8. 2019 Charities registry snapshot (December 1, 2019)

The chart shows the number of charities registering with the Secretary of State for the first time.  On average over the past five years, the number of new charities in the registry has increased by 9.7% per year.

The number of registered charities decreased by 15.2% in the fiscal year ending 6/30/2019.  This drop is not attributable to economic forces, but rather to a new view of what constitutes a registered entity.  Beginning Oct. 1, 2018, all registrations were allowed to expire after one year, with no presumption that the registration must be maintained until affirmatively withdrawn.  Up until that time, organizations whose registrations had been “suspended” for failure to timely renew were still included in the count of registered entities, because many of these would eventually pay their late fees and renew their registrations.  Now organizations who allow their registrations to expire are considered unregistered.

The total number of solicitation campaigns run by paid solicitors decreased by 13% from 372 in 2018 to 325 in 2019.  On average over the past five years, there have been 408 solicitation campaigns per year.

This graph shows the overall percentage of donations (gross receipts) raised by paid solicitors that was retained by the charity after paying the expenses of the campaign and the paid solicitor’s fee.  The percent to charity increased significantly beginning in 2015, rising from a five year average of 55% from 2010-2014 to the current level of 85%.  The increase is attributable to two very large donor advised funds that have been conducting solicitation campaigns since 2015 and retain 99% of gross receipts raised (see paid solicitor summary 2019 for details).  When these two campaigns are omitted, the percent-to-charity is 48%.

This graph compares the ratio of fundraising expenses to contributions revenue for all registered charities and for registered charities listing a Colorado principal address.  The results show that on average charities raise contributions in an effective manner, with Colorado charities spending slightly more on average than all charities combined.  This could reflect some economies of scale that charities realize when raising funds on a regional or national basis.

This chart looks at how much of a charity’s total spending is devoted to the delivery of program services, which advance the charity’s mission.  These results show that charities spend a large percentage of their funds on program services, with Colorado charities spending slightly less on average than all charities combined.

Additional information on registered entities, best practices guides, nonprofit board member training, registration tutorials, and other helpful resources for donors and charitable organization is available at the Secretary of State’s Charities and Fundraisers website.