News

38% of Companies Cut Cash Giving in 2009, Study Finds

From The Chronicle of Philanthropy

September 23, 2009

By Caroline Preston

Business leaders say they remain committed to being good corporate citizens even during the recession, but financial pressures have forced some to cut back on philanthropy and volunteerism, according to a new study by the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship and the Hitachi Foundation.

Fifty-four percent of more than 750 business executives surveyed said that corporate-citizenship activities—including environmental efforts, ethical business practices, treating employees well, and philanthropy—are even more important during bad economic times than good.

But 38 percent of companies were forced to cut their cash giving this year, according to the study of small, medium, and large businesses.

The percentage of businesses contributing products and services dropped slightly, from 65 percent in 2007 to 60 percent this year. Those providing volunteering opportunities fell from 64 percent to 57 percent.

The cutbacks were strongly correlated to a company’s financial performance. Among businesses hit hard by the recession, 59 percent spent less on philanthropy.

Of those whose performance improved, 19 percent gave away less money, while 63 percent gave about the same. The rest (18 percent) gave more.

The study, “Weathering the Storm: The State of Corporate Citizenship in the United States 2009,” is the fourth of its kind.

‘Pretty Good Story’

Mark Popovich, senior program officer of the Hitachi Foundation, in Washington, said the survey results painted “a pretty good story for corporate philanthropy and volunteering,” considering the severe economic stress most businesses faced this year.

While there is strong support among business leaders for charitable giving and volunteering, he said, it was difficult to maintain cash contributions in the face of plummeting revenues.

“Employees may be asking whether we have the money when we’re laying off people, when our sales and revenues are down, when we’re cutting back hours,” Mr. Popovich said. “There are internal pressures.”

The survey, which was conducted in June by the polling company GlobeScan, found that small businesses were responding differently to the recession than large ones. While they were less likely to lay off workers, small companies (those with fewer than 100 employees) were more likely to cut charitable giving and volunteerism.

A company’s reputation, and its traditions and values, were cited as the two main reasons for engaging in corporate-citizenship activities. The chief executive now leads a company’s efforts to be a good corporate citizen at three-quarters of the businesses surveyed.

Companies were more likely to give money, products, and volunteer hours to education, health care, and the environment than other causes.

Gates Foundation Steps Up Program-Related Investments

From Philanthropy Today

September 22, 2009

By staff writer

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is increasingly making loans, loan guarantees, and equity investments as ways to stretch its philanthropic dollars, The Seattle Times reports.

The so-called program-related investments include $20-million to a German company to expand banking services in Africa, an $8-million equity fund to invest in health-care ventures, and loan guarantees backing U.S. education.

The economic downturn trimmed 20 percent of the Seattle foundation’s $35.1-billion endowment, leading it to rethink its spending plans. Karen Haque, the foundation’s associate general counsel, said program-related investments impose financial discipline on recipients, helping them operate more like businesses.

The Financial Edge is Now More Affordable for Small Nonprofit Organizations

From Nonprofit Technology News

September 11, 2009

By Blackbaud Inc.

Blackbaud, Inc. (Nasdaq: BLKB), announced the availability of The Financial Edge™ for Small Offices. Designed to offer value to smaller organizations in achieving the highest level of fiscal transparency and accountability, The Financial Edge for Small Offices includes flexible pricing and options for deployment that scale from one to three users, giving smaller organizations all the benefits of the larger The Financial Edge solution.

“We understand that not all nonprofit organizations experience the same challenges. The Financial Edge for Small Offices is just another example of how we listen to the nonprofit market and deliver solutions to meet their specific needs,” said Andrew Payne, Blackbaud’s product line manager for The Financial Edge. “The Financial Edge for Small Offices offers the benefits expected of the most powerful financial management solution specifically designed for nonprofits.”

Tailored to meet the needs of organizations with smaller staffs, The Financial Edge for Small Office eliminates financial barriers that force those organizations to manage operations with systems designed for for-profit companies. The Financial Edge automates manual tasks, helps with forecasting and planning, and enables employees to be more efficient by spending more time on fundraising than on spending.

The Financial Edge, a Campbell Award recipient, helps nonprofits’ accounting operations in several areas, including:

• Accountability/stewardship
• Strategic financial management
• Budgeting/planning
• Spending
• Collections
• Improved visibility
• Enhanced interdepartmental communications

With the ability to evaluate the performance of every initiative or department with real-time reporting, The Financial Edge for Small Offices offers choices in how an organization’s data is transported into important and useable information. Nonprofits can choose between a perpetual license model and a subscription-based hosted version through Blackbaud OnDemand hosting services.

The Association of Support Professionals (ASP) recently selected Blackbaud’s support site as a winner of this year’s “Ten Best Web Support Sites” award. Along with the ASP award, Blackbaud also offers an extensive training curriculum on The Financial Edge with local, regional and online courses.

About Blackbaud

Blackbaud is the leading global provider of software and services designed specifically for nonprofit organizations, enabling them to improve operational efficiency, build strong relationships, and raise more money to support their missions. Approximately 22,000 organizations — including University of Arizona Foundation, American Red Cross, Cancer Research UK, The Taft School,Lincoln Center, In Touch Ministries, Tulsa Community Foundation, Ursinus College,Earthjustice, International Fund for Animal Welfare, and the WGBH Educational Foundation — use one or more Blackbaud products and services for fundraising, constituent relationship management, financial management, website management, direct marketing, education administration, ticketing, business intelligence, prospect research, consulting, and analytics. Since 1981, Blackbaud’s sole focus and expertise has been partnering with nonprofits and providing them the solutions they need to make a difference in their local communities and worldwide. Headquartered in the United States, Blackbaud also has operations in Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit www.blackbaud.com.

