Report: 21 million dollar difference in NC donations from previous year

RALEIGH, NC (Press Release) — Charities and non-profits around the world are making their pitches for donations as the calendar flips to Nov. 29 and “Giving Tuesday” kicks off the traditional end-of-year period when most people make the bulk of their charitable giving decisions.

“’Giving Tuesday’ serves as a great reminder that it is that time of year for us to think about opening our hearts—and checkbooks—to help others in need,” NC Secretary of State Elaine F. Marshall said Monday.

“We hope people will be generous, but we also want everyone to do their homework first,” Secretary Marshall said. “We always say to ‘check before you write one’ meaning do that research and make sure you are sending your money to a non-profit that has earned your support.”

Marshall pointed to the Secretary of State’s website section for charitable solicitation, sosnc.gov/csl, as a resource. It features a great deal of information on how to give wisely, as well as annual reports going back many years that show how organizations fundraising in North Carolina used the money donated to them.

The Department also released the 2015-2016 North Carolina Secretary of State Charitable Solicitation Licensing Division Annual Report on Monday. It shows that charities and nonprofits licensed by the State collected $35,431,047.84 during the covered 12 month period.

That amount is far smaller than the 2014-2015 total when North Carolinians gave over $56.5 million using the same system of measures.

Secretary Marshall said one big factor played the key role in creating the drop in reported donations.“Last year we saw a first of its kind major spike in donations to nonprofits that were connected to civic issues and economic development instead of more traditional charitable causes,” Marshall said.

“Those groups did not record similar extremely large donations this past year, making the State’s total drop,” she said. However, Marshall added that the 2015-2016 total is larger than most previous annual totals.

Marshall said she is also pleased to see in the new report that there is a high rate of cents on the dollar netted by charities after fundraising costs are deducted.

The 2015-2016 shows that from the total grossed, charities netted $20,600,216.59 from the reported fundraising campaigns. That amount means overall, the charities and non-profits received 58.14% of every dollar collected, a high average compared to most past years.

“”While it is true that we did not equal last year’s record-smashing numbers,” Marshall said, “the 2015-2016 report is showing some very solid numbers and percentages compared to most years.”

Despite the good news in the last two annual charity reports, Marshall emphasized that many non-profits across North Carolina remain hard-pressed to meet the needs of the communities they serve.

“There are still many people across our State who are depending on the non-profits that help them every month or even every day,” Marshall said. She pointed out that on a recent fact-finding trip through eastern North Carolina she saw charities still working hard to help those who continue to suffer through the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew.

“We have places in North Carolina where things are going very well,” Marshall said, “but we also have many communities here where the needs are great and our non-profit sector’s work is absolutely vital.”

The report also showed that for the seventh year in a row, North Carolinians did a better job than people in other states in picking fundraising campaigns with lower overhead and where more cents of each dollar were passed on directly to the charities.

In national or multi-state fundraising campaigns that included North Carolina donors and so were reported to the Secretary of State’s Office, 58.04 percent of each dollar given passed directly to the charities after administrative costs, just under the North Carolina-only percentage.

The annual report does not include information about every charitable and non-profit cause operating in North Carolina. It specifically examines groups that choose to use paid solicitors registered with the North Carolina Secretary of State’s Office. This is a much smaller group of charities and non-profits than exist raising funds and doing work in the State. “We know this is a limited universe of data when it comes to giving the public a current portrait of charitable giving,” Secretary Marshall said. “But it remains one of the best annual reports produced to show how people are donating.”

Data in the report breaks down how much of each dollar given by the public is taken for fundraising costs.

Marshall encouraged people to look at several years’ of reporting for a given organization if it reported low percentages this year. “Even a great organization can have one bad year due to reporting deadlines or because of the timing of when fundraising costs are paid,” she said. “The question becomes are their numbers low year after year? If so, then consider supporting a different charity.”

A complete copy of the 2015-20156 Annual Report of the Charitable Solicitation Licensing Division is also posted on the Department’s website.

“We encourage everyone to go to www.sosnc.gov and look for the “Check Before You Write One” icon to find the link to our Charitable Solicitation Licensing section,” Marshall said.

The Secretary of State’s Office licenses charities and nonprofit organizations that:

• Use professional fundraising services for their solicitation campaigns,
• Compensate their officers,
• Or, raise at least $25,000 and are not exempt from State law for reasons such as being a religious institution or volunteer fire department or educational institution.

A great many charities in the State are covered by these exemptions.

People with questions about individual charities or charitable solicitation activities in general can call the Secretary of State’s Office, Charitable Solicitation Licensing Division at 1-888-830-4989 (toll-free in North Carolina) or 1-919-807-2214.