Connections

Blackbaud’s 2009 Conference for Nonprofits - Day 4

Steve MacLaughlin — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:04:00 GMT

This is the final day of Blackbaud's 2009 Conference for Nonprofits and there's a big focus on Internet topics today.

This morning I am doing a session called "The Future of Blackbaud’s Internet Solutions" which will be full of surprises about some great new things we're working on. And then the online focused content kicks into high gear!

Blackbaud added an extra set of Internet related sessions on today's agenda. Blackbaud's Internet Afternoon is an exclusive networking and training opportunity for our Blackbaud Sphere and Blackbaud NetCommunity customers. There's was no extra cost for these sessions for conference attendees.

I'm doing the keynote presentation as part of the afternoon Internet sessions. I'll be covering some of the major trends in online fundraising that are changing how nonprofits engage with supporters.

Today's Live Sessions:
Can't attend the conference? Watch these sessions live online:
12:00 to 1:30 p.m. ET, Keynote Session, presented by Steve MacLaughlin
1:30 to 2:45 p.m. ET, Google Analytics® and Search Engine Optimization, presented by Bo Crader and Chris Tuttle
3:15 to 4:45 p.m. ET, Launching the Space Shuttle: Practical Advice to Ensure a Smooth Launch of Your Website, presented by Raheel Gauba

Follow the conference on Twitter: http://twitter.com/bbcon and by using the hash tag #bbcon.
Other Links: Conference Sessions | Special Internet Sessions | Live Streaming Sessions

Blackbaud’s 2009 Conference for Nonprofits - Day 3

Steve MacLaughlin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:04:00 GMT

This is the third day of Blackbaud's 2009 Conference for Nonprofits here in Charleston, South Carolina.Yesterday was pretty action packed and the tweetup event was a lot of fun.

The morning begins with keynote speaker Derreck Kayongo, a former Kenyan refugee who fled political despotism in Uganda, Derreck will share how he chose an uncommon path on life’s journey — a path that has led him to his current work of changing the world. Derreck will share his story and his personal mission in a context that will reenergize attendees and challenge them to sharpen their focus as they continue on their personal journeys.

I'm doing two sessions today. The first one is "Online Metrics Demystified: Understanding Your Hits, Clicks, and Errors" where I'll be covering metrics for the web, email, online fundraising, and social media, industry benchmarks and trends in online metrics, and how to pull them all together to measure your online success. The second session is with Blackbaud product manager Ryan Frere and is called "Leveraging Blackbaud Enterprise CRM for Strategic Online Fundraising." In this session, we will review the native internet capabilities within BBEC and how customers can successfully leverage these features and functionality on the Infinity platform

Today's Live Sessions:
Can't attend the conference? Watch these sessions live online:
9:00 – 10:30 a.m. ET, Keynote Session, featuring Derreck Kayongo
11:00 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. ET, Future-Proof: Making Viable Plans in Uncertain Times, presented by Dean Feener
3:45 – 5:00 p.m. ET, DIY (Do It Yourself): Is Your Fundraising Strategy in Need of Makeover? Presented by Richard McPherson

Follow the conference on Twitter: http://twitter.com/bbcon and by using the hash tag #bbcon.
Other Links: Conference Sessions | Special Internet Sessions | Live Streaming Sessions

Blackbaud’s 2009 Conference for Nonprofits - Day 2

Steve MacLaughlin — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:50:00 GMT

Today Blackbaud's 2009 Conference for Nonprofits really swings into high gear after yesterday's kickoff events. This is going to be a very busy day with lots of sessions, meetings, and events on the agenda.

Today's Live Sessions:
Can't attend the conference? Watch these sessions live online:
8:30 – 9:15 a.m. ET, General Session with Blackbaud CEO Marc Chardon
9:30 – 10:45 a.m. ET, Skill Building: Ethics Under Fire, presented by Jay Love, Joy Simpson, and Paul Clolery
3:45 – 5:00 p.m. ET, The Tough Questions We Aren’t Asking Ourselves, presented by Holly Ross (NTEN)

Today's Special Event:
There will be a #bbcon Tweetup at 5pm to 7pm tonight. Get more details and tell your friends.

