It’s always wonderful to see fall arrive. If you’re not attempting a foliage trip this year, you can at least dream about one. Here’s a great site to give you the ultimate visual planning guide to the annual progressive changing of the leaves across the U.S.
Shoutout to The Atlantic, which posted about a recent Skidmore College study, The Scientific Case for Two Spaces After a Period. OK, it was a small study of students—but it vindicated my need for two spaces.
The study showed there was an increase in reading speed of 3% when reading text with two spaces following periods, as compared to one. This is an average of nine additional words per minute above their performance under the one-space conditions.
Hey, have you registered for the free Fundraising.AI Virtual Global Summit? This Summit will be the largest gathering of nonprofit and for-profit professionals and organizations to explore the role of Responsible AI in fundraising. The inaugural Summit will take place on Oct. 23-24. You can find out more about the Summit—and register—by visiting the event website.
One last note before we dive into the roundup. Just around the corner, we have two more great Fundraising Refreshment webinars—please register for these:
Nonprofits: Get more out of GA4
Oct. 12 | 1:30PM CDT
Google Analytics 4 is here—there’s no turning back. But getting the insights you need isn’t as simple as before. Jenn Thompson and Kord Hickson review the reports that every nonprofit should create. Register today.
Last-minute tips for Giving Tuesday Success
Oct. 26 | 1:30PM CDT
Giving Tuesday grows larger every year, which also means that it’s tougher to stand out in the crowd. Evan Arcoria shares some last-minute strategies you can implement to be more effective. Register today.
OK, it's time. Grab your favorite beverage and jump into what I’ve been reading since my touchpoint last month.
Americans spent 5.8% more in August than a year earlier, well outstripping less than 4% inflation. And the experience economy boomed this summer, with Delta Air Lines reporting record revenue in the second quarter and Ticketmaster selling more than 295 million event tickets in the first six months of 2023—up nearly 18% year-over-year.
A tough housing market has more consumers writing off something they’d historically save for, while the pandemic showed the instability of any long-term plans related to health, work or day-to-day life. So, people are spending on once-in-a-lifetime experiences because they worry they may not be able to do them later.
“It’s not a regret-filled, spur-of-the-moment decision,” says Michael Liersch, who oversees a team of advisers as head of advice at Wells Fargo. “It’s the opposite of that, where I would regret not having done it.”
All employees—those who stop working and those whose roles are deemed "excepted"—aren't paid during the shutdown. Their paychecks catch up when operations resume.
At 34 days, the longest government shutdown was also the most recent—from late 2018 to early 2019—during former President Donald Trump's administration. The shutdown ended with a concession from Trump on immigration, as he did not receive the funding he had demanded for a border wall.
This time around, Trump has lent his support to the Republican holdouts who oppose any compromises to keep the government running. Past shutdowns have often pitted the party in control of Congress against the president. In this case, it has to do more with dynamics within the House Republican caucus, with hardliners opposing spending agreements endorsed by their own leadership.
Previously, the longest shutdown lasted 21 days, from 1995 to 1996, under then-President Bill Clinton, who was at an impasse with House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
The 980 foundations in the study made a total of 31,373 grants in 2022 representing $865 million in charitable aid. This is a 7% increase in grants and 15% increase in dollars granted over the prior year.
This year’s report reveals the broader headwinds contributing to nonprofits’ trust decline, as well as the impact of factors unique to the sector. The survey also found:
Nonprofit messaging that focuses on charities, health and human services, and benefit for all is most effective at building sector trust. Sector messaging should focus on values statements rather than solely data points, which are less effective.
For more details into the forces that drive donors' trust in nonprofits, read our research "Solid Gold: The Nonprofit Marketer's Guide to Trust."
Debate over DAFs has moved from philanthropy to Congress, which is considering legislation to spur distributions from inactive funds. The bills, however, aren’t likely to take wing soon.
In the meantime, what is your plan to grow donor advised funds and IRAs during Q4?
Morning Consult's survey tracks with separate data from the U.S. Census Bureau (Household Pulse Survey Data Tables), which found that the number of households saying they didn't always have enough to eat this summer climbed to the highest level since late 2020.
Key takeaways:
According to Shelter Animals Count, a nonprofit working with more than 7,000 rescue organizations nationwide and creators of The National Database of sheltered animal statistics, shelters are in their third year having too many animals and not enough adoptions. Dog adoptions especially have slowed down and are forecasted to remain flat or even dip below 2022 numbers. This poses a big problem, as dogs account for most of the 4% increase in shelter intake thus far in 2023; as of June, dog intake was up 15% compared to 2021.
Executive Director Stephanie Filer said that when her team began digging into trends, they found economic hardship to be one of the driving factors behind the overcrowding.
You can help by donating, fostering and/or volunteering.
Growth in non-premium pet food sales at U.S. public and private companies slowed to 14.8% for the second quarter of the year. That's compared to 20.8% growth in the first three months of 2023 and 18.3% a year earlier, according to an analysis of data from Circana by research firm Consumer Edge.
Premium pet food sales growth, meanwhile, decelerated to 8.5% in the second quarter, compared with 10.7% growth in the first quarter and 21.3% growth in the prior-year period, the data show.
“The commitment that a parent has to the animal is pretty meaningful and so they will continue to feed and treat their animal even in times of maybe less discretionary income,” Marshall said. This might mean trading down from premium products, he added, “but they’re still supporting their pet through any perceived troubled times.”
Not surprisingly, how we make calls has changed drastically alongside advances in technology. Now people can have conversations in public on their smartwatches, see voicemails transcribed in real time and dial internationally midday without stressing about the cost.
Here's the etiquette for today:
Podcast updates:
Webinar recordings: