Giving Trends for Summer
Hi everyone,
I hope you are enjoying the start of summer! I am still getting used to it being light until well after 10pm eastern time. I enjoy the night sky and that is a little tough since I try to go to bed by 10pm. At least it gives me another reason to look forward to fall, my favorite season of the year.
I wanted to share two important pieces of recent research on giving as we enter into summer. You can download them online—please see the links in this newsletter.
The first is the annual Giving USA report. This report is researched and written by the IU Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. The initial numbers report over 390 billion in giving in 2016, which is up from 2015. You can check out the report at the link below:
Giving USA report
The second report is Connected to Give: Faith Communities. This report shines a new light on how we look at giving to religious organizations. This is a study that has been done to parse out giving to religious organizations beyond just giving to congregations. In the Giving USA research mentioned above, giving to religion has remained the largest subsector of giving over the years. However, it represented only giving to congregations. Several other studies have been done on religious giving, but focusing only on giving to congregations. The many faith-based organizations doing human service and other work in our communities weren't accounted for in terms of looking at giving to religion, so we had no way of knowing what impact being religiously affiliated had on donor behavior. You can check out the report at the link below:
Connected to Give
I also am sharing a quick article on reminding us about staying focused on our purpose. This article is about the Stockdale Paradox. We can face great challenges, and there can be a balance between optimism and being realistic. This article encourages us to move forward on mission in the midst of circumstances. Good to remember in summer, which can ebb and flow for many in different ways through the rest of the year. You can check out the article at the link below:
"The Stockdale Paradox"
God bless you!
Jamie