Follow the conference on Twitter: http://twitter.com/bbcon and by using the hash tag #bbcon.
Other Links: Conference Sessions | Special Internet Sessions | Live Streaming Sessions

Blackbaud’s 2009 Conference for Nonprofits - Day 1

Steve MacLaughlin — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 19:00:00 GMT

Today is the start of Blackbaud's 2009 Conference for Nonprofits in Charleston, South Carolina. This is the 10th year of the conference and every year it just gets better and better.

There are a lot of pre-conference workshops going on today. I'm attending the Blackbus.org User Group meeting this afternoon. I have put together a bunch of things for show and tell. Plus, I know they will probably have a lot of questions about our Internet solutions.

The welcome reception starts at 6pm tonight. Should be a good start to a great week of sessions and meeting with clients from across the nonprofit sector

Follow the conference on Twitter: http://twitter.com/bbcon and by using the hash tag #bbcon.
Other Links: Conference Sessions | Special Internet Sessions | Live Streaming Session

2009 State of the Not-For-Profit Industry Survey Results

Steve MacLaughlin — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:08:00 GMT

Blackbaud Europe has released the 2009 State of the Not-For-Profit Industry survey. Blackbaud teamed up with The Resource Alliance for the second year in a row to produce this pan-European benchmarking study. The results were unveiled at the International Fundraising Congress in the Netherlands.

SONI 2009 attracted over 648 completed survey entries from fundraising organisations in the United Kingdom, Germany, Holland, France and Italy. The results provide an overview to help not-for-profits benchmark their operations across five key areas:

General operations (staffing levels, budgets, service delivery requirements and organisational challenges)
Fundraising (top methods in terms of income and investment, increase or decrease for each fundraising method against the previous year and predictions for the next 12 months, and methods most commonly used to communicate with donors)
Technology and Internet Usage (use of new media techniques and social networking, and database requirements)
Accountability and Stewardship (looking at transparency of expenditure)
Demographics

Key findings from SONI 2009 include:

Charities in France are most optimistic about income growth for this year against last year with 59% of charities in France expecting to see an increase in individual donations and 51% anticipating growth in total income
Charities in Germany reported the highest anticipated decrease in total income (44%) and charitable donations (36%)
Charities across the board are seeing the biggest decrease over the past year in investments (followed by corporate giving), with the UK reporting the most significant fall at 61% and only 10% reporting an increase.
All nations report an increased demand for services, with three quarters (73%) of UK charities and two thirds of respondents in France (66%) and Italy (65%) reporting this.
Major donor fundraising is the top driver for fundraising contributions in all nations except the Netherlands, where it is direct mail.
86% of charities in France expect income from major giving to stay the same or increase this year, against last year
More than 40% of charities in the UK, Germany and the Netherlands don’t yet raise funds through email.
Charities in France (45%) and Italy (46%) are investing more heavily this year in fundraising staff, and in outsourcing, reporting 52% and 51% increase respectively in consultancy services..
Meanwhile, around twice as many charities in Germany expect to see a decrease in investment in direct mail and telemarketing as other nations at 13% and 14% (compared to a range of 2-10%)
Charities in France aren’t investing in their websites, 7% don’t have an online strategy or see it as a major income driver.
56% of charities in Italy report increased demand for donations to be restricted (47% in Germany).
There is some optimism for income growth in 2010 with more than half of charities in the UK, France and Italy expecting an increase.
Charities in France are far and above the most optimistic nation for charitable donations growth, with 80% expecting an increase (against just 40% for UK and Germany).

A complete version of the 2009 State of the Not-For-Profit Industry survey will be posted online shortly.

NTEN Webinar Links - The State of Online Fundraising

Steve MacLaughlin — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:05:00 GMT

Later today I'll be hosting a webinar called "The State of Online Fundraising" as part of NTEN member appreciation month. It's free to NTEN members and Blackbaud customers.

My presentation is full of lots of information, metrics, benchmarks, and more. Below are some of the reports, research, and links that I reference during the session:

These links should give you plenty to think about and take action on when building better online fundraising programs. And here are my slides from the presentation:

The State of Online Fundraising

View more presentations from Steve MacLaughlin.

I'm looking forward to other sessions like this in the future.

Creating a Social Networking Strategy (Part 1)

Steve MacLaughlin — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:15:00 GMT

This is a follow-up to Creating a Social Networking Strategy (Part 0) that originally appeared on this blog and also as a guest post on Beth Kanter's blog. One of the key takeaways from Part 0 is that once you stop just playing around with social media then you need to start putting together a strategy.

