JGA Blog

In November 2019, the Giving USA Foundation published a special report associated with its research of planned giving donors and their motivations to give. This study, "Leaving a Legacy: A New Look at Planned Giving Donors," was based upon national survey results from more than 860 planned giving donors and an additional 40 personal interviews. The study provides information on key trends, motivations, and insights.

Here are key findings and three practical implications for your planned giving program from this valuable research:

Though personal visits are the gold standard to engage and cultivate major gift donors, they can be costly and labor intensive if you are not seeing the right prospects. But how can you ensure you are connecting with the best prospects?

Your database holds the answer. Big data is a buzz word we’re hearing more and more about, particularly for its ability to organize large volumes of data to uncover hidden trends and its ability to make organizations more efficient through predictive analytics. This emerging trend involves utilizing historical data to find patterns and correlations to build assumptions and develop potential scenarios. So how do we take those concepts and put them into practice with our nonprofit organizations?

According to Giving USA 2019: The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2018, American giving reached $427.71 billion in 2018, an increase of 0.7 percent in terms of current dollars but a decline of 1.7 percent from 2017, when adjusted for inflation. Even adjusted for inflation, charitable giving reached its second highest level ever in 2018, second only to 2017. Thus, 2018 is seen as a very strong but complex year in terms of philanthropy.

Boomers are moving toward retirement, Generation X is taking on greater leadership roles, and Millennials are accelerating their career development. As the next generation of leaders are introduced into nonprofit workplaces, they will bring with them new personalities, opportunities, and approaches to fundraising. Current nonprofit leaders have the opportunity to learn from the next generation, tailor their hiring strategies to attract and retain the best candidates and create successful onboarding programs.

Recently, Johnson, Grossnickle and Associates (JGA) partnered with the Chronicle of Philanthropy to provide a curated collection of Chronicle articles and JGA insights on grooming future leaders, hiring fundraisers, and preparing for the next generation of nonprofit workers. We encourage you to download this collection of articles produced by Chronicle Intelligence, a division of the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

One important step in strengthening your advancement team is to reduce employee turnover, which is an area that often presents challenges for nonprofits. Frequent staff changes can tap limited resources, impact mission delivery and hamper fundraising.

According to Giving USA 2019: The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2018, American giving reached $427.71 billion in 2018, an increase of 0.7 percent in terms of current dollars but a decline of 1.7 percent from 2017, when adjusted for inflation. Even adjusted for inflation, charitable giving reached its second highest level ever in 2018, second only to 2017. Thus, 2018 is seen as a very strong but complex year in terms of philanthropy.

What this Means for Healthcare Organizations:

Giving to health reached $40.78 billion in 2018. While growth over 2017 was nearly flat at just 0.1 percent (or declined by 2.3 percent when adjusted for inflation), the sector had its second highest level of giving ever when adjusted for inflation. Large gifts are common in this sector but donor retention lags behind other sectors. According to the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy’s 2018 annual Report on Giving, the largest sources of healthcare funds raised in 2017 were corporate/foundation and major gifts, followed by special events, annual gifts, and planned giving. 

According to Giving USA 2019: The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2018, American giving reached $427.71 billion in 2018, an increase of 0.7 percent in terms of current dollars but a decline of 1.7 percent from 2017, when adjusted for inflation. Even adjusted for inflation, charitable giving reached its second highest level ever in 2018, second only to 2017. Thus, 2018 is seen as a very strong but complex year in terms of philanthropy.

What this Means for Colleges and Universities:

After four years of consecutive growth, Giving USA estimates that giving to the education sector (which includes colleges, universities, and other educational institutions such as libraries as well as K-12 schools) declined in 2018. Specifically, giving to education organizations totaled an estimated $58.72 billion in 2018 (a decline by 1.3% in current dollars and 3.7% when adjusted for inflation).

However, while giving to education organizations overall fell slightly in 2018, there is some positive news regarding giving to higher education specifically. The Voluntary Support of Education (VSE) survey found that total contributions to higher education reached their highest levels ever in the 2017-2018 academic year. Indeed, VSE found that giving to these institutions was 7.2 percent higher than in the year previous. According to the survey, contributions from all donor types increased with the most notable gains from non-alumni individuals and organizations other than corporations and foundations. Respondents to the VSE survey also reported that giving from donor-advised funds (DAFs) increased 65.8 percent over last year.

Would you be surprised to learn that most nonprofits are failing to make use of one of their most valuable resources? What if I told you that that resource is 100% free?

It might feel like you are always in campaign mode, either planning for your first campaign, your next campaign, or currently in the middle of one. You aren’t alone here!  As you think about your campaign, here are some recent trends we have noticed and best practices  we have seen in our 25 years working with clients across multiple nonprofit sectors.

We know that 2018 was a complex year for charitable giving – $427.71 billion total charitable giving in the US, the second highest level of giving ever. Yet in actuality, giving was essentially flat in 2018, coming off of a record-breaking 2017 and four years of consecutive growth. As giving mirrors economic fluctuations, the strong performance of economic indicators in 2018 helped drive growth, yet stock market volatility at the end of 2018 may have negatively impacted giving by individuals. Also, the uncertainty of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act may have impacted individual giving as well.

With these complexities, how do we grow philanthropy in our nation? This has been a key leadership question at JGA over the 25 years of our work with nonprofit clients. We are committed to strengthening philanthropy through research and best practice – and by learning from our colleagues and friends in the industry. 

Perhaps the culmination of our commitment to growing philanthropy takes place this year – our 25^th anniversary year – with the appointment of our Senior Consultant and Founder, Ted R. Grossnickle, CFRE, as the Chair of the Giving Institute.

Today, Giving USA released its annual estimate of charitable giving for 2018, showing that giving reached more than $427 billion amid a complex year in terms of economic conditions and a changing policy environment. Giving USA 2019: The Annual Report on Philanthropy for 2018 reports that Americans gave $427.71 billion in 2018, an increase of 0.7 percent in terms of current dollars but a decline of 1.7 percent from 2017, when adjusted for inflation. Even adjusted for inflation, charitable giving reached its second highest level ever in 2018, second only to 2017.