Last year’s Anglican Journal Appeal, the Journal’s annual donation campaign, raised $474,489 and boasted its highest-ever average donation, $56.
The total of the 2018 appeal was a 1.4% drop from the previous year, which raised $479,958. The average donation in 2017 was $55.
The 2018 appeal shows the continuation of a trend in which fewer donors are giving, but those who do are making larger donations.
“The average donation has increased faster than inflation since 1999, even as the overall number of donors has shrunk,” Anglican Journal editorial supervisor Matthew Townsend writes in his September appeal letter. This increase shows generosity “which has, without question, kept the Journal and [the] diocesan publications going.”
The average donation in 1999 was $42, when expressed in 2019 dollars; if that average had not increased every year, the 2018 appeal would have raised only $356,664, more than $100,000 less than its actual total.
The year 2000 saw a huge spike in both number of donors and total amount raised, due to the advent of direct mailing to previous donors, according to Beverly Murphy, senior communications manager and business manager for the Journal. Average donation has increased fairly steadily ever since.
Townsend writes that he hopes to see an average donation of $60 for the 2019 appeal.
Proceeds of the appeal, minus expenses, are shared between the Anglican Journal and the diocesan newspapers.
Since beginning in 1994, the appeal has raised a total of $10.8 million, with $3.8 million distributed to diocesan publications.
These donations account for roughly a quarter of the Journal’s budget. Other income sources include a Heritage Canada grant, distribution and advertising revenue and funding from General Synod.
