Fundraising Talks
News and updates from the USM Office of
Advancement Research

Upcoming Events


APRA Metro DC: 2024 Annual Conference

When: March 14, 2024, 8:30 am to 4:30 pm 


AASP Webinar: Trends in Engagement and Proposal Metrics

When: March 20, 2024, 11:00 am


Apra Fundamentals: Prospect Research (Online)

When: March 11, 13, and 15 2024 


Getting Out of Spreadsheets: How to Rally Your Whole Team Around a Big Tech Change

When: March 12, 2024, 1:00 pm

Tell Me More...

Looking for funding opportunities? We've identified a few funds that might be useful to you. Visit the links below to learn more about the requirements and deadlines for these opportunities. 


Abell Foundation: Small Grants Deadline: None 

 

France Merrick Foundation Deadline: Over $50,000: May 31, 2024 / Under $50,000: Rolling 

 

Bank of America Charitable Foundation – Economic Mobility Focused on need of community Deadline: June 21, 2024 

 

Spencer Foundation

Deadline: April 3, 2024

Contact Us


Sapna Varghese

Director of Advancement Research

301.445.2709


Lois Baker

Prospect Researcher


Bethany Jones

Office Clerk

301.445.1950

Letter from the Director

Welcome to the March Fundraising Talks. I hope you enjoyed the warmer days we experienced in the past few weeks! It's evident that spring is almost here. Regardless of the season, higher education institutions rely on philanthropic support from various sources such as foundations, corporations, and individual donors. Some of these gifts are considered transformational when they have the potential to make an outstanding impact on the mission and advancement of an institution. Studies on philanthropic and fundraising data can help educational institutions understand and measure the impact of fundraised dollars and identify areas that require improvement. This type of analysis is possible by surveying educational institutions and studying the data at a national level.


CASE recently released the "CASE Insights on Voluntary Support of Education (VSE)." Even though the full report will be available in April, the 2023 key findings from the VSE report provide a wealth of information on the performance of philanthropic support for nonprofit and public higher education institutions in the United States. The report contains data from 757 institutions and directly focuses on fundraising data in higher education. Findings from the report include:


1. Charitable Giving to U.S. Colleges and Universities was estimated at $58 billion in 2023. Total giving in 2022 was $59.50 billion, showing a decline in total giving by $1.9 billion in 2023.


2. Data reveals an increase in organizational giving, driven by a 3.2 percent increase in giving by corporations and a 4.4 percent increase in giving from organizations, which may include giving from DAFs. There is also a 1.8 percent decrease in giving by foundations.


3. Reports indicate that the decline in individual giving at the end of 2023 is highly influenced by the performance of the stock market. "Many of the major indexes were down considerably," and this "could have led donors who intended to make major gifts in 2023 to postpone the payments until the market recovered."


4. There were 11 gifts of $100 million or more in 2023, including one bequest, one corporate gift, two from individuals, three from DAFs, and four from foundations.


5. 26.7 percent of the annual giving total was raised by six public institutions and 14 private institutions. These 20 institutions received a total of $15.50 billion.


6. The list of institutions included in the amount raised per student capita contains nine private research/doctoral institutions, three private baccalaureate institutions, six medical institutions, and two theological institutions.


7. Based on data on the amount raised by the level of gifts, only a small number of contributions make up most of the funds received.


8. While older alumni groups may be more capable of making a financial gift, keeping younger groups engaged in other ways will provide future benefits to institutions.


The VSE survey findings are important for institutions to see how they are performing compared to similar ones. Educational institutions should improve strategies to enhance individual donor giving. As the VSE report mentions, one way to improve individual giving is by engaging younger alumni through targeted digital communications, special events, and providing volunteer opportunities. On the other hand, if an institution is lacking organizational giving when the VSE data suggests that organizational giving rose in FY 2023, it needs to examine ways to improve giving in this area. I wish you a wonderful spring and continued success in your fundraising efforts. If you need information on corporations, foundations, or other organizations, we will be happy to assist. As always, please feel free to reach out to us with questions, comments, or any assistance with fundraising research!


Best Regards,


Sapna and USM Advancement Research Team

Join the USM Forum!


