Thoughts and Highlights from the 2014 Giving USA Report

The Giving USA: 2014 Annual Report on Philanthropy, the publication that reports the sources and uses of charitable giving in the United States, was released just over a month ago.  Within the report was some very good news.  Some of the highlights include…

• Overall US charitable giving rose by 4.4% in 2014 to $335 billion.
• There was a 4.2% increase by individuals, which makes those of us organizing annual funds very happy.
• There was an 8.7% increase in bequests, which helps fuel our optimism about “The Great Wealth Transfer” as we move out of the recession.
• There was a -1.9% decrease in giving from corporations, which didn’t surprise too many people.
• An excellent +8.9% increase in giving to education makes those of us helping colleges and universities feel great.
• The Report indicates that in education, alumni led the charge for the increase.

It’s been a good year for benchmarks, with a little caution advised.  Last October, The Chronicle of Philanthropy “Philanthropy 400” recorded a 4% increase at the nation’s largest charities in 2012. These mega-charities report that they expect no increase when the final tallies are made for 2013.

While most of the colleges and universities reporting to the VSE survey in 2013 said that dollars were up, a large majority – 951 schools – reported in both 2012 and 2013 said that alumni donors were down.

It’s great to see the dollars rebound as we move further out of the recession. A big question remains:  how we will bring our donor rolls back up to historic levels and rebuild the pipeline of annual giving to major gifts, particularly with young donors?

We’ve been talking a lot as a nation about widening income gaps. That conversation parallels a national conversation on burgeoning student debt, access and student success. We need to take care as we move further out of the recession to pay attention to the “dollars up, donors down” phenomenon and make sure we’re taking full advantage of new opportunities to include everyone in giving. A healthy base that contains loyal, new and mega-donors has always been the key to fundraising success.

We used to call it a donor pyramid. It’s time to start thinking of our donors as a family, where everyone is encouraged and inspired to participate.