Factary compares public thank-you activities of charity sectors
Howard Lake | 26 May 2011 | News
Prospect research specialists Factary have looked at the wide difference in thanking practice across five UK nonprofit sectors, based on data in its Factary Phi online database of donors and supporters, which features data on £14 billion worth of donations.
Focusing on the levels of gift that triggered a public ‘thank you’ either in a website or in an annual report, Factary have found that education organisations are far more likely to acknowledge publicly a gift of less than £1000 than an international development charity. Sixty two per cent of the donors to education and training who are thanked publicly for a donation amount are giving less than 1,000, whereas international development organisations did not publicly thank any donors giving less than £1,000.
On the other hand international development charities are much more likely public to acknowledge mid-level gifts from £10,000 to £49,000. Four in every ten publicly reported donations to international development are in this level. And this is not because these organisations receive more gifts at this level: indeed, Factary point out that “the numbers of donors in this range to International Development organisations is small compared to the numbers of donors in the same range to arts and culture”.
The arts and culture sector are most likely to acknowledge low mid-level donors. Over half (53%) of all publicly reported gifts to arts and culture orgnaistaions are in the low mid-range (£1,000-9,999), where the sector dominates. Children and youth organisations also do well at this level, with 52% of all reported gifts to this sector occurring in this range.
The health sector is the least likely to acknowledge gifts publicly. This might be because of issues of sensitivity over naming individuals with a likely family connection to a disease or medical condition, but the sector does not come top in any of the levels of giving analysed by Factary.
Factary makes several recommendations based on its findings, not least that charities of all types should carry on and consider expanding their public thank you’s to all those who make modest or larger gifts. The key area to focus on is the £10,000 – £49,000 level.
www.factary.com/weblog/?p=140
Photo: woodleywonderworks on flickr.com
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.