Non-Profit Impact
Hi Everyone!
I hope you're all enjoying spring--it's hard to believe it's already May!
I wanted to share some encouragement about great things going on in the sector. Especially since there seems to be more and more negative press taking aim at wrongdoing in specific organizations that gets spun into negative perceptions about all nonprofits. The U.S. is home to the most vibrant, strong and largest nonprofit sector in the world--more than 1.5 million organizations, plus some 300,000 churches. It is always frustrating to me to see how sensationalized things become without looking at the full context of the trust equity, quality leadership, and amazing organizations we have. I wish that the media and critics would spend more time looking at our impact as opposed to what happens in one organization.
For example, here's a great statistic from Jeff Brooks at Donor Power Blog. On average, every $1 given to the charitable sector stimulates $19 of economic return to the U.S. economy. And if we look at grant making alone (which is just 14% of total charitable giving), the Philanthropic Collaborate states that:
Nearly 500,000 jobs are created immediately following disbursement of foundation grants, expanding within about a year to nearly 1 million jobs once the grants flow through the economy.
At least 8.8 million jobs are created over the long-term. In the subsequent years after foundation investments are made, impacts build that span a generation and beyond. For example, a foundation grant to support an early childhood education initiative increases the likelihood that more young people will go to college, improve their lifetime earnings and improve their quality of life.
Nearly $970 billion in goods and services transactions are generated, and more than $570 billion is generated to America's GDP based on long-term return on investment and economic multipliers.
And that's just the economic impact, not to mention the help, hope and community you provide to people 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Let's make sure we are sharing this kind of information just as aggressively as critics of the sector, because the work you do makes the world a better place.
A few side notes of interest.
1. The new rate of volunteer value per hour was released. The new rate for 2018 puts the value of an hour of volunteer labor at $24.69 per hour. Be sure you capture that and share it in your organization. Show your donors the impact of your volunteers.
2. Some new research shows that donors who get both email solicitation and direct mail, increase giving 40% or more in their early gifts
3. As you do your spring appeals, don’t forget about segmenting your constituencies and don’t overlook the Gen Xers.
I hope you have a blessed month of May!
Jamie
