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Fundraising Update

A weekly rundown of the latest fundraising news, ideas, and trends gathered by our fundraising editor Rasheeda Childress and other Chronicle contributors. You’ll also find insights from your fundraising peers. Delivered every Wednesday.

August 18, 2021
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From: Eden Stiffman

Subject: Twin Disasters Vie for Donor Attention

Welcome to Fundraising Update. This week, the strategies humanitarian aid fundraisers are employing to raise money for the crises in Afghanistan and Haiti. Plus, new data on fundraiser salaries.

I’m Eden Stiffman, senior editor at the Chronicle of Philanthropy

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Welcome to Fundraising Update. This week, the strategies humanitarian aid fundraisers are employing to raise money for the crises in Afghanistan and Haiti. Plus, new data on fundraiser salaries.

I’m Eden Stiffman, senior editor at the Chronicle of Philanthropy. If you have ideas, comments, or questions about this newsletter, please write me.

Thanks to sponsor Nacha for supporting Fundraising Update.

A Collision of Crises

As if the fundraising climate wasn’t already complex, two unexpected crises that struck days apart are now vying for the attention of donors — the same donors who already have been tapped to give to relief efforts related to the Covid-19 pandemic, wildfires, floods, and other refugee crises.

As field teams manage aid efforts to address the 7.2-magnitude earthquake in Haiti and the displacement of hundreds of thousands in Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover, the fundraisers charged with bringing in emergency support are taking different approaches. But those who are actively raising funds so far report a strong response that suggests donors aren’t too weary or cash poor to step up yet again.

My colleague Drew Lindsay spoke with some of them for his report today.

“There are an enormous number of competing demands, and these come on top of an enormous number of competing demands from last year,” said Patricia McIlreavy, president of the Center for Disaster Philanthropy.

In the Haiti relief effort, money is being raised against a backdrop of the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse last month and resulting political chaos. There’s also a potential hangover from the humanitarian aid work that followed Haiti’s massive 2010 earthquake and that later came under sharp criticism for allegedly wasting donated money.

CARE USA sent two appeals within 48 hours of each other to all its donors — one for Afghanistan support on Friday and the second for Haiti on Sunday. Angie Moore, chief individual fundraising officer, said the appeals have performed well, along with social-media ads and other revenue-generating channels. Supporters of international relief efforts are a small but hardy subset of donors who expect to be called upon in an emergency, Moore said.

“They respond no matter what,” she said. “I don’t think we experience donor fatigue like some other sectors of charitable giving.”

Potential donors reading about both crises in the news may be conflicted about how to act.

Americans have developed ties to Afghanistan and a strong interest in the well-being of its people because of the decades-long U.S. involvement, said Lauren Gray, senior director of global corporate partnerships at the International Rescue Committee. “There’s a connection to Afghanistan that is different from what we might see in a natural disaster” in a less familiar country, she said.

Likewise, many groups working in Haiti have a history there that donors know. Catholic Relief Services has been in the predominantly Catholic country for more than 60 years and has more than 200 partner organizations locally. Donors expect the group to step in when there’s need for aid, according to annual-fund director Laura Durington. American Catholic donors, she said, “all have a bit of a soft spot for Haiti.”

The group raised about $300,000 in 48 hours after it launched its fundraising effort via social media and other digital efforts, with most of those contributions arriving before the first email appeal went out.

Haleluya Hadero, who follows philanthropy for the Associated Press in partnership with the Chronicle, also spoke to experts about the factors complicating the Haitian aid effort.

Aid to Haiti has been probed for years, and scrutiny intensified in 2015 when an investigation from ProPublica and NPR questioned where $500 million raised by the American Red Cross was spent. At this time, the charity isn’t seeking donations for Haiti relief, but will work with its partners — including the Haitian Red Cross and the Red Crescent — to respond to the earthquake.

“I unfortunately do not expect broad global attention to the earthquake in Haiti,” Maryam Zarnegar Deloffre, an expert in humanitarian aid and professor at George Washington University, told Haleluya. “Or public giving on the same scale as we saw in response to the 2010 earthquake.”

We’ll follow what happens. Watch this space.

If you’re a fundraiser for a humanitarian aid group supporting relief efforts in Haiti or Afghanistan, we want to hear from you. How does the donor response to these crises compare with what you’ve seen in the past? Send me an email or find me on Twitter.

