Tag: Antoine Vaccaro

Generosity in France

State of play between 2019 and 2022 [1]

Viatique for association leaders and fund raisers.

An article by Antoine Vaccaro

Action de Solidarités international in partnership with ECHO (European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations) in Ukraine. February, 2024. © Solidarités International

In recent years, we have had an aggregate for total generosity in France, which for 2019 amounts to 8.5 billion euros. This amount is divided between individuals (59%) and businesses (41%). This aggregate includes individual philanthropy, which includes declared donations, undeclared donations and bequests, as well as corporate generosity, which is manifested through both declared and undeclared philanthropy.

The annual evolution of generosity shows a significant increase in 2020, marked by exceptional momentum related to the Covid-19 crisis, with an increase in donations of 13.7% compared to 2019. In 2021, there was an increase in donations of 4.5%, in contrast to a very small increase in 2022 that does not offset the effect of inflation.

Donor behaviours reveal a concentration of generosity among donors supporting multiple organizations, an economic concentration where a small fraction of donors contribute a significant portion of the collection, and a marked geographical disparity.

Medical research and the fight against diseases remain the preferred causes of the French (39%), ahead of the protection of children (35%) and animals (31%)[2]

The digitization of donations has been accelerating since 2020, with an increasing share of online donations, representing a significant increase in digital collection.

On the balance sheet, what are the main trends and points of attention?

  • Growth of middle and large donors. In 2021, 1% of the most generous donors represent 22% of the collection, while half of the donors contribute only 12% of the annual collection. Highlight: low arrival of new donors and especially drop-out from low-income households.
  • The number of direct debit (PAD) donors stabilized at a high level, with 41.5% of donations in 2022 (compared to 34.7% in 2013). The conquest and/or transformation of one-time donors into AP becomes increasingly difficult with a longer ROI to obtain, but AP remains a strategic resource for NPOs (Non-profit Organization).
  • Donations and legacies are the logical outcome of a strategy of conquest and loyalty of regular or punctual donors. They are the most promising and robust growth resource. Today, 2/3 of the major advertising campaigns of non-profit organizations: TV, radio, press, even display, are oriented liberalities. It is a medium and long term resource that requires a quality fiduciary offer, because the very large legacies and donations are increasingly accompanied by requests for the creation of funds or sheltered foundations.
  • Corporate philanthropy in France It represents a relatively high share of overall generosity, compared to other countries with a strong philanthropic tradition. Competition is fierce on this target, with a top three in assignments: Sport at 46% in 2021 (-10 points compared to 2019), Culture/Wealth at 37% (+ 11 points) and Social at 32% (+10 points). With a characteristic of territorial decentralization more marked.
  • Rise of the digital collection of a multitude of donors unified by the NTIC (New Information and Communication Technology) according to the topics that mobilize them.
Logo of the fundraising agency Force for Good, directed by Antoine Vaccaro

The generous crowd prefers to finance projects that institutions and supports all kinds of beneficiaries who carry these projects: large, medium and small structures, even organizations in the making. Various French and English studies predict a multitude of donors mobilized thanks to Artificial Intelligence tools made available to organizations that will solicit them: data, targeted messages, design, etc., with donor rates, not more than 40% but 70% or 80% of the population.

Generous crowds, both donors, but also collectors, mobilizers or even operatives, eager to co-construct with their peers, but also with non-profits solutions to the societal problems they are tackling.

