Workshop in Multidisciplinary Philanthropic Studies (WIMPS)

PRESENTS

William Suhs Cleveland (ABD, Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy)

Trends Reflected in 20 years of American Charities Receiving the Most Donations

Abstract:

This investigation starts with the observation that the 400 public charities receiving the most private support, as indicated by their inclusion in the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s annual Philanthropy 400 ranking, increased their share of overall donations in the last two decades,despite a doubling of the number of public charities vying for donations. The quality of the data is discussed due to its non-academic origin. I pose three questions to explain the concentration of private support, where the same number of organizations receive a progressively greater share of resources. The first question is what types of organizations drove this increase in private support concentration: was it incumbent organizations increasing their dominance, or was it new organizations exploiting gaps in services and fundraising strategies? The second question is whether organizations show any trend in diversification of income sources, either increasing dependency on fundraising or finding a broader range of income. The third question examines if the organizations ranked in the Philanthropy 400 mirror the broader population of public charitiesby category in terms of proportion of organizations and public support received, or are certain types of organizations under- or over-represented? I conclude the discussion by considering whether or not the observed trends should be a cause for concern.

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

12:00 – 1:15 p.m.

CA (Cavanaugh Hall) 323A, IUPUI

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