The first place to start is a proven and solid framework for your strategy. That bad news is that most people don't like "strategery" stuff. The good news is that a lot of the heavy lifting has already been done for you.

Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff's book Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies outlines a great strategy that nonprofit organizations can use. Josh was the keynote speaker at the 2009 Target User Forum. You can read an interview and write-up of his presentation on this blog.

In the book, Charlene and Josh recommend using the P.O.S.T. method for putting together your social networking strategy. P.O.S.T. stands for People, Objectives, Strategies, Technologies. And they are meant to be done in precisely that order.

People: Who are you trying to engage? Be specific and prioritize them. The answer can't be everyone.
Objectives: What are you trying to achieve? Is it about listening, talking, or energizing? How will you measure it?
Strategies: What will it look like when you're done? Start with the end in mind and how relationships will change.
Technologies: What are the tools you plan to use? Don't pick the tools first.

It sounds simple, but it works. Give it a try. Resist the temptation to jump right to the tools. Make sure you understand why you're doing this, how you plan to measure success, and identify your internal champions before you take advice from one of the 857 social media experts out there.

Social media and social networks are fundamentally a communications and relationship building channel. It's just on such a mass scale and full of plenty of sound, fury, and hype that we momentarily think the normal rules don't apply. They still do.

One of the first things that I recommend to nonprofits, after working through a quick P.O.S.T. exercise, is to establish your listening post. Before you dive into the conversation it's a good idea to know what people are talking about. Doing this also helps to acclimatize the people in your organization to how much is already going one in the social media ecosystem.

There may or may not be a lot of chatter about your organization, but there will certainly be activity related to your mission, cause, purpose, etc. It is important to tap into this because people are more interested in what you're actually doing instead of reading your mission statement. Read Frank Barry's blog posts "Set up Your Social Media Listening Dashboard in 30 Minutes or Less" and "I’m Listening, Now What? 5 Tips to Make Your Listening Worth It" to get started listening.

Use your listening posts to help guide your P.O.S.T. strategy. You are very likely to find insights into what topics, trends, and sites are closely aligned with your organization. As you work through developing your P.O.S.T. approach to using social media and networks you're likely to find a few scenarios that bring into question your strategy. Don't panic! There are always exceptions and special cases that come up.

Part 2 of Creating a Social Networking Strategy will cover a very popular question: How many staff members does this all take? Look for that post in the near future.

NTEN Webinar - The State of Online Fundraising

Steve MacLaughlin — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:12:00 GMT

November is NTEN member appreciation month and they are having several free webinars for members. I am fortunate enough to get to host a session called "The State of Online Fundraising" on Wednesday, November 4th from 2pm to 3:30pm EDT / 11:00am to 12:30pm PDT.

The State of Online Fundraising webinar will be free for NTEN members. You can learn more and register by visiting the NTEN website. Blackbaud customers can also attend the webinar for free. Please look for registration details in the October issue of the NetWits Think Tank enewsletter and The Connector enewsletter.

This webinar is a 90-minute session based on the NTEN Connect e-newsletter article I wrote called "The State of Online Fundraising" that recaps trends, research, and other useful information about online giving. I will also be covering information from across online giving research we've been doing for a while now.

If you're not already an NTEN member...join. Individual memberships start as low as $85 per year and there is certainly more value in just this session than the cost of an annual membership.

Full disclosure: I am member of the NTEN Board of Directors.

Generation Thumb

Steve MacLaughlin — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 09:05:00 GMT

A popular topic at conferences and water coolers in recent months has been how different generations engage with nonprofits. This is a subject that I've covered in my presentation "The Changing Nature of Online Fundraising" over the past year.

This week at the Blackbaud's 2009 Relationship Management Conference here in London the topic of generations came up once again. I had the chance to sit down with some people from Sponge, our mobile messaging partner in the UK, to talk to them about what they are seeing in the sector. Roger Jones from The Good Agency also brought up the topic in a discussion we had about charities and social media.

Right now a lot of nonprofits are trying to understand how to engage Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y supporters. A lot of time and attention is being spent on how social media and mobile can be used to build relationships with Gen Y or Millennials. And there's another group to add to the mix: Generation Thumb

Now, before I dive into Generation Thumb it's probably helpful to do a quick recap on the different generation groups. There is some debate on exactly when these generations start and end. I won't wade into that academic debate, but I use this chart in presentations to help explain the general age ranges and sizes of Boomers, Gen X, and Gen Y.

