Date of Graduation

6-7-2000

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Nonprofit Administration (MNA)

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to describe the fundraising effectiveness of Latino nonprofit organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area. A number of critical issues that contribute to fundraising effectiveness, such as the diversity of funding sources, board involvement in fundraising, organizational capacity to conduct fundraising, and relationships with the funding world, were explored. The study also describes the impediments to fundraising and the technical assistance needs of the Latino nonprofit organizations in the sample.

The study suggests that dedicated staff for fundraising is the most significant factor in accounting for the fundraising effectiveness of the organizations in the sample. Data collected in the study support the hypothesis that Latino nonprofits benefit from government and private sources alike. Organizations in the community service and economic development fields benefit from greater support from the government than advocacy and arts and culture organizations. On the private side, corporate funding is the largest source of support followed by foundations, and very distantly by individuals. While 33 percent of the organizations in the sample solicit donations from individuals through special events, only 16 percent of them conduct individual donor campaigns.

More than half of the organizations do not have dedicated staffing for fundraising and rely on their executive directors to raise grants and donations. Board involvement in fundraising is low among the participating organizations, with 63 percent of respondents reporting they were dissatisfied with their board's performance. Thirty-seven percent of the organizations have dedicated fundraising staffing and only 15 percent of them were successful in hiring Latinos to fill these positions.

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