Public Interest Registry and Nonprofit Tech for Good Debut Inaugural 2017 Global Trends in Giving Report

Public_Interest_Registry_2017_Global_Trends_in_Giving_Report[news release] Public Interest Registry, the not-for-profit operator of the .org, .ngo and .ong domains, and Nonprofit Tech for Good today revealed the results of the “2017 Global Trends in Giving Report.” By surveying more than 4,000 donors in 95 countries, the inaugural report provides a comprehensive understanding of how and why donors worldwide are giving to and engaging with non-governmental (NGOs), nonprofits and charitable organizations. In addition, the survey evaluates the role that technology plays in communications and philanthropic giving across continents and demographics

Public_Interest_Registry_2017_Global_Trends_in_Giving_Report[news release] Public Interest Registry, the not-for-profit operator of the .org, .ngo and .ong domains, and Nonprofit Tech for Good today revealed the results of the “2017 Global Trends in Giving Report.” By surveying more than 4,000 donors in 95 countries, the inaugural report provides a comprehensive understanding of how and why donors worldwide are giving to and engaging with non-governmental (NGOs), nonprofits and charitable organizations. In addition, the survey evaluates the role that technology plays in communications and philanthropic giving across continents and demographics.

Key global findings include:

  • 92 percent of donors believe NGOs are ethical and can be trusted, and 96 percent believe these organisations are essential for creating social change.
  • 45 percent of donors give to NGOs located outside of their country of residence.
  • Donors worldwide prefer to make financial contributions online, which is a conclusive generational sentiment as well – 62 percent of millennials and 59 percent of Gen Xers and Baby Boomers, respectively, prefer online giving.
  • Of online donors, 42 percent cite social media as the tool that most inspires them to give; of these donors, 62 percent list Facebook as most inspiring channel, followed by Twitter (15 percent) then Instagram (10 percent).
  • Donors most trust websites and email addresses that use the .org (72 percent), .edu (7 percent), and .ngo (6 percent) domains.
  • Social media is listed by millennials (33 percent) and Gen Xers (28 percent) as the tool that most inspires giving, while Baby Boomers list fundraising events (24 percent) as most inspirational.
  • 67 percent of donors have volunteered with an NGO within the past year. Of these volunteers, 97 percent also made a financial contribution to the organisation with which they volunteer.
  • Both male and female donors list organisations that support children and youth as a top preference.
  • Liberal donors are most likely to give to human/civil rights causes, while conservative-leaning donors are more likely to give to religious/faith services.

“Effectively engaging with donors is crucial – the lifeblood in some cases – for the NGO community to successfully achieve their mission,” said Brian Cute, CEO of Public Interest Registry. “Insights from the report provide a valuable cultural examination, globally and within defined regions. But more importantly, the findings will assist NGOs around the world in understanding who, when and how to target the philanthropically minded within their country and beyond their borders.”

Breakdown of donors in North America:

  • 62 percent of North American donors prefer to give online, which is the highest rate in the world.
  • North American donors are also predominately female (75 percent) Baby Boomers (42 percent) with a liberal-leaning ideology.
  • Of all donors worldwide, North American donors give the most to causes reflecting religious or faith-based services.
  • Within the United States, generational differences can be seen in the types of causes supported: millennials give the most to human and civil rights causes; Gen Xers give to causes related to animals; and Baby Boomers give most to religious and faith-based services.

“Examining donor preferences worldwide clearly showed an overwhelming response from donors in wealthy countries, which we believe is in direct correlation to the lack of technology tools NGOs have in developing countries to effectively engage their supporters,” said Heather Mansfield, founder of Nonprofit Tech for Good. “Our hope is that future versions of this report will reflect a more diverse donor community, especially as internet infrastructure evolves enabling more donors to emerge from all corners of the globe.”

Fielded earlier this year, the “2017 Global Trends in Giving Report” surveyed 4,084 donor respondents from 95 countries across Africa, Asia, Australia & Oceania, Europe, North America and South America, including gender, generational and ideological analysis.

For more information on the survey’s findings and methodology, and to download the full report and graphics, please visit: http://www.givingreport.ngo.

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About Public Interest Registry
Public Interest Registry is a nonprofit organisation that operates the .org top-level domain — the world’s third largest “generic” top-level domain with more than 10.4 million domain names registered worldwide – and the newly launched .ngo and .ong domains and OnGood community website. Public Interest Registry also operates four Internationalized Domain Names (.ОРГ (xn--c1avg), .机构 (xn--nqv7f), .संगठन (xn--i1b6b1a6a2e), .组织机构 (xn--nqv7fs00ema)) to support and encourage local language use of the Internet.  As an advocate for collaboration, safety and security on the internet, Public Interest Registry’s mission is to educate and enable the global noncommercial community to use the internet more effectively, and to take a leadership position among internet stakeholders on policy and other issues relating to the domain naming system. Public Interest Registry was founded by the Internet Society (internetsociety.org) in 2002 and is based in Reston, Virginia, USA.

About Nonprofit Tech for Good
With nearly 100,000 monthly visitors and more than one million followers on social networks, Nonprofit Tech for Good is a leading social and mobile media resource for nonprofit professionals. Created and managed by Heather Mansfield, Nonprofit Tech for Good focuses on providing valuable, easy-to-understand information, news, and resources related to nonprofit technology, online communications, and mobile and social fundraising.

US Educational Institutions Use .COMs, Consider gTLDs

US educational institutions have begun discussing among themselves the limits of the .EDU domain, reserved for American educational facilities, even branching out to .COM domains and considering the possibility of applying for their own generic Top Level Domains.

US educational institutions have begun discussing among themselves the limits of the .EDU domain, reserved for American educational facilities, even branching out to .COM domains and considering the possibility of applying for their own generic Top Level Domains.An article in The Chronicle of Higher Education considers whether using .COMs and even gTLDs would benefit, or even “dilute the power of .EDU.””Weber State University is among those that have already started branching out, with ‘getintoweber.com’ as an online destination. It is ‘a vanity URL we pursued to dovetail with our ‘Get Into Weber’ marketing campaign that started in 2007,’ John L. Kowaleski, director of media relations told The Chronicle. “We wanted something catchy and easy to remember, since the intended audience for “getintoweber.com” was prospective students.”The university could not use getintoweber.edu as each educational institution has been limited to one domain since 2001.”The U.S. Commerce Department, which gave us the contract to administer the domain, views ‘.EDU’ as something that identifies an institution, not multiple names that mean the same institution,” said Gregory A. Jackson, a vice president of Educause, the higher-education-technology group that administers the .EDU domain.However the one domain name per educational institution rule is currently being discussed with the Commerce Department, who give Educause the right to issue .EDU domains.On the new gTLDs, there are issues here too as it would be quite expensive for an educational institution. “And the college has to adhere to strict rules about who gets the domain and who doesn’t, which could cause other problems. ‘What if you say that alumni can have ‘.dartmouth’ in order to strengthen connection to the school?’ Jackson said. “And then an alumnus involved in some shady dealings uses that address? You can’t ban them. ICANN won’t let you pick who you like and who you don’t.”To read the article in The Chronicle of Higher Education in full, see:
chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/trading-in-edu-for-com/33033