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

When: March 29 & 30, 2022

When: March 15, 2022 at 2 PM

When: April 27, 2022 at 1 pm EST

When: March 23, 2022, 11:30 am to 5 PM EST
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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. 

(Deadline: April 12, 2022)
Contact Us

Director of Advancement Research
301.445.2709

Prospect Researcher

Office Clerk
301.445.1950
Letter from the Director
We are looking forward to seeing more sunshine and warmer days this month! With mask mandates being lifted along with other pandemic-related restrictions, nonprofits are eagerly planning for the return of in-person conferences, fundraising events, and other gatherings. However, we continue to face challenges that impact the global economy. We should stay vigilant about the landscape of philanthropy, try to focus on our strengths, and stay confident so that we can make this a successful fundraising year.

Higher education institutions have seen an increase in giving through online channels over past few years. Recently, Anthology published a report on 2021 online giving to higher education institutions. It reviews online giving data from 202 higher education institutions for the 2020 and 2021 calendar years. From this report, we learn that giving through online channels has risen over the years. In 2021, dollars raised through online giving increased by nine percent compared to 2020, and the number of gifts also increased ten percent. The following trends were identified in the report:

  1. Growth in online giving will continue
  2. There will be an increase in growth in digital wallet usage
  3. We will see growth of gamification that moves beyond giving days to campaigns throughout the year

By understating these trends, institutions can create strategies that make online giving more appealing and convenient to donors. Donors are redirecting their focus from giving pandemic-related assistance to other areas of interest such as student scholarship support and general unrestricted support. With this in mind, we need to use the best and most innovative ways to provide a great experience to donors that give through online platforms. 

Fidelity Charitable’s 2022 Giving Report reflects on 2021 giving trends by Fidelity donors. The report shows that donors continued to generously support various causes in the community. Donors’ showed an increased level of commitment to giving in 2021. Donor-recommended grants exceeded $10 billion for the first time, which is a 41 percent increase over pre-pandemic levels. In 2021, donors increased the average size of their gifts to $4,614 - the average size of gift was $3,775 in 2012. This proves that donors are active and engaged in giving. The majority of donors opted to make unrestricted grants to the charities they support and provided flexibility to organizations to use these funds where it was needed most. The report also found that 66 percent of contributions to Fidelity Charitable were in the form of non-cash assets in 2021.

As we follow these events and trends that impact philanthropy, we can see that fundraising is shifting from a transactional viewpoint to a mode of powerful engagement that builds a strong transformative relationship with donors. Of course, data is fundamental in creating effective strategies and creating long-lasting relationships with prospects and donors.

As always, please feel free to reach out us with questions, comments or any assistance with prospect research!

Best Regards,
Sapna and USM Advancement Research Team
Did you know?

The University System of Maryland Foundation has access to a library of recorded webinars from the Annual Giving Network (AGN) that you may watch at any time from your computer. While we cannot currently gather in person for professional development events, this work from home period provides a great opportunity for you to learn on your own time! Please click here to see what webinars are available from AGN.
 
If you are interested, please email Linda Bowman (lbowman@usmd.edu) and she will help you access these webinars for free. Please do not try to access these webinars on your own, as you will be charged a fee.

Please also note that the Foundation only has access to free AGN webinars, not workshops. Workshops are available at a marginally discounted rate.

USM Webinars

Join the USM and the Osborne Group for three, free webinars this spring. Click here for more information.

Join the USM and Washburn & McGoldrick for ten, free lunch and learn webinars this year. Click here for more information.
CASE's VSE survey, released in February, showed that voluntary giving to U.S. higher education institutions rose 6.9 percent in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2021. Total giving to colleges and universities in the United States topped out at $52.9 billion for FY21, which according to Sue Cunningham, CASE President and CEO, demonstrates how strongly supporters value colleges and universities in the United States. Foundations and alumni were leading contributors and accounted for 56.3 percent of all reported gifts. Non-alumni made up 16.6 percent and corporations made up 13.2 percent. Giving from alumni made up the largest increase (10.8 percent), followed by a 9.1 percent increase in gifts from other organizations (mainly donor advised funds.) Read more findings from CASE's VSE survey here.
Regardless of your thoughts on NFTs, it is hard to ignore them now that millions of dollars in donations to nonprofits have been generated through the technology in the past few years. As a refresher, NFT stands for nonfungible token - nonfungible describes something that cannot be copied, substituted, or divided. According to Techsoup, the most common iteration of NFTs on the market is digital art. NFTs can generate funds to nonprofits in two main ways. First, someone can sell an NFT and donate the earnings to a nonprofit. Second, people can create NFT projects with the intention of raising money for a cause. For example, Ellen DeGeneres created and auctioned off an NFT to raise money for the World Central Kitchen. Nonprofits can leverage the novelty and utility that NFTs create. Techsoup suggests offering access to an NFT instead of offering a teeshirt as a reward for raising a certain amount of money for a charitable giving event. Click here to read more, including how to build a community using NFTs and the potential risks involved.
When performing a yearly portfolio review, sgEngage encourages fundraisers to resist the urge to keep "the regulars" in their portfolios just because they've always been there. It's possible that a donor belongs in a portfolio, but perhaps it's not your portfolio they belong in. In order to get the most out of an annual portfolio review, sgEngage says first, dig into the data and use predictive modeling results to understand which prospects have the capacity and likelihood to make a major gift to your organization. Next, look at macro trends and compare these trends to your data - does your data show that the wealthy are getting wealthier? Does your data reveal and insights that you can utilize? Next, ensure your portfolio reflects your organization's strategic plan. Finally, set yourself up for success and create your plan for the upcoming year. Read more here.
In 2021, the Edelman Trust Barometer showed that global trust in government, business, and media went up slightly while trust in institutions remained strained. The report suggests that trust is tied to perceptions of ethics and competence. As the pandemic has shown, healthcare, education, and other services provided by nonprofits are crucial, which means that it is extremely important to build trust with our stakeholders. Forbes stresses that nonprofits should be accountable to donors and those they serve and that data and transparency can bolster ethics and efficacy in every sector. Forbes also notes that deeper stakeholder engagement in organizations can not only foster trust, but can be a pathway to innovation. Read more from Forbes here.
According to a Salesforce study, nonprofits are finding that gathering data is an easy task, but less than half of nonprofits think that analyzing that data is easy. With data analytics and strong data management, nonprofits can build better stories about their organizations that can win donors over. BizTech suggests looking into deeper analytics - instead of looking at the big numbers such as the amount of money your organization has raised, look at the amount of time volunteers and employees spend in the community on specific projects. Data points such as these can help you create compelling messages to donors. In addition, nonprofits should set actionable goals for their metrics and track things such as donor growth, donor retention rate, email performance, and more. Read more here.