2013 Fundraising Effectiveness Survey Report

The 2013 Fundraising Effectivenes Project Report summarizes data from 2,840 survey respondents covering year-to-year fundraising results for 2011-2012. The report shows that: Gains of $769 million in gifts from new, upgraded current, and previously lapsed donors were offset by losses of$735 million through reduced gifts and lapsed donors. This means that, while there was a positive $34 million net growth-in-giving, every$100 gained in 2012 was offset by $96 in losses through gift attrition. That is, 96 percent of gains in giving were offset by losses in giving.Gains of$866,000 in new and previously lapsed donors were offset by losses of 909,000 in lapsed donors. This means that there was a negative (44,000) growth-in-donors and every 100 donors gained in 2012 was offset by 105 in lost donors through attrition. That is, 105 percent of the donors gained were offset by lapsed donors.Growth-in-giving performance varies significantly according to organization size (based on total amount raised), with larger organizations performing much better than smaller ones.The largest growth in gift dollars/donors came from new gifts/donors, and the pattern was most pronounced in the organizations with the highest growth-in-giving ratios.The greatest losses in gift dollars came from lapsed new gifts, particularly in the organizations with the lowest and highest growth-on-giving ratios. the greatest losses in donors came from lapsed new donors in all growth-in-giving categories

Individual Party Donors: True Allies or Free Agents?

Habitual party donors represent an important revenue source for American political parties. What remains unclear is whether the party committees can also count on these donors to support the congressional candidates who represent the parties’ best chances for seat maximization. Utilizing structural equation modeling and contribution data from the 2006 to the 2012 election cycles, I find habitual party donors and certain new party donors respond to changes in party control of the House by providing more support to incumbents when their party is in the majority and more support to nonincumbents when their party is in the minority. Moreover, party donors are more likely to give to congressional candidates, especially those competing in priority races, than nonparty donors. Party donors additionally are revealed to be an important funding source for congressional candidates

Embryo donation parents' attitudes towards donors : comparison with adoption

BACKGROUND: Embryo donation produces a family structure where neither rearing parent is genetically related to the child, as in adoption. It is not known how embryo donation parents view the donors compared with how adoptive parents view the birth parents. METHODS: 21 couples with an embryo donation child aged 2–5 years were compared with 28 couples with an adopted child. Parents were administered a semi-structured interview, assessing knowledge of the donors/birth parents, frequency of thoughts and discussions about the donors/birth parents and disclosure of the donor conception/adoption to the child. Comparisons were made between mothers and fathers to examine gender differences. RESULTS: Embryo donation parents generally knew only the donors’ physical characteristics, and thought about and talked about the donors less frequently than adoptive parents thought about and talked about the birth parents. Embryo donation fathers tended to think about the donors less often than did mothers. Disclosure of the child's origins in embryo donation families was far less common than in adoptive families (P < 0.001 for mothers and fathers), and was associated with the level of donor information (P < 0.05 for mothers, P < 0.025 for fathers). CONCLUSIONS: Embryo donation parents’ views on the donors differ from adoptive parents’ views on the birth parents, with donors having little significance in family life once treatment is successful

Powerful donors and foreign policy: The role of multilateral financial institutions

The opportunity for a powerful donor country, such as the United States, to use a multilateral financial institution (MFI) strategically in order to promote its own foreign policy goals has received little attention. The gain to a donor that is able to make the World Bank or other MFIs adapt to this donor's view on an issue can be substantial. In that case, all the contributions from the other member nations will also stand behind the MFI's stance on the particular issue, and recipients may feel compelled to comply with this massive counterpart. As a result, influencing MFIs may give much more leverage to a donor's foreign assistance in the foreign policy arena than pursuing the same goals bilaterally with the same amount of aid. We present a model where a donor tries to influence a MFI to put pressure on a recipient to comply with the foreign policy interests of the donor. This game-theoretic multi-agent model with one donor, two MFIs and one recipient illustrates the virtue of using the multilateral as an instrument in foreign policy as seen from the powerful donor's point of view. Similarly, we show how this strategic behavior is damaging for the recipient in particular and for development in general.Foreign policies Conditionality Unilateralism

