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Catholic Medical Mission Board
A Zambian child undergoes a health assessment by a worker for Catholic Medical Mission Board (No. 65), whose contributions increased 31 percent in 2016.
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U.S. Navy
Giving to North Texas Food Bank (No. 234) is up 41 percent since 2012.
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Elizabeth Leitzell
A $525 million campaign will pay for a Frank Gehry-designed expansion for the Philadelphia Museum of Art (No. 345).
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Stephen Voss/WpN
Ari Shapiro of NPR (No. 312), one of the few public broadcasters that saw an increase in 2016 support.
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Ducks Unlimited
Ducks Unlimited (No. 241) raised $119 million in 2016, its first nine-figure year since 2009.
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Foundation for the National Institutes of Health
The Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (No. 343), which raises support for research at the federal agency, saw contributions climb 151 percent in 2016.
Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund again claimed the top spot on the Philanthropy 400, The Chronicle’s annual ranking of charities that raise the most from individuals, foundations, and companies. It beat out United Way Worldwide for the second year in a row.
Fidelity, which manages donor-advised funds, raised nearly $4.1 billion in its fiscal year ending in June 2016, down 12 percent from the previous year. But that performance still put it more than a half-billion dollars ahead of United Way.
Nonprofits on the Philanthropy 400 raised 5 percent more in 2016. Large organizations continued to outperform charities over all: Growth for all donations was only 1.4 percent in 2016, according to “Giving USA,” the annual philanthropy report.
The organizations on the Philanthropy 400 received 28 percent of all charitable donations last year, a figure roughly the same as in recent years. The top 10 groups in the rankings accounted for 22 percent of the private support received by all charities on the list; the top 10 raised 13 percent more in 2016 than in the previous year.
The Stock-Market Factor
United Way, down 5 percent in 2016, with $3.5 billion raised, found itself sandwiched between Fidelity and a new arrival in the upper ranks: Goldman Sachs Philanthropy Fund, another donor-advised-fund manager.
Goldman, a nonprofit arm of the financial-services giant, leapt to No. 3 in the rankings, up from No. 35 in the previous list. It raised nearly $3.2 billion in the fiscal year ending in December, a gain of 450 percent.
In a statement emailed to The Chronicle, a spokesman for the fund credited the gains to “philanthropic-minded families” but declined opportunities to discuss its 2016 performance in more detail.
However, the robust stock market that began in the second half of last year and continues in 2017 probably helped drive fundraising success at Goldman and several other organizations that manage donor-advised funds, which allow contributors to create an account, receive a tax benefit, and later decide which charities will get the money. Six of the rankings’ top 10 organizations rely primarily on donor-advised funds.
Rounding out the top five are two groups that get the bulk of their donations in the form of products and services: the Task Force for Global Health (No. 4, up 92 percent from 2016), which fights disease and strengthens medical systems in the developing world, and Feeding America (No. 5, up 11 percent), a nationwide network of food banks.
The Philanthropy 400 shows which nonprofits are faring the best in winning gifts from everyday donors, wealthy people, companies, and foundations. It does not count government grants and contracts, so some charitable institutions that receive a lot of federal aid may not appear on the list.
The Chronicle’s annual nonprofit ranking reveals charitable-giving trends today — and what they might look like tomorrow.
Social Services Struggle
While organizations financed primarily by the affluent — like donor-advised funds — did well last year, groups that rely mostly on poor and middle-class donors did less well. Social-service nonprofits continued their yearslong struggle to increase donations. That category of charities increased giving by less than a half percent.
Of the 49 social-service charities in this year’s Philanthropy 400, only 25 expanded contributions beyond 2016’s inflation rate of 2 percent. Of those, 18 were food banks or other anti-hunger organizations that rely heavily on donated food and other products.
In 1990, the rankings’ first year, social-service groups accounted for 28 percent of all donations the Philanthropy 400 raised. In 2016, those groups raised just 16 percent of the total.
Among other trends in the data:
- The American Civil Liberties Union (No. 107, up 42 percent), Planned Parenthood Federation of America (No. 120, up 21 percent), and other organizations that work on issues perceived as under threat from presidential candidate Donald Trump saw gains in 2016.
This year may be even better for such groups: Planned Parenthood, for example, has gained 700,000 new donors since the election, said Jethro Miller, the organization’s chief development officer, in an email to The Chronicle.
Fundraising was mixed in 2016 for organizations that advance conservative donors’ concerns: Focus on the Family (No. 353) was up 7 percent, while the Heritage Foundation (No. 354) dipped 11 percent. This year, “conservative causes are struggling a bit,” says Rick Dunham, a fundraising consultant who specializes in faith-based groups. “None of them are hitting home runs right now.”
- Arts and culture organizations faced the biggest losses in this year’s rankings, down 23 percent. Jewish federations (down 16 percent) and public broadcasting (14 percent) saw the next biggest declines.
- Public colleges and universities made up the largest group of organizations on the Philanthropy 400, with 58 institutions. Donations to those institutions grew nearly 3 percent in 2016; giving to private colleges and universities declined nearly 6 percent.
Big Gainers
The organizations that reaped the biggest gains in the Philanthropy 400 were public-affairs groups, which increased donations 59 percent. Pew Charitable Trusts (No. 27), a nonpartisan research organization that also manages donor-advised funds, led the pack, with a jump of 130 percent.
Pew, which converted to a charity from a foundation in 2002, is increasingly seeing wealthy donors who want to place big bets. Eighty percent of its total private support came from gifts of at least $1 million, according to Sally O’Brien, Pew’s senior vice president for philanthropic partnerships.
“They want to get something done, and they’re quite willing to take on bold and risky enterprises,” Ms. O’Brien says.
Other groups on the Philanthropy 400 that earned increases also drew high rollers intent on supporting big projects. The Tides Foundation (No. 100, up nearly 100 percent in 2016), launched a rebranding effort with a video that includes prominent donor Kat Taylor, the wife of hedge-fund financier and philanthropist Tom Steyer, among those giving testimonials about the organization’s mission of social change. “Tides represents a real departure from the mind-set that we just need to tinker around at the margins.”
As a group, donor-advised funds in the Philanthropy 400 increased contributions nearly 19 percent in 2016.
Some of the growth can be traced to people pouring some or all of their private-foundation assets into donor-advised-fund accounts. At Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program (No. 10, up 6 percent in 2016, to nearly $1.3 billion), such transfers increased by 34 percent last year, according to Jane Greenfield, the organization’s president.
Such a shift can free a donor from the administrative chores of running a foundation, experts say, but also offer flexibility in setting giving priorities for subsequent generations of a family. But the funds are controversial: As Congress gears up for a tax overhaul, many of their critics are encouraging lawmakers to tighten the rules, while defenders are mounting serious campaigns to keep the status quo.
Alex Daniels contributed to this article.