		     Born     	    Age	          Size
Baby Boomers	 1945 – 1960	  49 – 64	78 million
Generation X  	 1960 – 1980	  29 – 49	51 million
Generation Y	 1980 – 1995	  14 – 29	75 million

There is a lot of research into how each of these groups think, act, and engage differently. The biggest change to the nonprofit sector is that both Gen Xers and Gen Yers do not share the same giving attitudes as the Baby Boomers. While Boomers are more likely to view giving as part of a civic responsibility, the younger generations place a much higher emphasis on peer-to-peer and direct impact-based giving. This in part explains the growth of friends asking friends event fundraising, alternative giving options like Heifer International's gift catalog, and websites like Kiva.org and Change.org.

Nonprofits need to balance how different generations have preferences to give their time, talent, and treasure based on where they are in their lives. It has certainly been well documented how Gen Y has been a positive source of volunteers for many nonprofit organizations. Blackbaud often does an age segmentation exercise with clients to get them to start thinking about how their constituents are spread across the different generations.

This leads us back to Generation Thumb. This group was born mostly after 1995 and their primary communication is mainly done on mobile devices. This means they spend a lot of time using their thumbs to type and navigate. It also accounts for the explosion of acronyms and abbreviations used to decrease typing time. An article in the Telegraph earlier this year noted that children get their first mobile phone at the average age of eight.

We don't know what they think about nonprofits just yet, but the commercial world is doing a lot of research to try and understand them. As you continue to plan around inspiring and engaging Gen X and Gen Y then also begin to put Generation Thumb on your radar screen. This is a distant early warning that they are an even more unique audience.

Blackbaud's 2009 Relationship Management Conference - Day 2

Steve MacLaughlin — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 05:54:00 GMT

It's the second full day of Blackbaud's 2009 Relationship Management Conference here in London. You can follow the conference on Twitter using the #bbeconf09 hashtag.

I'm doing a sessions today called "The Changing Nature of Online Fundraising" that covers a variety of topics. Lots of stats, trends, and information from across online giving, email, social media, etc. in this session.

There are 30 different sessions today and here are some that might be of interest:

Email Marketing For Fun(draising) & (Non) Profit! – Margaret Farmakis, Return Path
Cool Tools – How Technology Is Changing The Way We Communicate With Our Supporters – Robert McAllen, Program Manager, Blackbaud Europe
Launching the Space Shuttle – Practical Advice To Ensure A Smooth Public Launch Of Your Website – Raheel Gauba, Creative Director, Blackbaud Internet Solutions
donorCentrics Helps Me Make Decisions! – Stephen O’Neill & Kevin Morton, MS Society
Deep Dive into Blackbaud NetCommunity - Robert McAllen, Program Manager, Blackbaud Europe

Blackbaud's Chief Technology Officer Shaun Sullivan is the plenary speaker today. I'm sure he'll have a few new surprises for the attendees.

Look for updates on this blog and Twitter.

Blackbaud's 2009 Relationship Management Conference - Day 1

Steve MacLaughlin — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 06:45:00 GMT

I'm back in London this week for Blackbaud's 2009 Relationship Management Conference at the Victoria Park Plaza hotel. You can follow the conference on Twitter using the #bbeconf09 hashtag.

Today's activities start off with the keynote presentation by Paul Williamson, Head of Ticketing for the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Paul the ultimate responsibility to fill the 35 stadiums to capacity for the wide range of events, from gymnastics to judo, archery to paralympic boccia.

I'm doing two sessions today:

Online Metrics Demystified: Understanding How To Measure Your Success
You’ve Got Mail! Now What? Improving Your Email Communication

There are 33 different sessions today and here are some that might be of interest:

Your Website In Focus – Does Your Website Meet Your Organisational Objectives? – Raheel Gauba, Creative Director, Blackbaud Internet Solutions
Creating A Post Crisis Charity Mindset: Moving Beyond The Transaction – Steve Bridger, nfp 2.0
Your Audience Judges Books By Their Covers: Make The Best First Impression & Keep Your Audience Engaged – Raheel Gauba and John Wells, Blackbaud Internet Solutions
The Bespoke Raiser's Edge - Real Wold Customisations - David Zeidman, Zeidman Development

Blackbaud's Chief Scientist Chuck Longfield is the afternoon plenary speaker today.