Impression Management during Evaluation and Psychological Reactions Post-donation of Living Kidney Donors

Many healthcare providers have been concerned about the extent to which potential kidney donors use impression management or concealment of important information regarding their medical history, current functioning, or other circumstances that could affect whether they are accepted as donors. To date, however, there has been very little empirical examination of these questions. It is also not known whether donors\u27 use of impression management pre-donation is related to their reactions and adjustment post-donation. Methods This study surveyed 76 individuals who had donated a kidney one to six yr previously regarding their use of impression management and their concealing of information during their psychological evaluations. They were also asked about their reactions to the donation and whether they would make the same decision again. In addition, 21 of these donors participated in focus groups that explored these questions in depth. Results Many of the kidney donors reported that they possessed very strong motivation to donate and consequently used impression management in their interactions with medical professionals pre-donation. Very few donors, however, indicated that they concealed information during their pre-donation evaluations. The donors\u27 psychological reactions post-donation were generally positive, and nearly all indicated that they would make the same decision again

Excess electron screening of remote donors and mobility in modern GaAs/AlGaAs herostructures

In modern GaAs/Al$_x$Ga$_{1-x}$As heterostructures with record high mobilities, a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) in a quantum well is provided by two remote donor $\delta$-layers placed on both sides of the well. Each $\delta$-layer is located within a narrow GaAs layer, flanked by narrow AlAs layers which capture excess electrons from donors but leave each of them localized in a compact dipole atom with a donor. Still excess electrons can hop between host donors to minimize their Coulomb energy. As a result they screen the random potential of donors dramatically. We numerically model the pseudoground state of excess electrons at a fraction $f$ of filled donors and find both the mobility and the quantum mobility limited by scattering on remote donors as universal functions of $f$. We repeat our simulations for devices with additional disorder such as interface roughness of the doping layers, and find the quantum mobility is consistent with measured values. Thus, in order to increase the quantum mobility this additional disorder should be minimized.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1804.0693

"Suboptimal" kidney donors: The experience with tacrolimus-based immunosuppression

Female, pediatric, and older donors have been associated with inferior graft survival after renal transplantation. We analyzed these three subgroups in 397 patients receiving tacrolimus-based immunosuppression. There were no differences in recipient age, incidence of retransplantation, or percentage of sensitized patients. Female donors, compared with male donors, were associated with comparable 1- and 3-year patient survival rates (96% and 93% vs. 95% and 92%, respectively) and comparable 1- and 3-year graft survival rates (90% and 80% vs. 88% and 81%, respectively). Renal function was also similar. Recipients of pediatric en bloc kidneys, when compared with recipients of other cadaveric kidneys, also had comparable 1- and 3-year patient survival rates (94% and 94% vs. 95% and 91%, respectively) and comparable 1- and 3-year graft survival rates (84% and 84% vs. 89% and 79%, respectively). Renal function was better in recipients of en bloc kidneys, with a mean serum creatinine level of 1.4±1.8 mg/dl vs. 2.0±1.5 mg/dl (P=0.01). In contrast to the first two subgroups, donors over 60 years of age, when compared with donors under 60 years of age, were associated with worse 1- and 3-year patient survival rates (88% and 80% vs. 96% and 94%, respectively; P<0.03) and worse 1- and 3-year graft survival rates (74% and 62% vs. 91% and 83%, respectively; P<0.0001). Renal function was worse in the older donor group, with a serum creatinine level of 2.7±1.2 mg/ml vs. 1.9±1.5 mg/dl (P=0.01). We conclude that, under tacrolimus-based immunosuppression, kidneys from female or very young pediatric donors are not associated with adverse outcomes, whereas kidneys from donors over 60 years of age are associated with inferior outcomes