The report suggests that fundraisers should focus their money on the channels that perform the best. While social media is an exciting means of reaching the younger community, the report indicates those who are active there don’t use it for donations.
Another striking result of the survey shows that people want to give to charities that spend money on good management. Given a choice, the respondents preferred organizations that hire top-quality managers, even with higher salaries, over less experienced managers and spending fewer dollars on salaries. An even greater percentage would rather support an organization that spends more on fundraising and brings in more money to help the cause than would support an organization that spends little on fundraising but raises less money.
“Only 28 percent would opt for efficiency over effectiveness,” McIntyre says.
“Nonprofits are under relentless scrutiny for their fundraising costs,” she adds. “The questions on costs tell us that what donors want more than anything else is value for their money. Spending money on salaries is fine, as long as your leaders are effective. If you spend more on fundraising, it’s fine as long as it effectively raises more money for the work.”
The report also focuses on the impact of the disaster in Haiti on nonprofit fundraising. Thirty-eight percent of Americans gave to help Haiti. Fifty-two percent of active donors — those who regularly give to nonprofits — donated. Very surprisingly, nearly 30 percent of Haiti donors said they did not support any nonprofits in the last year, including 16 percent of fairly determined nondonors. Most likely to give to Haiti were African-Americans (51 percent), Latinos (53 percent), Asians (59 percent) and people not born in the U.S. (59 percent).
Four out of 10 donors said that if they had not given to the Haiti disaster, the money would have gone elsewhere. Still, 58 percent of donors believe that what they gave to Haiti was unique — it was over and above what they normally give. Haiti was a first-time giving impulse for 3 percent of all Americans — 6.7 million people.
Haiti donations saw massive channel donation differences, with text-to-give having a big impact. While 32 percent of donors said they gave to nonprofits working in Haiti through places of worship, another 22 percent gave online, and 19 percent through texting. Ninety percent of text donors claim they would have donated through another channel had texting not been provided.
“The Haiti experience reminds us that emergency donors and everyday donors are different,” McIntyre says. “And the best donors will give over and above what they normally do, not instead of what they typically give.”
More than 2,000 respondents participated in the study. It was conducted both by phone and through a pre-recruited online research panel in English and Spanish.
Click here to find out more about the study.
