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Those with non profit jobs are getting some advice on how to bring in more donations.

"Growing Philanthropy in the United States," a new report from Adrian Sargeant and Jen Shang, scholars and teachers at Indiana University, offers a number of ideas on how to increase charitable giving.

During 2010, donations from individual donors increased by 2.7 percent to $212 billion, showing that people were still making contributions despite the down economy. However, that number also is equal to the 40-year average for this figure, which means that giving has essentially remained even over the last several years.

"Encouraging voluntary contributions to fund the work of nonprofits must therefore be a priority," the report notes. "However, the question remains how to best achieve this goal in the face of the stubbornly static  pattern of giving we allude to above. Forty years of increasingly sophisticated fundraising practice, the development of planned giving vehicles, the appearance of the Internet and the rise of new digital channels have done nothing to move the needle on giving."

Here are some suggestions from influential leaders of the nonprofit industry on how to increase charitable giving:

Enhancing the Quality of Donor Relationships

• Redefine relationships from donor relationships to individual relationships.
• Reorient toward longer term measures of fundraising performance.
• Enhance focus on retention and building supporter loyalty.
• Develop a more integrated approach to fundraising.
• Break down organizational silos and encourage greater collaboration between teams.
• Give supporters greater control over the relationship.
• Promote the development of shared back office facilities.
• Tackle high turnover rates in the fundraising profession.
• Educate all stakeholders about the necessity of a longer term and integrated approach.

Developing Public Trust and Confidence in the Sector

• Empower the regulators to enforce 100 percent filing of forms 990 and increase their utility.
• Blow the whistle on organizations claiming to have zero costs of fundraising.
• Fund the development of a website in the U.S. to educate the public, boards, and other stakeholders.
• Encourage nonprofits to develop complaints schemes.
• Fund the development of a website to facilitate peer-to-peer evaluations of nonprofits.
• Develop new and more appropriate measures of performance.
• Develop the self-regulation of fundraising.

Identifying New Audiences, Channels, and Forms of Giving with Strong Potential for Growth

• Encourage the adoption of monthly giving.
• Improve the sector's engagement with young people.
• Encourage and promote best practices in social media.
• Encourage asset-based giving.
• Develop expertise in broadening participation in giving.
• Improve the quality of bequest fundraising practice.
• Challenge the wealthy to plan their own philanthropy.
• Create a nonprofit mutual fund.
• Leveraging companies to promote philanthropy.

Improving the Quality of Fundraising Training and Development

• Invest in the development of fundraising research.
• Create a fundraising research institute.
• Redesign the system of professional development and certification for fundraisers.
• Encourage the development of academic qualifications in fundraising.
• Appoint a "sales force" for the body of fundraising knowledge.
• Call out institutions offering certificates purporting to be qualifications.
• Educate board members about the intricacies of fundraising.

Labels: Non profit jobs