Sage Nonprofit Insights Study, Q3 2011

SAGE NONPROFIT INSIGHTS STUDY, Q3 2011

Sage Nonprofit Insights Study, Q3 2011 Year-End Fundraising Summary Report

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Introduction Sage North America serves 3.1 million small and midsized organizations in the United States and Canada, regularly surveying them and other organizations for their opinions on the business environment. The most recent Sage Nonprofit Insights, the results of which are summarized here, focuses on U.S. nonprofit organizations’ views and outlook with regard to year-end fundraising efforts.

Fundraising Success to Date About one-third of organizations said they have raised less from individual donors so far in 2011 than they expected to at this point. (See table below)

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Fundraising Expectations for 2011 Organizations are generally optimistic about the final quarter of 2011, with a third saying they expect to raise more than they did in last year's final quarter. (See table below)

For the entire year, the majority of organizations expect to meet their fundraising goals for individual donors. Nearly a quarter project they will fall short. (See table below)

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Planned Staffing Changes for Year-End Fundraising Two-thirds of organizations have no staffing changes planned to support year-end fundraising. Many that do will rely on volunteers to aid in the effort. (See table below)

Technologies and Strategies Employed in Year-End Fundraising Organizations reported that the most common tactics they will use for conducting year-end fundraising are direct mail and email. A sizable portion also will utilize special events and a Facebook page. (See table below)

Ninety-three percent of organizations reported using multiple tactics to achieve their year-end fundraising goals, with an average of four different channels being used by each organization.

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Organizations plan to use a wide range of technologies as they carry out their year-end fundraising, with office productivity applications (such as spreadsheets and documents), online donation solutions, donor management systems, and email marketing leading the list. (See table below) Seventy four percent of organizations reported using multiple technology systems, with an average of three solutions being used by each organization.

While most organizations are not planning to incorporate mobile technologies in their year-end fundraising, those that are most often will accept mobile payments and have mobile-optimized donation forms. (See table below)

Organizations using mobile strategies tend to have more diverse fundraising strategies, in general, averaging 4.1 vs 3.6 communications channels being used by each organization. In addition, 21% of organizations using mobile strategies as part of their year-end fundraising campaigns expect to exceed their fundraising goals, vs 11% of organizations not using mobile strategies expecting to exceed their goals.

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Methodology In Sept./Oct. 2011, an online survey was conducted among North American customers of Sage Nonprofit Solutions. Responding to the survey was a total of 175 customers whose organization solicits individual donations for financial support. The margin of error on the overall sample is +/- 6 percent (greater for sub-samples) at a 95 percent confidence level.

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