to-date data on fundraising trends and to couple that information with valuable analysis by leaders in the sector.”

The Blackbaud Index of Charitable Giving released today reported that overall revenue increased by 12.1 percent for the 3 months ending April 2010 as compared to the same period in 2009. A significant portion of this increase was related to the very generous outpouring of support to organizations helping with relief efforts in Haiti.

“This new index offers the nonprofit sector valuable and timely information,” said Patrick M. Rooney, executive director of the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. “While not a random sample or census of the entire nonprofit sector, the responses from Blackbaud’s clients are likely to be very helpful in informing our understanding of the latest trends in giving.”

Along with the launch of the Blackbaud Index of Charitable Giving today, Blackbaud released additional data and analysis that reports on organizations by size. The Index found that three-month revenue for small organizations (prior year revenue of < $1 million) increased 12.3 percent in April, while revenue at medium organizations (prior year revenue of $1 – 10 million) decreased 2.5 percent, and revenue at large organizations (prior year revenue > $10 million) increased 19.2 percent.

The data show that donations for the smaller organizations bottomed out in July of 2009, remained roughly flat throughout the second half of 2009, and turned upward starting in January 2010. Donations to large organizations may have reached bottom in December 2009, but it is hard to tell which part of the large upturn in March was due to Haiti versus general improvement in ongoing donations, especially since donations declined in April.