Look for updates on this blog and Twitter.

Blackbaud's Social Media for Nonprofits Web Seminar Series

Steve MacLaughlin — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 20:04:00 GMT

Blackbaud has been doing another web seminar series. This one is all about Social Media for Nonprofits. This series will give you all the tools you need to fill your social media toolkit!

Internet experts Jeff Patrick, president of Common Knowledge, and Frank Barry, managing consultant for Blackbaud Internet Solutions are putting on this series of sessions. They already covered Twitter for Nonprofits, Facebook for Nonprofits, and Blogging for Nonprofits. But don't worry, you can still view the sessions online. Upcoming web seminars include:

Social Networking for Fundraising Professionals
This session is for communications, marketing, and fundraising professionals looking to understand how to integrate social networks into their strategy. We'll cover what is social networking, social media, and Web 2.0, why is social networking valuable for nonprofits, and how it can be used for fundraising.
October 22 at 11:00 a.m. PDT

Building a Brand with Social Networks: Marketing and Communications Strategies
This web seminar is for communications and marketing professionals - Manager, Director, Vice President and C-Level roles - looking to understand how to integrate social networks into your organization's communications and marketing strategy.
November 3 at 11:00 a.m. PDT

Social Networking Strategy for Nonprofits
This session will help you understand social networks, evaluate projects and opportunities within your organization, and participate in the process of constructing your social networking strategy.
November 12 at 11:00 a.m. PDT

Mark the dates down. Sign-ups for these sessions will be available very soon.

2009 Online Giving Trends - Q3

Steve MacLaughlin — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 22:00:00 GMT

The year is rapidly coming to a close and we have more information about online giving trends for the third quarter of 2009 from Blackbaud clients. This is part of a series of published insights from all of 2008, Q1 2009, and Q2 2009. This information comes from approximately 2,200 nonprofit organizations using Blackbaud's Internet solutions and represents the largest sample size studied in the nonprofit sector.

Online Fundraising Growth Trends
An analysis of nearly three years of online fundraising data reveals a giving pattern for Blackbaud clients. Online revenue in the third quarter of 2009 was up 41% compared to the same time period in 2008. The trend data also illustrates how online fundraising is entering its traditional peak period during the final quarter of the year. Data from across 33 months shows that the largest amount of online giving takes place in Q4 followed by Q2, Q3, and Q1.

Online Major Giving Trends
Last quarter we published some findings around trends among donors making significant online gifts in excess of $1,000. These gift amounts mark a threshold for many nonprofits between annual support, transitional gifts, and major gifts to the organization. Blackbaud's research identified 1,429 nonprofit organizations in the analysis with least one online gift of $1,000 or more in 2009. 41% of those organizations had their largest online donation within a gift range of $1,001 to $4,999. That was the largest segment in the breakdown followed by 21% of the nonprofits having their largest single online gift at the $1,000 level. The highest gift range in the analysis was $10,001 to $50,000 and 7% of the nonprofits had their largest single online gift in this group. Blackbaud also did a year-over-year comparison from 2008 to 2009 and found that the median gift amount for online donations of at least $1,000 has held steady at $2,500. Blackbaud’s research continues to show measurable evidence of donors making significant gifts online as part of their giving behaviors.

Economic Impact on Online Giving
There are a variety of perspectives on how the global and domestic economy is impacting fundraising. The latest Target Analytics Index of National Fundraising Performance continues to show a decline in revenue and donors across the sector. Our research suggests that the majority of nonprofit organizations are still in a growth phase for online giving, compared to well established offline channels, and the impact of the recession is largely masked. Online transactions are still growing at 56% year-over-year and this volume growth overcomes any declines in gift amounts. The emerging trend in the data is that a nonprofit's online fundraising mix might influence their year-over-year results. More research and analysis on the impact of fundraising mix is certainly required.

Notes: All data is calculated directly from online transactions processed by Blackbaud. Online recurring gifts and pledges are not included in the entire data analysis. The single largest online gift ($75,000) and single smallest online gift ($1) during the analysis period were removed.

Design Makes a Difference

Steve MacLaughlin — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:05:00 GMT

One of the best kept secrets at Blackbaud Internet Solutions is our interactive design team. Over the years we've built up one of the largest and most experienced design groups serving the nonprofit sector. We've even branched out over time to add design experts in both our London and Sydney offices.

