Mid-sized Charities Dominate Fund-Raising

New charts show that large scale charities are still significant players and small charities are not, even though they are the most reliant on contributions. 

Data from the IRS show the peculiar nature of the fund raising business.  Small scale charitable organizations need contributions, but donors don't need small organizations.  Here are some new charts from Where Most Needed to illustrate the basics of the fund raising market. 

The first graphic shows distribution of total charitable contributions in the US by size of organization.  As we have seen many time before, the smallest scale organizations (in this case those under $1 million in total income) are very numerous, but the account for only a tiny bit of the overall contribution pie. 

But in this case, the medium scale organizations, those with between $1 million and $100 million, actually account for the majority of contributions.  This accounts for the persistent focus on these mid-scale organizations in fund raising circles, and in publications like the Chronicle of Philanthropy.  If you are in the fund raising business, chances are good that you will end up working in a mid-scale organization.

Now this graphic shows the total income picture.  Here we see that the large scale organizations rely most heavily on fee income, which includes government contracts for research.  For them, contributions are relatively less significant as an income source.  This is also true, though to a lesser extent, for organizations from $10 million to $100 million in total income.

But below $10 million in total income, organizations are really dependent on contribution income.  For the smallest scale groups, contributions and special events account for 2/3 of their total income.  The paradox is, again, that donors have plenty of opportunity to give to the larger organizations with name brands and huge fund raising infrastructure that can be supported by fee-based activities.  Donors don't need smaller organizations the way that smaller organizations need donors. 

Which is just to say that it can be frustrating doing fund raising for a small organization.  It doesn't matter how large the total fund raising universe is.  The contributions going to the smallest organizations just a tiny sliver of pie that has to be shared among a large throng. 

Comments

[Rich Steinberg]

Not sure this exercise is useful without controlling for charitable industry. The largest budgets are in health and education. Your finding that the largest organizations rely less on donations could be an artifact of the fact that hospitals have large budgets and rely primarily on fee for service. Within the hospital industry, or the day care industry, or any industry, is there a relation between budget size and composition?

[バーバリーマフラー]

複数の政府関係者が明らかにした。外交安全保障政策で助言を得るためとしているが、政府の役職に野党関係者を起用するのは極めて異例だ。国会対策で焦点となる公明党との関係強化を模索する狙いもあるようだが、民主、公明両党間の正式ルートで協議した痕跡はあまり見えず、“民公”接近につながるかどうかは微妙だ。
関係者によると、高野氏の起用は、藤村官房長官が高野氏に「外交機能を強化したい」と打診した。政府高官は３日、「外交関係のアドバイザーだ。国連平和維持活動（ＰＫＯ）の問題も含め、広く意見をうかがう」と説明した。ただ、政府内にも「公明党とのパイプ強化を狙ったものだろう」との見方が強い。

[ティンバーランド]

ティンバーランド堺市北区の象印マホービン元副社長、尾崎宗秀さん（８４）が自宅で襲われ殺害された事件で、尾崎さんが発見される約２時間前、自宅周辺を黒の原付きバイクで往復する不審な男が目撃されていたことが、捜査関係者への取材で分かった。数日前から近所の複数の住民らも目撃しており、大阪府警はこの男が尾崎さん殺害に関与したとみている。

　ティンバーランド捜査関係者によると、尾崎さんは１日午前１０時２０分ごろ、自宅２階の納戸で顔を粘着テープなどで巻かれ、両手足を結束バンドで縛られた状態で発見された。目撃情報は午前８時前後で、通行人が尾崎さん方の周りを走る不審なバイクの男を見ていた。男は黒っぽい服装で、ヘルメットをかぶっていたという。