Donors and Nonprofit Leaders: In Which Ways Do They See Eye-To-Eye?

Earlier this year, Charity Navigator teamed up with Sobel & Co , Semple Bixel Associates, Inc., and the Community Foundation of New Jersey to conduct a survey of donors and charity professionals. The survey’s purpose was to see if there are any gaps between the donors’ perceptions and nonprofit leaders in the areas of fundraising and communication. You may even recall that we invited readers of this blog to take the short survey.

Today, we’re please to be able to share the results. Here’s a quick overview of the survey.
Who took the survey?

• 98 donors and 77 Executive Directors took the survey
• Most of the charity participants represent small nonprofits
• 89% of the charity leaders represented organizations with budgets of $10 million or less
  
• 54% of the charity leaders run organizations with less than 10 charities

What are the biggest differences between donors and nonprofit leaders?

• 78% of the donors prefer 1 appeal/solicitation per year; 71% of Executive Directors believe that donors prefer multiple appeals/ solicitations
• 60% of donors believe accountability & transparency are more important now than ever before; 74% of Executive Directors did not think that there were any changes in their donors expectations regarding accountability & transparency
• 75% of donors say that accountability & transparency is critical when selecting a charity to support; only 58% of Executive Directors agreed

In what areas do donors and charity leaders see eye-to-eye?

• The majority of donors (88%) and Executive Directors (81%) ranked the impact of the charity’s work as the most critical trait in selecting a charity to support.

For more information about the survey and the findings, please visit the Sobel & Co website.