How 3 Groups Are Navigating the Giving Seas

Fundraisers are optimistic about the 2016 giving climate but expect the rate of giving to slow, continuing a trend reported in the “Giving USA” data released Tuesday. Three charities share what’s working to help them earn support these days: creativity and diversifying revenue streams, an extra push for private dollars when government funds don’t come through, and an increased effort to reach donors through financial and estate planners.

Experimentation and Extra Hands

CoxHealth Foundation

In 2015, the CoxHealth Foundation, which supports a Springfield, Mo.-based hospital system, brought in $11.8 million, surpassing a $10 million fundraising goal to build a new hospital tower. But now the drive is over, and — as do many groups in the aftermath of successful capital campaigns or banner fundraising years — the foundation expects to see giving return to average levels, between $5 million and $6 million, in 2016.

Compared to the same period two years ago, the last noncampaign year, the foundation is about $500,000 ahead in 2016. Lisa Alexander, the foundation’s president, attributes those gains to a spirit of experimentation. “Our development program has constantly been in progress, adding layers every year,” she says. “We’ve really tried to be more creative in finding funding outside of the day-to-day individual giving programs.”

In that vein, the foundation has focused on a few special events, aiming to make them stand out from the local round of gala dinners and silent auctions. One big hit has been the annual Colorectal Awareness Party.

Guests are invited to “Dress up or dress down, but please wear brown.” They enter the party through a giant, blow-up model of a colon, complete with polyps, and play games including a toilet-paper toss. “It’s a very serious topic but we’ve tried to have fun while sharing important healthcare information,” Ms. Alexander says. Last year’s event brought in $92,000 for a program to provide free colonoscopies to patients who can’t afford them.

In addition, the foundation has both online and brick-and-mortar stores selling branded merchandise and has developed its corporate-giving program. Additional personnel helps: After downsizing during the recession years, the CoxHealth Foundation hired a fifth full-time fundraiser two years ago and a and a part-timer last year. Over the past two years the foundation has also used volunteers to do research on grant making by the hospitals’ corporate vendors, and its revenue from grants has increased by 180 percent in that period.

Doubling Down on Individual Giving

Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago

For organizations such as social-service groups that lean heavily on government funding, the revenue climate is especially stormy — especially in Illinois, where a budget standoff between the governor and lawmakers has kept nonprofit providers from being paid for nearly a year. Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago has continued to provide state-contracted services despite not getting scheduled payments of more than $2 million a month. The fiscal pressure has shuttered some Illinois groups.

In the last fiscal year, Catholic Charities brought in about $22 million from individual supporters, other organizations, foundations, and corporations representing, about 10 percent of the group’s annual budget.

This year, private donors have contributed about the same amount, but the charity is owed about $25 million by the state.

To help bridge the gap, the charity is asking private donors give above and beyond what they normally would through a fundraising drive called Keeping Hope Alive. It includes an online giving page that’s separate from the other donation pages and involves talking to major donors and some new prospects about the state’s funding issues, the programs Catholic Charities provides, and why they’re necessary.

The drive is just past the halfway point toward a $4 million goal the organization hopes to reach by the end of the summer.

“Our donors have really stepped up to fund us above and beyond their normal commitments,” says Kristine Kappel, communications director for Catholic Charities of Chicago. Prospects for the coming year depend heavily on the state’s actions, she says. “Every day we make administrative cuts and have trimmed our budgets as much as possible. For us, the private dollars have become increasingly important.”

Across the country, according to “Giving USA,” donations from individuals represented 71 percent of all 2015 giving, a 3.7 percent increase over 2014.

Educating Donors — and Their Advisers

Permian Basin Area Foundation

As the community foundation serving an oil-rich region of West Texas, the Permian Basin Area Foundation sees donations rise and fall with the price of fuel. When the market turned up for oil, gifts picked up significantly: Donors gave about $15.5 million in 2011, a banner year for the community fund. Now, with oil prices way down, donations have begun to level off, says Aaron Bedell, the foundation’s executive associate. In 2015, the fund raised $5.9 million, roughly on par with its collections before the most recent oil boom.

“While money isn’t flowing like it was when we had $100-plus barrel oil, we do have a little bit more stability,” Mr. Bedell says. “It’s not at a level where donors are gripping their money and their assets very tightly.”

While much depends on the market, he anticipates giving in 2016 will return to the pre-2011 norm of $4 million to $5 million. Giving by foundations increased at a higher rate than any other category reported by “Giving USA” in 2015, but giving to foundations declined by 4 percent from the previous year.

“Now that things seem to have stabilized, I think our donors are going to feel more at ease and more comfortable at making long-term commitments,” he says.

Mr. Bedell, who previously served as development director for the Boy Scouts of America council in the Permian Basin area, says competition for donor dollars remains a concern. While some businesses and residents have left for greener pastures in Dallas or Houston, the Midland, Tex.-based foundation is relying on close ties with donors who have stayed in the region for at least a decade or two, through booms and busts.

To broaden their base, foundation staff members are turning their focus to educating donors about the organization’s role in the community, sitting down with more individual prospects and reaching out to their financial and estate planners as well.

Community foundations in other parts of the country say they’re seeing success with that kind of relationship-building. The Boston Foundation established a committee of outside financial advisers with whom foundation officials meet regularly for networking and expertise. Paul Grogan, the foundation’s president, said the relationships have paid off, particularly in expanding opportunities to promote the organization’s donor-advised accounts.

In May, one of the committee’s former chairs asked Mr. Grogan to introduce her as she received a prize from a local industry group of estate and wealth planners.

“Being well-known and well-thought-of among the community of financial advisers has been huge for us, and we’re becoming much more visible with that community,” Mr. Grogan says.

Timothy Sandoval contributed to this article.