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What are the statistics around non profit DONOR income?
Hello! Thanks for your question about the income of nonprofit donors. The most useful sources I found to answer your question are thebalance.com and nonprofitquarterly.org. The short version is that money coming from individual donors in 2015 was $264.58 billion and average salaries are at about $43,000. Below you will find a deep dive of my findings.
SCOPE
The main types of nonprofit organizations in the USA are 501c(3) (foundations and charities) and 501c(4) (political organizations and other non-profits). According to a report found on chron.com, it is important to differentiate between income and revenue of an NPO. If an NPO makes a profit, they have to term it as surplus and reinvest it into the organization. The revenue made (income before reinvestments) is typically coming from donations.
Regarding donations, as explained on thebalance.com, there is a distinction between restricted and unrestricted donations. A donor may choose to make a donation that is restricted to a certain purpose or project. An example is a gift to a special scholarship fund at a university. However, there are also unrestricted donations, which may be used for any purpose. Typically, they are collected by the NPO in an unrestricted fund that goes toward the operating expenses. Finally, there is also the distinction between temporarily restricted donations (donors sometimes impose time-limit after which the restriction may be lifted), and permanently restricted donations (the restriction never expires).
THE NUMBERS
A second article found on thebalance.com reports about the donation sources for NPO's. In general, individuals are the largest source of charitable donations. The article reports that total charitable giving in the U.S. reached more than $373.25 billion in 2015. 71% of this amount came from individuals while the other 29% consist of money coming from government and foundation grants, bequests, and corporate philanthropy. There exist two special types of fundraising: planned giving and charitable gift annuities.
According to GivingUSA, individual giving in 2015 was $264.58 billion, which is an increase of 3.8 percent in current dollars (and 3.7 percent when inflation-adjusted) over 2014. Foundation giving was $58.46 billion, 6.5 percent higher than 2014 (6.3 percent when inflation-adjusted). Charitable bequests were $31.76 billion, which increased by 2.1 percent (1.9 percent when inflation-adjusted) over 2014. Corporate giving was $18.45 billion, with an increase of 3.9 percent (3.8 percent when inflation-adjusted) over 2014.
Another report from nonprofitquarterly.org provides numbers on employment, broken down into designated areas. In 2013, the nonprofit sector employed an estimated number of over 14.4 million people. Many of these employees are concentrated in the health services and education fields. Total nonprofit wages had risen to $634 billion. Across all industries, the average annual nonprofit compensation increased from $31,501 in 2003 to $43,178 in 2013 — a 37.1 percent increase. The finance and insurance industry, as well as the utility industry, both had average annual wages of about $97,000 per employee in 2013, the highest of any nonprofit sector. On the other hand, the food services industry received the lowest average annual compensation in the nonprofit sector, with under $21,000. The second lowest compensation is found in the social assistance industry, with annual compensation of about $26,500.
According to a 2016 survey on nonprofit employment practices (see page 12), most employees are between 25 and 45 years old. Organizations do strive to boost their diversity by increasing employee numbers that are higher or lower than this segment, but it appears as especially challenging to retain the workforce that is under 30.
As for board members. a survey done by the Economic Research Institute in 2014 shows that only 4% of registered non-profit organizations pay their board members. However, the organizations that do pay fees, report a median salary for a board member to be $71,438
SUMMARY
To wrap it up, individual donations in 2015 were $264.58 billion in the USA. This number, however, needs to be considered revenue rather than income, as part of it goes back into the maintenance of an organization. The average salary of non-profit employees was $43,178 (2013) with a maximum of about $90,000 and a minimum of $20,000. Moreover, if a nonprofit organization decides to pay its board member (only 4% do that), the median salary is estimated to be $71,438. Numbers on the age of employees are less precise. It appears there is an age bracket of people over 25 and under 45 years that are the majority employed in nonprofit organizations.
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