.08 of a cent
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1994:
Animal and habitat protection
groups collected just eight tenths of a cent
from each dollar raised by U.S. charities in
1992, says a new study by the National
Center for Charitable Statistics, a think-tank
run by the nonprofit umbrella group Indep-
endent Sector. Religion, at one cent, gets
only slightly more, while 60.8¢ goes to health
care and 17.8¢ to education. Because animal
and habitat protection groups draw relatively
little income from government grants and user
fees (such as hospital charges and tuition),
they rely upon private contributions for 46.8%
of their total revenue––the greatest reliance on
private support of any branch of charity.
Private contributions account for just 2.7% of
the nonprofit health care revenue stream, and
13.5% of the revenue stream for nonprofit
educational institutions. The importance of
private contributions to animal and habitat
protection group budgets helps explain the
emphasis many such groups place upon direct
mail fundraising: unlike in other charitable
fields, few animal and habitat protection
groups have big endowments and/or revenue-
producing property. Counting only funds
raised directly from the public, the American
Association of Fund-Raising Counsel’s Trust
for Philanthropy estimates that total contribu-
tions to animal and habitat protection in 1992
came to $3.12 billion: 2.5% of direct public
giving. This is in line with the findings of a
similar study for the preceding fiscal year
published in The Nonprofit Almanac 1992-93.
The latter found that animal-related causes get
.09% of public giving, about $1.16 billion a
year, while 1.3%, about $1.19 billion, goes
to environmental causes.
