Giving continues its recovery

Charitable giving was on the rise in 2010 and a new report from Blackbaud, Inc. shows that the trend has continued into 2011. In the three-month period that ended this February, charitable giving rose 3% when compared with the same period last year. This represents the seventh consecutive period of increased giving, according to Chuck Longfield, Blackbaud’s chief scientist and creator of the Blackbaud Index. Longfield commented on the findings in a recent statement to AdvisorOne: “Though overall giving is still roughly 5% below pre-recession levels, [this] indicates that we are well into a recovery in charitable giving. This result is especially noteworthy given the substantial giving to Haiti in the prior year period.”

Blackbaud’s findings mirror our own fundraising results.  For the same three-month period, we experienced a 44% increase in charitable gifts.   

The Blackbaud Index of Charitable Giving provides a broad-based analysis of giving trends for 1,430 nonprofit organizations. These include institutions focused on the arts, healthcare, human services, international affairs and religion.