Process Makes Perfekt
Great designers are like magicians. They make the end result look spontaneous and effortless because they don't like to reveal how they really pull off the trick. The reality is that behind the scenes it takes years of experience and proven processes to create engaging designs.

That spark of inspiration comes after days of understanding a client's brand, message, goals, objectives, audience, and what sets them apart. When our team of designers starts in on a project they immerse themselves in the client's mission and the people the organization is trying to reach. Having focused objectivity is one of those secret ingredients to the design process.

Good design for the Internet requires a mix of both art and science. The science involves information architecture, taxonomies, wireframes, heuristics, and display design principles. The art involves shape, shadow, tone, typography, color theory, photography, and the right amount of motion and emotion. The medium is different than print or broadcast, but some proven fundamentals still apply.

Blackbaud's creative director Raheel Gauba likes to say that "every pixel has a purpose." This explains why a lot of thought goes into who, what, where, when, why, and how whether we're creating a new design from scratch, improving on an existing one, or doing a complete redesign. It's about bringing the right people, process, and pieces together. It also means leaving some room for creative expression. (Like a clever spelling choice.)

And the Winner Is
The proof is usually in the results. Having successful and happy clients is very rewarding — it's also nice when peers recognize the work too. The Blackbaud Internet Solutions trophy case is filling up these days with awards from a variety of client projects. The latest is a 2009 WebAward For Outstanding Achievement in Web Development from the Web Marketing Association for the New England Province of Jesuits website.

The design and development of the New England Province of Jesuits site wasn't left to chance. It took a client that had a clear and well defined strategy, a design team that took the time to listen, a good working chemistry between communications, advancement, and information technology teams, and a shared vision about making the project a success. To the unaided eye it looks like a magic trick. Everyone that worked on the project knows the real secrets. Congratulations to each of them.

Index of National Fundraising Performance - Q2 2009

Steve MacLaughlin — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 17:02:00 GMT

Target Analytics, a Blackbaud company, announced last week the latest Index of National Fundraising Performance for the second quarter of 2009.

The index compares trends in key fundraising indicators from 77 organizations, including over 36 million donors and more than 68 million gifts totaling almost $2 billion in revenue.

The index findings include giving data from direct mail, online, telemarketing, events, and other fundraising channels. You can get a complete summary of the latest index findings here.

Revenue and Donor Trends
Index revenue declined a median 7.7% from Q2 2008 year-to-date to Q2 2009 year-to-date. This continues declines that were reported at the end of 2008 and in the first quarter of 2009. Revenue declines were widespread across the index with only 18% of the organizations in the index had positive revenue growth over the period.

Donor numbers in the index fell a median 3.5% from Q2 2008 YTD to Q2 2009 YTD. Donors have been declining consistently for the past three years; the index has not experienced positive year-to-year donor growth since the 2005 U.S. Gulf Coast hurricanes. 34% of the organizations in the index had positive donor growth from Q2 2008 YTD to Q2 2009 YTD.

Donor declines are, again, due primarily to declines in new donor numbers, which fell 7.6% from the first half of 2008 to the first half of 2009. Fewer than 32% of the organizations in the index had positive new donor growth over the period. For most organizations, overall donor declines continue to be caused mainly by declines in new donor acquisition.

Over the past five years, from the twelve months ending Q2 2004 to the twelve months ending Q2 2009, new donor numbers have fallen a cumulative median 9.7%. This is an effective annual rate of decline of 1.9% per year. New donor declines have been particularly steep since the start of the recession. New donor numbers fell a cumulative median 10.9% from the twelve months ending Q4 2007, when the recession began, to the twelve months ending Q2 2009.

Trends Across Different Organizations
The societal benefit sector had flat donor growth this quarter while all other sectors saw declines. As with revenue, the religion and animal welfare sectors had the smallest donor declines. The relief sector had the largest revenue and donor declines in the index in the first half of 2009. This may be in part a rebound from strong disaster giving in 2008.

New donor acquisition was down from the first half of 2008 to the first half of 2009 for almost all sectors in the index. This was the primary cause of overall donor declines in the index. Religious organizations were the only ones to see any positive growth in new donor acquisition in the first half of 2009. Environmental and relief organizations had the largest new donor declines over this period.

Click here to get a complete copy of the latest Index of National Fundraising Performance.