Join the USM's Forum on the Personify CommUnity platform! USM Forum is a virtual space where colleagues working in advancement (fundraising, research, alumni engagement, marketing and communications, etc.) across the System can meet and discuss current trends in their fields, ask for professional advice, and share whatever else is on their minds. 

 

The USM Forum has org charts for each institution as well as past recordings of USM webinars that you may have missed. Once you have signed up for an account, you can view and contribute to the Resources section – maybe you want to share an event invitation, a timely news article, or a Giving Day appeal video you’re proud of!

 

We hope that you will join us on USM Forum and that this will become a valuable resource where we can share, collaborate, and learn from one another.

 

In order to begin using USM Forum, please click here. Select “Register” and use your USM email to create an account. Once you can access the site, create a profile and begin posting and interacting. Have fun!

Six Exceptional Nonprofit Trends for 2024

NonProfit PRO gathered 30 experts from nonprofit professionals across seven key areas and asked them to predict 40 trends for the nonprofit sector in 2024. This article covers six of the most important trends which include: innovative fundraisers will start engaging the next generation of wealthy donors, nonprofits will need to recruit diverse and open-minded boards, nonprofits will turn to predictive modeling to determine behaviors of donors, there will be added competition from the political sphere for donations, community events will return but will have more intentionality, and AI will revolutionize the nonprofit sector. Click here to read the full article and click here to read the full list of 40 trends.

Smarter Giving is Growing: Six Trends Shaping Philanthropy Today

Similar to the NonProfit PRO article above, Forbes released an article of their top six trends shaping philanthropy today. According to Forbes,


  • Donors are continuing to utilize DAFs. 
  • Americans are loyal to the charities and nonprofits they support. 
  • Giving comes in all shapes and sizes - "more than half of Giving Account® balances were under $25,000 and just 10% greater than $250,000.
  • Donors are maximizing their contributions through non-cash donations.
  • Participation in impact investing is growing rapidly.
  • Companies are reaching their employees through values-based giving programs.


Click here to read the full article.

National Philanthropic Trust Donor-Recommended Grants to Charities Surpass $4.94 Billion in 2023

In 2023, the National Philanthropic Trust, the largest national, independent public charity that manages donor-advised funds, granted a record $4.94 billion to charitable organizations across the U.S. and 51 other countries on behalf of its donors, marking a significant increase from pre-pandemic levels. The number of grants recommended also grew, reaching 119,801 grants to over 39,035 charitable organizations. This signifies sustained generosity among DAF donors. Despite global economic uncertainty at the beginning of the year, positive financial indicators and increased engagement from DAF donors have provided significant support for charitable initiatives. Click here to read the full article.

Charitable Giving During Presidential Elections

With the 2024 presidential election approaching, nonprofit professionals should consider the impact of politics on charitable giving. This article from CCS Fundraising examines research that can help us understand the relationship of nonprofit charitable giving and political giving. First, it seems as though wealthy donors are willing to give in order to encourage others to vote. For example, MacKenzie Scott gave $10 million to the State Infrastructure Fund for increased voting participation and protected voting rights. Additionally, charitable giving increased during nine of the ten last presidential election years - the exception being the 2008 economic crisis. There is little evidence to suggest that political giving crowds out charitable giving. In fact, there is evidence that donors who give to political campaigns give an increased amount to charity that year. Finally, data suggests that donors that voted for the losing candidate are more likely to give to causes associated with that candidate's platform than they otherwise would be. Click here to read the full article and to read CCS's advice on fundraising during an election year. 

Trends in Fundraising: What Happened in 2023 and What to Look For in 2024

Similar to the article by NonProfit PRO and the article by Forbes, this article summarizes fundraising trends from 2023 and predictions for 2024. One difference with this article is that the Association of Fundraising Professionals asked nonprofit professionals in Canada to weigh in. 


  • Trust remains paramount.
  • The total number of donors is down. 
  • The increasing importance of video content to reach donor audiences. 
  • Millennials and Gen Z are now a critical demographic in giving regularly online.
  • The causes which people are supporting are changing. 
  • There is increasing sophistication in nonprofit fundraising technology. 
  • Hiring fundraisers remains hard. 
  • Donor metrics dashboards become critical for growth. 
  • Fundraisers need to keep dreaming and daring to think big. 
  • There is a great impact of AI and the ethics of AI in nonprofit communications. 


Click here to read the full article.