Print
Nonprofit

Nonprofits Weather Ups, Downs For Giving In 2016

By Jenny Callison, posted Jan 13, 2017
George Edwards, executive director of the Historic Wilmington Foundation, and Dolores Williams, at the group’s Legacy Architectural Salvage store. (Photo by Chris Brehmer)
2016 was a good year for the Historic Wilmington Foundation.

In addition to a strong response to the foundation’s annual fundraising luncheon, the organization continued to developed a new revenue stream: its Legacy Architectural Salvage project, for which revenues have exceeded expectations, according to Edwards.

The salvage operation, which opened in fall 2015 and is directed by retired assistant city attorney Dolores Williams, exceeded its $15,000 goal for 2016 by the summer, Edwards said.

“Our membership numbers are down a bit, but … we remain bullish about this year,” foundation executive director George Edwards said as he awaited finalizing end-of-year responses to fundraising appeals.

Area nonprofits saw a mixed bag of fundraising results in 2016.

Some, like the historic foundation and Wilmington Symphony Orchestra, hit high notes.

“Contributions are up slightly, and [concert] ticket sales are holding up very well,” said Wilmington Symphony Orchestra Executive Director Reed Wallace, pointing to the orchestra’s move from University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Kenan Auditorium to Cape Fear Community College’s Wilson Center at the start of this season. The new venue gives the orchestra room to grow its audience, he added.

“For us, giving [has been] up on both sides: for our annual fund and for Unlock Hope, our capital campaign,” said Vicki Dull, who recently retired as the executive director of The Harrelson Center, a nonprofit center that supports and partners with other nonprofit organizations in the Wilmington community.

Dull attributes the center’s fundraising success to its business model, in which the center’s 13 small nonprofit partner tenants share resources and pay below-market rates for rent and utilities, thus enabling them to put more money into services. The Harrelson Center takes care of the building and provides parking, security, volunteer recruitment, education and training for its partner organizations.

“We try to communicate to people that their donations are very efficiently used,” she said.

The Harrelson Center’s successful collaborative model, which saved its partner organizations more than $300,000 in 2015 alone, has drawn financial support.

“When we started, in 2011, we had four donors. Now we have 1,000,” Dull said.

But the upbeat perspective on giving is not shared by all nonprofits. The N.C. Secretary of State’s Office, in its Charitable Solicitation Licensing Division’s Annual Report for the 2015-16 fiscal year, noted that charitable giving was down significantly from a year ago.

The report showed that charities and nonprofits licensed by the state received $35.4 million in fiscal year 2015-16, about $20 million less than what was reported for the previous year.

The fact remains that giving is down in some quarters. Chris Nelson, president and CEO of the United Way of the Cape Fear Area, said his organization saw a decline in gifts in 2016, as did United Way organizations across the country.

The Atlas of Giving Forecast, published by Top Nonprofits, predicted in April that 2016 would see the first decline in charitable giving since the darkest days of the Great Recession.

The April forecast was “driven in large part by January [2016] giving numbers, which recorded the first monthly decline since the nation’s deep recession ended in June 2009,” the report stated. “January’s decrease of 0.6% from December snapped a 63-month streak during which giving consistently rose on a monthly basis as the country experienced economic recovery.

“With this sluggish start to the year – and gathering headwinds moving forward — we expect giving to charities will total an estimated $468.25 billion in 2016, a 2% annual decline. By comparison, giving increased by 4.6% in 2015.”

One factor for the decrease, noted by both the Atlas of Giving and Maj. Richard Watts, commanding officer of The Salvation Army in the Wilmington area, was that 2016 was an election year.

“During an election year, donations are generally down to most charities,” Watts said. “People get phone call after phone call or email after email asking them to contribute to a particular candidate or campaign.”

Watts pointed out that 2016 was a year of disasters as well, and some donors may have directed their charitable contributions toward disaster relief, to the detriment of other organizations.

“Most charities are negatively affected because most people have only so much disposable income,” he said.

Watts said because The Salvation Army has been around 130 years and does help with disaster relief, it tends to hold its own in periods like the fall, when organizations large and small appealed for private gifts to aid victims of Hurricane Matthew, the fires in western North Carolina and other disasters.

Rick Lawson agrees with Watts that a typical donor’s charitable giving pie is only so big, so external factors can change the way a donor slices it from year to year. He also cites significant competition for charitable contributions.

“You’ve got 1,500 501(c)3 [organizations] asking for money, and the economy really hasn’t moved up on the street,” said Lawson, formerly the executive director of the Children’s Museum of Wilmington and now its director of advancement. “Disposable income in our zip codes is below the 2007 level.”

Lawson assessed gift giving to the museum as “stable, and maybe a little bit better” compared to 2015.

Beth Gaglione, Wilmington branch director of the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina, has a good news/bad news perspective on charitable contributions. Her organization saw more gifts in October and experienced a “very healthy” level of giving in November. But food insecurity remains a major problem.

“We have been very fortunate not to see a dip in giving, but unfortunately the need is still there, and we don’t see that going away,” she said. “We continue to have a gap of 100 million meals in our 34-county area [in central and eastern North Carolina].”
Ico insights

INSIGHTS

SPONSORS' CONTENT
Cfss headshots parker robert webversion 21422121214

The Latest Solar Scams and What You Can Do to Help Stop Them

Robert Parker - Cape Fear Solar Systems
Dave sweyer 300 x 300

Insights into the 2023 Leasing Market in Wilmington, NC: What You Need to Know

Dave Sweyer - Sweyer Property Management
Jane

The Childcare Cost Dilemma

Jane Morrow - Smart Start of New Hanover County

Trending News

New Hotel Proposed Along Market Street In Ogden

Emma Dill - Mar 15, 2024

Businesses Reopen A Week After Grace Street Facade Collapse

Emma Dill - Mar 15, 2024

Tech Upskilling Cohort To Host First Wilmington Class

Audrey Elsberry - Mar 15, 2024

In The Current Issue

Topsail-area Realtors Share Updates

Pender County Realtors recently shared updates about the coastal market at an event hosted by the Wilmington-Cape Fear Home Builders Associa...


Berries, A Battlefield And More In Pender

The N.C. Blueberry Festival, founded in 2003, is one of several events in Pender County that have drawn more attention over the years....


Park Progress

The planning for Pender Commerce Park began in the early 2000s when the county wanted to create an economic driver on its largely rural west...

Book On Business

The 2024 WilmingtonBiz: Book on Business is an annual publication showcasing the Wilmington region as a center of business.

Order Your Copy Today!


Galleries

Videos

2023 Power Breakfast: Major Developments