1- FOCUS COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES ON DIVERSIFICATION AND DECENTRALIZATION

  • Major Philanthropy Target:
    • Propose, when the statutes of the organization allow it (RUP Foundations and Endowment Funds), to shelter philanthropic wishes in foundations or funds under the aegis of «sheltering» to attract individuals with high philanthropic potential who do not wish to take over all the support functions offered by a “shelter” and want to devote themselves, above all, to the cause that mobilizes them.
    • Launch tri-annual campaigns of ambitious major donors backed by a powerful support committee (Cf. Capital Campaign)
Flour is distributed by UNRWA in Gaza. © UNRWA
  • Consumer target:
    • Digital collection. Even if the grammar of online fundraising is still to be written, it is foreseeable that the majority of fundraising will go through digital. Non-profit organizations must allocate financial resources and human resources to acquire skills, know-how and progress on an experience curve to take the wave that will outperform offline collection. Develop, in particular, peer to peer: propose to online communities to make collections for the benefit of associations and foundations during personal events (marriage, communion, death).
    • Direct Marketing: Retain existing donors via direct marketing: maintain the same level of investment. Retain middle donors through a circle of benefactors.
    • Direct Debit. Even if this form of donations is in a mature phase with longer and longer ROIs, it remains a strategic resource to retain donors, obtain high ROIs in the medium term and above all ensure a cash buffer.
    • Involve local actors, make them “ambassadors” of the collection:
  • Sensitize them to the sponsorship process in order to be able to escalate their needs and create a catalogue of projects
  • The «equip» a minimum, to be able to communicate and collect in patronage. Depending on their location, they may have more or less a target audience in families.
  • Working with them a concept of territorial solidarity campaigns: how could this work? between which actors? on what type of project? in what time scale?
  • Engaging SMEs through the development of sponsorship, as seen above, the share of corporate sponsorship in private financing in France is significant. The fabric of SME-SMIs is obviously locally established and represents a privileged target to create real business clubs for the benefit of programs of this or that organization.
  • Develop legacy campaigns in general public prospecting. Amplify fiduciary communications on its own donors but also in prospecting, to raise legacies and donations, including life insurance. Eventually, a majority of the private resources of some NPOs will come from donations.
  • On the balance sheet, when we talk about private philanthropic resources and fund-raising, we have to make fire with everything, but strategically in the allocation of resources.

 

[1] Sources : France Générosité-Fondation de France-Amical

[2] Odoxa, october 2023.

 

Antoine Vaccaro

Antoine Vaccaro holds a PhD in Organizational Science – Management of Non-Executive Economies, Paris-Dauphine, 1985.

After a professional career in large non-governmental organizations and communication group: Fondation de France, Médecins du Monde, TBWA; he chairs the CerPhi and Force for Good. Director within associations and foundations.Co-Founder of several professional organizations: Association Française des Fundraisers, Committee of the Charter of ethics of organizations calling on public generosity, Euconsult, The Chair of Philanthropy at Essec. Heoh Investor, What Works? My Quick Win. He has published various books and articles on philanthropy and fund-raising.

 

Check out Force For Good: https://forceforgood.eu/agence/

A look at the results of the 2019 generosity overview

After more than 50 hours of live streaming on the Twitch platform, the streamers who participated in Z Event 2021, a charity video game marathon, raised just over 10 million euros for the NGO Action Against Hunger. A record amount for such an event © Action Against Hunger

The latest panorama of generosity for the year 2019, conducted by the Fondation de France and coordinated by Daniel Bruneau, has shown the continuing dynamics of French philanthropy and confirms the projections and trends already traced over the past 30 years in most “Western” societies

If we look in the rear-view mirror to measure the evolution of French generosity over the last 30 years, putting it in perspective with that of Americans, what do we see?

In the United States, the amount given by Americans in 1991 was $124.8 billion, compared to $264 billion in 2015, i.e. a multiplication by 2.12 in a quarter of a century (for the record, in 2019 this figure has climbed to $449 billion, i.e. a 1.7-fold increase in 4 years, and thus a 3.0-fold increase in 30 years)[1].

If we make the same comparison for France, we were around 1.5 billion € in 91 (extrapolation from the Archambault-Boumendil study)[2] against 8.5 billion in 2019, that is to say a multiplication by 6. Interesting, but we were starting from such a low base.