Young Adults Fueled Spike In Volunteers

From the Nonprofit Times

July 28, 2009

By Mark Hrywna

Led by teens and young adults accounting for almost half the increase, about a million more people volunteered last year, according to an annual report on volunteering in the United States. Nonprofits also expect to continue their increased use of volunteers this year.

The Corporation for National and Community Service’s (CNCS) Volunteering in America reports that 37 percent of nonprofits increased the number of volunteers they used between September and March and 48 percent expect to continue to increase their use in the coming year.

The report estimates that 61.8 million Americans volunteered last year, about a million more than the previous year, and more than a quarter of the U.S. population. Volunteers are persons age 16 or older who serve through or with an organization without pay at any point during a 12-month period from September one year to September the next year.

Of the one million additional volunteers in 2008, about 441,000 were between the ages of 16 and 24, up from 7.8 million to 8.24 million and boosting their volunteering rate from 20.88 percent to 21.9 percent.

Overall, the nation’s volunteering rate was about 26.4 percent, led once again last year by the Midwest, 30.2 percent, and specifically Utah, 43.5 percent. California accounted for the largest number of volunteers in the U.S., with a total 7.1 million; about 12 percent of the nation’s total. More than a third of volunteers did so through faith-based organizations.

A historic drop in donations to charity last year would seem to indicate that people are giving their time if not their financial resources, said Alan Solomont, chairman of the board of CNCS. “Traditional volunteering remained relatively stable, but what we call informal volunteering, neighbors coming together to solve a community’s problems…suggests an emerging trend, one we’re trying to foster,” he said.

The report indicated an increase in “neighborhood engagement levels” of 31 percent (the number of people who worked with neighbors to fix a community problem) and a 17-percent spike in the number of people who attended community meetings. Volunteer rates were extremely high after Sept. 11, 2001, but neighborhood engagement has spiked this year after the corporation began tracking it three years ago.

Online applications to AmeriCorps have seen an increase from 46,000 to 146,000 during the same eight-month period a year ago, Solomont said. “This generation wants to be part of something bigger than themselves,” he said.

Despite enormous spikes in applications to volunteer programs like AmeriCorps, the one million more volunteers represent an overall increase of only about 1.6 percent. The report, however, suggests that volunteer rates could have dropped given the circumstances. “Previous research indicates that a concurrent decrease in volunteering rates could occur during a time of economic recession, especially when there are decreases in home ownership and increases in unemployment rates,” according to the report.

Employment and home ownership are among the predictors of whether someone volunteers, according to Robert Grimm, director of the Office and Research and Policy Development at CNCS. Often people think volunteering is about time, he said, but volunteering is something people make time for rather than having extra time to serve the community.

“We’re seeing some dramatic volunteer increases in areas experiencing the brunt of economic challenges, perhaps indicating a ‘compassion boom,’” Grimm said, in places hit hard by the recession, like Phoenix, Las Vegas, and New Jersey.

The president’s call for public service has helped, as it has in the past when presidents have urged Americans to serve, Solomont said, adding that people who lost their jobs may volunteer because they want to be helpful or are looking to develop new skills or new careers.

The boost in interest might be a result of the weak job market, but the younger generation also is more interested in service than other generations, Solomont said. Volunteering rates among young adults dropped off significantly after the 1970s, he said, but current youngsters grew up in schools that were more likely to have service learning programs than in the past, starting young people “on a path of community service much earlier than before. Young people serving is reflective of their earlier service learning experience.”

The corporation’s report can be used as a tool for anyone who works with volunteers to develop effective strategies for recruiting and using volunteers, said Melody Barnes, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council. “While [the report] doesn’t reflect volunteer trends during our administration, it does contain a lot of information” about how to expand opportunities and solve problems, she said.

Solomont hopes mayors and governors around the nation will examine the study and employ strategies for using volunteers to help solve local problems. “We need to make service a way of life for all Americans,” he said.

The nearly 62 million volunteers contributed about 8 billion hours of service worth $162 billion, based on the $20.25 value of a volunteer hour as estimated by Independent Sector. Volunteers are also more likely to donate to a charity, with 78 percent donating $25 or more, compared to 39 percent of non-volunteers.

The report was compiled by CNCS with the help of the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, surveying 100,000 people at a very high response rate, according to Grimm.

TV Networks To Focus On National Service

From the Nonprofit Times

June 16, 2009

By Paul Clolery

National service will be at the center of television programming this fall on ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox, The NonProfit Times has learned. The White House, The Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF), AARP and the Corporation For National and Community Service are expected to be part of the announcement of the initiative in coming days.

Also involved is the Points of Light Institute and other organizations that were part of the ServiceNation Summit held this past September. Calls to the participating organizations either went unreturned or spokespeople have declined to comment on the record.

The announcement is expected to involve First Lady Michelle Obama and leaders of all of the organizations involved, multiple sources told The NonProfit Times. The effort is similar to the EIF’s push this past September for Stand Up To Cancer, an event to raise money for cancer research that involved network programming.

In this case, instead of one show simulcast on the broadcast outlets, national service will be written into shows on all of the outlets. There will also be public service spots and online outreach.

“It’s about how to amplify the president’s call to service, to get more Americans involved in service,” one source told The NonProfit Times.

The announcement is expected to be made next Tuesday (6/23) in San Francisco during the 2009 National Conference on Volunteering and Service.