Situation Analysis
MKT 485
February 21, 2014

The Industry
Restoration Hope is considered a 501 (c)(3). According to Charity Navigator, several nonprofits are grouped under this umbrella including religious, educational, charitable, scientific, literary, testing for public safety, fostering of national or amateur sports competitions, or prevention of cruelty to children or animals. Restoration Hope fits under the category of charity.
When it comes to the growth of charities, donations rose for the third straight year. The Giving USA foundation reported that in 2012, there were more than $316 billion dollars given to charities ("Slow growth," 2013) (Appendix A). Giving USA considers this 3.5 percent gain to be small. However, Gregg Carlson, chair of the Giving USA foundation, said that while the amount may shift down or up year to year, the amount given to charities remains stable. National Philanthropic Trust estimates that between $6.6 trillion and $27.4 trillion dollars in donations will be made to charities between 1998-2052 ("National Philanthropic Trust").
In National Philanthropic Trusts’ research, they found that 88 percent of all households in the United States give to charities ("National philanthropic trust.”). Because Restoration Hope is based out of Mississippi, specifically the Jackson area, it is vital to view giving statistics in these specific areas. The Chronicle of Philanthropy developed an interactive infographic that allows one to see how states, metros, counties, and towns donate, as well as displaying income brackets ("How America Gives," 2012).
According to The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Mississippi was ranked as number three in terms of percent of income given. In the state there was on average 7.2 percent of Mississippians’ income given, which is a median contribution of $3,998 per household. One thing to note about this data was of the three brackets listed ($50,000-$99,999 , $100,000-$199,999, $200,000 and up) those in the lowest bracket ($50,000-$99,999) gave the most; 8.7 percent of their total income ("How America Gives," 2012) (Appendix B). The Jackson Metro area ranked number 10 among 366 other metro areas in giving. In this area, 8.1 percent of total income was given to charities. As far as the donations by income brackets, a similar trend was seen in the Jackson Metro area and in the state as a whole. Of the three income brackets, the lowest ($50,000 - $99,999) gave 10.3 percent of their income. That was nearly double of the wealthiest income bracket ($200,000 and up) that gave 5.9 percent ("How America Gives," 2012) (Appendix C).
Another area that needs to be examined are the donations of Christians since this is Restoration Hope’s primary audience. Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECF), an organization dedicated to holding Christian ministries financially accountable, noted in their Annual State of Giving Report that there was a 8.7 percent increase in total revenues of Christians’ giving between the year 2011 to 2012 ("2013 ECFA Annual.") The report broke down the nearly $14 billion dollars of Christian’s donations into categories and found that the second most significant category was orphan care (12.4 percent) and the third adoption (12.2 percent).
Two trends to follow in charitable donations are corporate giving and online giving. Giving USA found that corporate giving rose 12.2 percent in 2012 ("Slow growth," 2013). The corporate giving as a whole is an estimated $18.5 billion dollars. Online giving has been the most drastic increase with a 21 percent revenue increase in the year 2012 (“10 Stats on Growth”). An eNonprofit Benchmarks Study, collected data from 55 nonprofits in order to study the trends in online giving. They noted that nonprofits are in the midst of a fundraising shift as more donors are moving to online giving, particularly those under the age of 40. The study predicted that in the