But the parallel does not end there, the same trends can be seen in more segmented analyses:

  • An increase in the overall amount of donations from individuals, despite a decreasing number of donors. This trend is indicative of the deterioration in the income and assets of the smallest taxpayers.
  • A concentration of donations made by the highest income earners and the wealthiest in exorbitant proposals, particularly in the USA where 2% of donors now account for 50% of donations to the philanthropic sector[3].
  • Gifts (bequests, donations, life insurance) are steadily increasing, with the expectation of a real explosion, particularly in Europe[4] prophesied by Richard Radcliffe.
  • Strong growth in corporate philanthropy (which is a French singularity compared to the Anglo-Americans), particularly marked among small companies.
  • The rise in fundraising flows from NICTs (New Information and Communication Technologies), which is still poorly understood from a statistical point of view, but which shows a dynamic that is still far from having reached its full potential. In 2019, Giving Tuesday raised $2 billion in one day. In 4 years, Facebook Fundraisers has raised over €2 billion, including €1 billion on birthday pages. The global crowdfunding market represented in 2020 an industry of nearly €1,000 billion. 40% of people under 35 years old have already participated in a crowdfunding campaign. All generations are on social networks. 90.5% of “Y”, 77.5% of “X” 48.2% of Boomers. Crypto-currency donations are increasing in parallel with the increase in the value of crypto-currencies on the market [5].”
  • Resistance to traditional fundraising media: mailings, phoning and street fund-raising. Surprising as it may seem, despite the regular announcement of their accelerating decline, direct marketing tools (mailings, phoning, street fund-raising) remain the main fund-raising vehicles. But in my opinion, this is only a respite, because the new generations of donors are staying away from these solicitations, with the notable exception of street fund-raising, which still attracts the youngest donors.
  • Finally, in this world of generalized overproduction and waste, the acceleration of donations in kind, in the circular economy, seems to meet the aspiration of donors concerned about the accelerated degradation of our environment.
On August 31, 2021, Solidarités International and the management science master’s program at the University of Paris-Dauphine signed a partnership agreement in which the two institutions agreed to develop collaborations for a period of three years. Solidarités International

In conclusion, everything indicates that philanthropy has a very bright future.

The same excellent prospective study, quoted above, carried out by the Adfinitas agency[6] for the 2025 horizon, to which we refer you. Based on this analysis, we can easily imagine a fund-raising system dominated by the generous crowd doped with AI (Artificial Intelligence), with donor rates in relation to the population no longer at 40% but at 70 or 80%. These generous crowds will be not only donors, but also collectors, mobilizers, and even operators, eager to implement by themselves the solutions to the ills that nonprofits usually tackle.

However, a point of vigilance. It is very likely that, even apart from a general collapse (climate, pollution, repeated pandemics, global conflicts), the necessary reduction of inequalities through redistribution by taxation will not be imposed, in the image of the policy that followed the New Deal until 1984 (FD Roosevelt imposed an 85% tax on any income over $1 million per year).

Because this fiscal rigor has since been eroded to the point of recreating this abysmal gap between the ultra-rich and the ultra-poor, wiping out the standard of living of the middle classes in the process, we are likely to see a return to taxing the richest and, as a result, a decline in philanthropy.

Antoine Vaccaro

Who is Antoine Vaccaro ?

Antoine Vaccaro holds a doctorate in organizational science – Management of non-market economies, Paris-Dauphine, 1985.

After a career in large non-governmental organizations and communications groups: Fondation de France, Médecins du Monde, TBWA; he is the president of CerPhi (Center for Study and Research on Philanthropy) Force For Good and the Fund-raising Lab. He holds various volunteer positions within associations and foundations and is also co-founder of several professional organizations promoting private funding of public interest causes: Association Française des fundraisers, Comité de la charte de déontologie des organismes faisant appel à la générosité publique, Euconsult, La chaire de Philanthropie de l’Essec, 2011.

He has published various books and articles on philanthropy and fund-raising.

 

 

 

[1] Giving USA

[2] https://www.fondationdefrance.org/sites/default/files/atoms/files/benevolat_1997.pdf

[3] https://inequality.org/great-divide/gilded-giving-2020/

[4] https://www.legacygiving.eu/en/richardradcliffelegacygivingineuropecanexplode/

[5] https://www.francegenerosites.org/ressources/le-fundraising-en-2025-livre-blanc-de-adfinitas-demain-la-veille/

[6] https://www.francegenerosites.org/ressources/le-fundraising-en-2025-livre-blanc-de-adfinitas-demain-la-veille/