JGA Blog

Data plays a vital role in the world of nonprofits. It is a critical tool that helps you make smarter decisions, and it can play a key role in supporting future investment in your efforts.

Your data tells a story that can help you identify key trends as you think towards the future. Sometimes determining what that story says can be a challenge, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed by too much data. But with the right guidance, you can quickly gain clarity that can make decision making much easier. For more information on how others are using data in fundraising to achieve results, download our content collection,  How to Use Data to Improve Your Fundraising, produced by Chronicle Intelligence, a division of the Chronicle of Philanthropy, in partnership with JGA.

Successful organizations know that it’s important to use the data you have to guide decisions that will help you build stronger and deeper relationships with your donors and friends in the most efficient and effective way possible. Many are using that data to guide future investments in fundraising.

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.

JGA is pleased to share with you news about the latest study on trends in high net worth philanthropy from U.S. Trust and the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. We were honored to host a webinar shortly after the release to discuss the report in detail with Dr. Una Osili, the report's author at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, and William Jarvis, with U.S. Trust, Bank of America's Private Wealth Management.

The 2018 U.S. Trust Study of High Net Worth Philanthropy, published by U.S. Trust in partnership with the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, finds that wealthy Americans continue to be generous with their time and money, increasing the amount they gave on average to charitable causes and organizations in 2017, including giving in the wake of natural disasters. The biennial study shows that 90 percent of high net worth (HNW) households gave to charity last year, and 48 percent volunteered time to nonprofit organizations and causes.

Giving USA released its annual estimates of U.S. charitable giving today, and the results show impressive growth despite a shifting national landscape. Giving USA 2018: The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2017 reports that total charitable giving in our nation reached $410.02 billion in 2017, an increase of 5.2 percent over 2016. This total breaks the lofty $400 billion mark and is the highest in the history of Giving USA, which began tracking this data more than 40 years ago.

Published by Giving USA Foundation, a public service initiative of The Giving Institute, Giving USA is the longest running and most comprehensive report of its kind in America. It is researched and created by the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.

All but one of the nine major categories of charitable organizations realized growth in giving. (International affairs saw a decrease of 4.4%.) Amid new national leadership, numerous national disasters, and the uncertain impact of tax law changes in December, Americans gave. This positive growth trend was fueled by a strong economy and an increase in personal consumption (4.5%)—the strongest indicator of individual giving.

“Why don’t we give money to the Church any more, mom?,” was the question from my then ten-year-old son one Sunday morning. I realized that he had stopped seeing my husband and me put the envelope in the collection basket, as we had done for as long as he could remember.

Well, of course we had not stopped giving to our Church but rather had moved to a more convenient and consistent method of giving that was encouraged by our parish…. online giving. Online giving ensures a weekly collection regardless of travel or forgetting the envelope at home, yet it takes away a very important symbol of giving: the physical habit of placing the envelope in the basket for all to see.

We now have 5 generations of donors, workers, and volunteers in the philanthropic marketplace:

1. Gen Z (born after 1995)
2. Millennials (1981 – 1995)
3. Gen-X (1965 – 1980)
4. Boomers (1946 – 1964) 
5. Silent/Greats (born before 1946) 

Increased life expectancy, better healthcare, and delayed retirement all contribute to this unprecedented generational diversity.

Why should development professionals pay attention to generational diversity in the philanthropic marketplace? Each generation is influenced by their own economic, social, political, and environmental dynamics as well as collective experiences and different worldviews. These factors inform philanthropic behavior and generational giving preferences and have implications on how we as development professionals build relationships with donors.

Major gift donors are crucial for the ongoing sustainability of your nonprofit’s mission. In fact, high net worth donors often provide as much as 94% of the funds for nonprofit campaign initiatives. So, it is important that we understand their giving patterns, preferences, and motivations.

The 2016 U.S. Trust® Study of High Net Worth Philanthropy released this week is the sixth edition of the biennial study, researched by the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy and provides nonprofits with valuable insights on this important donor demographic. The report surveyed 1,435 U.S. households with a net worth of $1 million or more (excluding the value of their primary home) and/or an annual household income of $200,000 or more.

Looking for strategies to identify major gift donors? We’ve asked Bill Tedesco with DonorSearch to provide some insights and he shares that prospect research is a great place to start.

The Baby Boomer and Millennial generations are frequently top of mind in discussions and research into the generations and generational giving preferences, but what about the “in-betweens?” Given the buzz, particularly about Millennials, it may be easy to overlook a resource for significant current and future donor growth for your organization: Generation X.

Also known as Gen X, this group includes those born in the United States from 1964 to 1980. Gen Xers are sandwiched squarely between older Baby Boomers and younger Millennials and represented 20% of total giving in the U.S. in 2013.

Based on data compiled by Pew Research Center, notable characteristics of this generation include:

While we all know many examples of extreme generosity through charitable bequests, a new CNBC survey of high-net-worth individuals paints a different picture.