Need to Know

$75,000

— Median fundraiser salary in 2020

Fundraiser salaries had been on the rise before the pandemic. But by the end of 2020, those gains were largely erased, according to the latest annual compensation report by the Association of Fundraising Professionals. The group polled 3,261 fundraising professionals in the United States in March 2020 and again at year-end.

Individual fundraisers had very different experiences last year. More than 18 percent reported a drop in compensation, with an average decrease of $20,769. Meanwhile, 14.5 percent of respondents said they got a raise, averaging $7,885. The report identified a 20 percent pay gap between men and women respondents and a 10 percent pay gap between white fundraisers and fundraisers of color.

About 20 percent of respondents said their organization laid off or furloughed some fundraising workers in 2020. Among respondents, 3 percent were laid off and found a new job, and 10 percent accepted lower pay at the same employer or elsewhere.

Fundraisers were more likely to say they planned to stay in their jobs than in past years, which AFP president Mike Geiger attributes to the pandemic. Just 50 percent of respondents reported thinking about leaving their jobs in 2020, a significant decrease from the roughly two-thirds of participants who said so in previous years.

Read more about what this compensation survey uncovered.

Plus:

  • Catch up on a recent conversation about how women will shape philanthropy in the decade ahead. My colleague Maria Di Mento spoke with Abby Falik, the founder and CEO of Global Citizen Year, and Liz Thompson, a wealthy donor and founder of the Cleveland Avenue Foundation for Education, which makes grants to nonprofits that focus on college access and career attainment for low-income students and on Black-led philanthropic programs.

Job-Market Woes and Wins

Did you switch jobs in recent months? Are you looking for a new fundraising job now? Are you recruiting fundraisers to work at your organization? Please write me if you’d like to share your experience about navigating the 2021 job market for an upcoming story.

What You’re Saying About Fundraising Events

Last week we talked about how the Delta variant is upending charities’ plans for in-person fundraising events scheduled for the fall and beyond. A few of you wrote in with your own quandaries and where your organizations had landed.

For Maui Economic Opportunity, a community action partnership with more than 40 programs that serve a range of needs on the Hawaiian island, the Delta variant forced a last-minute pivot.

The group’s 60s-themed “Do What’s Right ...” gala was originally scheduled for March 2020 and had been postponed several times — most recently for August 28. CEO Debbie Cabebe had hoped the event could finally proceed, but as case counts began to rise, Hawaii’s governor announced new limitations on in-person gatherings. County approval is now required for professional events of more than 50 people.

After consulting board members and staff, Cabebe made the call to revamp the in-person gala into a mostly virtual event with a drive-through meal pickup at the golf club where the event was originally planned. A short performance from the local band Nevah Too Late will be taped ahead of time, and staff members will host the 45-minute virtual event in the charity’s classrooms a few miles away, joined by a few special guests.

Feedback from attendees has been positive — some donors had already declined to attend due to Covid-19 concerns. It’s not clear how many supporters will tune in virtually, but Cabebe hopes the event will bring in $100,000.

What We’re Reading

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals International has raised $170 million since its founding in 2006 but has spent “little more than 20 percent of its total revenue on actual programs and services that help animals.” Although the nonprofit uses emergency appeals — to help animal-welfare groups in India during a Covid-19 surge, for example — more than 40 percent of the donations it has received has gone to marketing and fundraising firms managed by a family with “long-standing ties” to CEO Pierre Barnoti. One of those companies has repeatedly come under state and federal investigation. Another vendor established the SPCA Foundation as a for-profit company to directly receive advertising revenue from the SPCAI site that normally would go through the charity. CharityWatch has given the SPCAI its lowest rating each year since 2009, while Charity Navigator awards it two out of four stars. In response to the magazine’s inquiries, a spokesman said that the board of the charity always moves fast to investigate any concerns about its fundraising efforts. (Mother Jones)

Plus:

  • How NFT Philanthropy Could Deepen Inequality (Huck Mag)
  • British Boy Raises Funds For Hospice Center by Camping (NPR)
Fundraising from IndividualsFundraising Leadership
Eden Stiffman
Eden Stiffman is a Chronicle senior writer.
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