Fundraising

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2001:

Foundation Giving Trends 2001, published recently by The Foundation Center, indicates that of all the grant money distributed by U.S. private foundations in 2000, just 1.3% was given to help “Animals and wildlife.” This was marginally more than was spent on science and technological research exclusive of health care, however, and was nearly three times as much as was spent on “Religion” and “International affairs, development, and peace.”

The causes most favored by private foundations were “Human services,” 26%; “Edu-cation,” 24%; “Health,” 12.7%; and “Arts and culture,” 12.6%. Surveys of individual donor preference also tend to show animal protection claiming about 1% of all contributions. “Religion” is among the major categories favored by individuals, and support of “Arts and culture” almost falls off the chart.

Online fundraising is still not a statistically significant nonprofit revenue source, reports the Chronicle of Philanthropy. Among 70 major charities whose online returns the Chronicle of Philanthropy disclosed, only two focused on animals and habitat. The Nature Conserv-ancy was the fourth most successful, pulling in $792,812 online, or about 1% of total income. The Humane Society of the U.S. ranked 31st, with online receipts of $30,000, probably much less than the cost of maintaining the HSUS web site, and negligible compared to total public support of $62.4 million.