Don’t the results mean that very nearly half expect revenue to be the same or higher?

And for some types of charities, two-thirds to three-quarters are expecting no change or improvements in revenue (animal welfare and faith-based).

Is the glass half full or half empty? The way you are expressing the results of the survey seems to be playing into a Chicken Little, sky is falling, reaction.

As was expressed by senior fundraisers gathered in Holland two weeks ago for the International Fundraising Congress, ‘the greatest thing we have to fear is fear itself.’ History tells us that charities that *invest* in fundraising during economic downturns are usually rewarded with growth in donors, revenue and marketshare.

I note that 100% of your humanitarian assistance respondents expect a downturn. In Holland, the reps from the big international NGOs were all counselling increased investments in fundraising to reap the rewards mentioned above.

A couple of weeks ago we tested an email acquisition & reactivation ask to our non-member and lapsed member email prospects. We used a variation of our current offline acquisition message WITH a challenge grant — “join and your dues will be matched dollar for dollar.”

We tested adding one sentence that mentions the current economic environment and why we need their support even more. The result? A 25% drop in response rate and average gift. Not the most scientific of tests (our e-file isn’t huge, but it was still a compelling drop). But siginificant enough for me to rethink the whole messaging conundrum.

Anyone who’d like to see the two versions is welcome to shoot me an email.

One comment though, with respect your remark on ‘one can only wonder if the advisers haven’t yet shared the bad news, or if nonprofit clients aren’t absorbing it’.

I have to say, I don’t agree on this one completely.. It seems to assume advisers know the trend better than their clients. Of course, they have the opportunity to see things in a wider perspective, the overview of the trends with multiple clients..
However, as a client, I do believe I know my own donor base better than any adviser could. And, to be really sceptic, that there is ‘business’ for advisers to predict the worst case scenario, isn’t there?

But of course, all of us should constantly keep track on the impact of the crisis, and adapt our plans/forecasts accordingly!