Higher education sees surge in 2018 online giving

• Date: 01 March 2019
• Published date: 01 March 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/nba.30567

MARCH 2019 NONPROFIT BUSINESS ADVISOR

7

© 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company • All rights reserved

DOI: 10.1002/nba

Nonprot Research

Higher education sees surge in 2018 online giving

New research from GiveCampus, a fundraising

and donor engagement platform for educational

institutions, shows that donors to higher education

are increasingly choosing online and mobile giving to

make their contributions, leading to a sizeable jump

in overall donations to the sector last year.

According to the group’s report, Online Giving to

Schools: 2018, based on a survey of more than 600

schools in the United States and six other countries,

online giving increased by 27 percent in 2018. Online

giving in December was particularly strong, growing

by 48 percent over 2017. These gures follow similar

growth rates in 2017, GiveCampus said, all pointing

to the surging popularity of online—and especially

mobile—giving.

In addition to these ndings, the report identies

several key trends in charitable giving to nonprot

educational institutions, including:

• Donors of all ages are shifting to online giving.

The data show that online giving is as popular with

nonmillennials as it is with millennials, highlighting

the expanding “digital uency” and evolving prefer-

ences of those who were born and raised before the

widespread use of digital technology.

• Mobile has overtaken desktops. For the rst time

ever, the report said, more people visited schools’ on-

line fundraising pages from their mobile devices than

from their desktop and laptop computers. This shift

was more pronounced as the year wore on, such that

some 55 percent of all prospective donor trafc came

from mobile devices during the latter half of the year.

• Apple Pay is an increasingly popular tool for

charitable giving. According to the report, Apple

Pay has grown in popularity as a payment method

for charitable donations in 2018, just as it has for

commercial transactions. During the second half of

the year, roughly 10 percent of donors using iPhones

Survey shows lack of diversity among

environment-focused funders, nonprots

An examination of diversity data among the larg-

est environmental groups and funders in the United

States shows that people of color continue to be un-

derrepresented in leadership positions in the sector.

The data—compiled by Green 2.0, an inde-

pendent advocacy campaign to increase diversity

among environmental groups—is included in the

group’s 2018 Transparency Report Card and draws

from self-reported diversity data submitted to

GuideStar from the 40 largest foundations and

40 largest nonprots working in the environment

sector. The data showed that diversity declined at

almost all levels of leading foundations and chari-

ties. Specically:

• For foundations, the percentage of people of

color fell from 39 percent to 26 percent for full-time

staff, from 33 percent to 4 percent for senior staff and

from 28 percent to 21 percent for board members.

• For nonprots covered by the report, the share

of people of color fell from 27 percent to 22 percent

for all full-time staff; increased from 14 percent to 21

percent for senior staff; and then fell slightly—from

22 percent to 21 percent—for board members.

“For the past ve years, we’ve been working to

ensure that the environmental movement and its

leaders reect the current U.S. workforce demo-

graphics,” said Whitney Tome, Green 2.0’s executive

director, in a statement announcing the ndings.

“Communities of color bring to bear experience

and perspective on both problems and pathways

to power building. As an organization, we plan to

take a more aggressive approach to calling out the

environmental movement for their lack of diversity.”

The group said it planned to hold environmental

groups accountable for their diversity efforts via

awareness campaigns—including praise and expo-

sure of individual nonprots and foundations lead-

ing the way in bolstering diversity within their ranks.

“As an organization, Green 2.0 will elevate and

sustain public attention to the racial demographics

of the leadership of the environmental eld and the

degree to which these leaders are positioned to em-

bed equity and shape the strategies, programs and

operations of their organizations,” the groups said.

For more information, visit https://www.

diversegreen.org. ■

(See GIVING on page 8)