Giving Compass' Take:

Nonprofit Quarterly discusses a new survey of charities in the U.S. and Canada that showed more than half raised more in 2017 than the prior year and expect to have another good year in 2018, easing fears that the new tax law would erode donations.

• The biggest surprise, perhaps, was that both small and large organizations reported similar successes. How will that inform fundraising plans going forward?

• If you're looking for tips for major gift fundraising, check this out.


Recently, the Nonprofit Research Collaborative announced that 75 percent of around 1,200 charitable nonprofits surveyed in the United States and Canada say they met their fundraising goals for 2017. While that may not be much of a surprise, given that many predicted there might be a rush to give before the new tax law took effect, more than half (61 percent) of the same group expect that they will have another good year in 2018, with 10 percent expecting the new tax law to actually increase fundraised revenue. Of course, fundraisers are a hopeful bunch, as the graph on page 11 of the report indicates.

The study also found that 63 percent of the nonprofits who responded raised more than in the prior year — the highest percentage rate increase since 2010 when the NRC began measuring these results. In 2016, 58 percent raised more than in 2015.

One very interesting finding was that, according to the survey, there was really no difference between the fundraising success rates of small and large organizations.

This new wrinkle has been true for the last two years; in the past, larger organizations were more likely than small ones to see increases. In fact, 65 percent of organizations with revenues of less than $250,000 showed increases, and this was second only to the percentage of organizations in the $10 million-to-$49.999 million category, at 67 percent.

Read the full article about how fundraising storm warnings look now by Ruth McCambridge at nonprofitquarterly.org.