09/11/2024 | News release | Distributed by Public on 09/11/2024 09:34
Nonprofit organizations, higher education institutions, and healthcare foundations are embracing stock gifting to diversify and grow funding as the rebound begins from two challenging years for charitable organizations. If you're new to stock donations or want to expand your program, you'll need some context (and some charts) to illustrate how you can unlock millions in new funding by making stock gifting fast, safe, and free for donors.
After charitable giving hit a record high of $516 billion in 2021, momentum stalled in 2022. Inflation, higher interest rates, and economic uncertainty, combined with a shrinking pool of donors, resulted in the first contraction in giving in more than a decade (down 13%, adjusted for inflation.) Giving USA reported that charitable giving was down another 2% in 2024, when adjusted for inflation.
The pullback in cash giving is forcing fundraisers to seek new ways to diversify and grow revenue. At the top of the list is a renewed focus on non-cash giving, and within this asset class, stock represents the biggest opportunity.
Gallup recently reported that 61% of Americans now own stock, including 66% of those over 50 and 84% of households earning $100,000 and above. Combined, this group owns $40 trillion in stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and mutual funds. The top 10% of investors represent $50-$75 billion in potential annual funding for nonprofits.
Gifts of stock offer benefits to both the recipient organization and the donor.
The implications for organizations: most (if not all) midlevel and major donors own appreciated stock and donating stock versus cash offers substantial savings for donors. For these reasons, stock gifting should be a fundraising priority for organizations of all sizes.
After its amazing resurgence, the stock market is at or near all-time highs. In just the past 10 years, the S&P 500 has almost tripled while the NASDAQ 100 has almost quadrupled, representing trillions in unrealized gains held by donors.
When the markets soar, millions of investors seek to harvest gains, mitigate risk, and reduce concentration in stocks that have had outsized gains over the past 5-10 years. Investors generally have two options:
Those in the know are taking advantage of the tax benefits to donate stock to the causes they love. But not all your major and midlevel donors are aware of the benefits of donating stock. Here's how to get started:
There might never have been a bigger moment than now for fundraisers seeking to diversify and grow via non-cash giving. As the charts below show, nonprofits, healthcare foundations, and higher education institutions are starting to get the message.
At the midpoint of 2024, stock gifts on the DonateStock platform (representing thousands of organizations) were up 65% while proceeds from stock gifting were up 285% vs. 2023.
While the donation of stocks used to be a painstaking, manual process for donors and the charitable organizations receiving the proceeds, it's now accessible and easy for everyone. Gone are the days of sharing your brokerage details with strangers, requiring donors to complete paperwork, and manually processing, reconciling, and acknowledging stock gifts. Several tools can help you, including software from my company, DonateStock. When your donor submits a gift via online donation form, they can initiate an online gift of stock in minutes at no cost. From there, it's effortless for your donor and for your gift processing team:
Also consider donor satisfaction. Stock gifting results in almost 25% of stock donors making repeat gifts. In 2023, stock donors made an average of 3.7 gifts each, indicated in the chart below.
Donor Behavior | 2023 |
Average gift | $6,186 |
Repeat donors | 23% |
Gifts per repeat donor | 3.7 |
Total giving per repeat donor | $14,500 |
Average giving per 1x donor | $8,408 |
For organizations that are Blackbaud customers, it couldn't be easier to get started. It takes just a few minutes for your organization to automatically process and acknowledge stock gifts efficiently and transparently. Activate DonateStock in minutes one of two ways:
To learn more or to get started with fast, safe stock donations, please visit the DonateStock page in the Blackbaud marketplace.