Surprise! Fundraising is the top US volunteer activity

Posted by Gayle Gifford on January 11, 2010 in Fundraising

I was just re-reading the report released last January this time  “Call to Service Assessment 2008: Community Volunteer Service Needs and Opportunities; July – September 2008″ of Serve Rhode Island (the RI Commission on National and Community Service). 

Among other things, I was struck by the data on where volunteers spend their time. According to statistics gathered by the US Census Bureau for the Bureau of Labor Statistics and reported here:

Main Activities of Volunteers (2005-2007)

Fundraise                                          29.7% (RI)                       27.9% (US)
Collect/Distribute Food                 19.5%   (RI)                      24.5% (US)
Professional/Management           16.6%    (RI)                      17.4% (US)
Tutor/Teach                                       15.7%   (RI)                       20.5% (US)

At first glance I was somewhat surprised that fundraising was at the top of the volunteer activity list given the number of complaints I hear from organizations about their inability to recruit volunteers to help them raise funds.  (Don’t the choices of volunteer activities seem pretty limited.)

But when activities are matched against the top places where volunteers serve — overwhelmingly education and religious groups — the numbers made much more sense.

If you think about the legions of parents who raise money for their kids’ schools, or run events and raise money for their religious congregations, it’s not too surprising that fundraising might come out on top.

Unfortunately, what the study doesn’t tell us is the relationship of the volunteering to the amount of funds raised. Now that would be a number worth gathering.

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Are most nonprofits in bad financial shape?

Posted by Gayle Gifford on June 16, 2008 in Big ideas, Research

The Boston Foundation released a study of Massachusetts Nonprofits called Passion and Purpose: Raising the Fiscal Fitness Bar for Massachusetts Nonprofits.

The report is worth looking at, even if you aren’t from the Bay State, as it provides a very intriguing analysis of nonprofits by size and business model. The report categorizes the sector into three segments based on budget size and “value proposition” as follows:

Grassroots organizations create civil society through grassroots action and volunteerism. They have budgets below $250,000.

Safety net nonprofits provide a societal benefit and a “safety net” through the delivery of services and quality of life contributions. They have budgets between $250,000 and $50 million.

Economic Engines provide large scale services and contributions to the state’s economic health and competitiveness. These are the largest institutions, primarily universities and hospitals (60%), that represent just 2% of nonprofit numbers but 80% of assets and 72% of their spending. (GG: It’s interesting to me that the description of these economic engines says nothing about their charitable purpose. Why is that?)

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