The
2014 Michigan Fundraising Climate Survey
Respondents to the 2014
Survey offered a generally positive view of Michigan’s recent fundraising
climate with significant, though not universal, optimism about the present and
near term future.
Background:
Beginning in 2012, our firm has annually invited a sample of
Michigan nonprofit organization leaders to take a brief online survey in order
to help us all to better understand the fundraising performance of, and fundraising
climate facing, our state’s organizations.
I recently posted a piece that compared
national ratios for contributions by source from the new edition of Giving USA to those from the 2014 annual
Michigan Fundraising Climate Survey. Since then, some people have expressed interest
in what else we might have found through our survey.
Some
Selected Findings:
A
majority said their groups’ 2013 fundraising results had improved in comparison
to 2012. On the 2014 survey,
55.8% of respondents reported that their organizations’ 2013 fundraising
results were “Much Better” or “Somewhat Better” than their organization’s 2012
results. This is a modest increase over
last year’s survey when 51.8% of respondents characterized their organizations’
2012 fundraising results that way in comparison to 2011.
A
significant proportion of those surveyed, however, did not meet their 2013
fundraising goals.
Nearly 40% of respondents said that their organizations did not
meet their 2013 fundraising goals. This
is a slight deterioration over last year when 37.3% of respondents said their
organization did not meet its 2012 fundraising goal.
Those
surveyed were generally upbeat about early 2014 fundraising conditions in their
area. On the this
year’s survey, 5% of respondents described current fundraising conditions in
their area as “Excellent” while 68.33% characterized their local fundraising
climate as “Good.” While not a ringing endorsement of current fundraising
conditions, this is nonetheless the third year in a row that the proportion of respondents
giving positive ratings to their local fundraising climate increased.
A
significant proportion of respondents -- but still less than a majority -- were
optimistic about overall Michigan fundraising conditions. This included 11.48% responding that they
expected the Michigan fundraising climate to be “Much Better“ and 38.07%
expecting conditions to be “Somewhat Better.”
This is a modest increase over last year when 10.8% expected 2013
fundraising conditions to be “Much Better” and 32.5% “Somewhat Better” than in
2012. In both years, however, a
significant number expected fundraising conditions to remain “About the Same”
with 37.0% giving that response in 2014 and 48.2% in 2013.
# # # # #
Michael
J. Montgomery is a philanthropy consultant with his own firm, Montgomery
Consulting of Huntington Woods, MI. He
is also an adjunct faculty member teaching nonprofit management classes at
Oakland University and, previously, at Lawrence Technological University.
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