Philanthropy News Report

Online donations to charities increased by 23 percent from March through May compared to the same period in 2009. According to the Blackbaud Index of Online Giving, a report from fundraising software-provider Blackbaud, organizations with total annual revenue of less than $1 million saw the biggest benefits from online donations, achieving 7.3 percent of their [...]

The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research has announced that it will commit up to $12 million in 2011 to support prioritized research toward transformative treatments and finding a cure for Parkinson’s disease. Full text article is available via the Philanthropy News Digest, 7/19/10.

Corporate “social responsibility” may be undermining the ability of businesses to stay focused on their main goal of making profits and may be behind the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico caused by BP. Full text article by Chrystia Freeland is available via The Washington Post, 7/18/10.

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen marked the 20th anniversary of his family foundation by committing Thursday to leave most of his $13-billion fortune to philanthropy. Mr. Allen, Microsoft partner of Bill Gates, last month called on fellow billionaires to donate at least half their wealth and said he had long planned to give away the bulk [...]

AT&T; has announced a $1.5 million grant to Arlington, Virginia-based Communities In Schools to help increase graduation rates for at-risk students. The grant will be used to expand CIS’s network of school-based site coordinators, which works to connect at-risk-students in affiliate schools with mentors, counselors, afterschool programs, career development resources, and health care. Full text [...]

A nonprofit group started by Barnes and Noble’s chairman, Leonard Riggio, and his wife, Louise, to build 100 homes for victims of Hurricane Katrina will erect its 50th house next month. The Riggios have committed $20-million to rebuilding in New Orleans’s Gentilly District, which was hard-hit by the 2005 storm. Full text article by Shelly [...]

The amount of money held by donor-advised funds is growing fast, even amid the challenges caused by the volatile stock market and the large sums donors take out of the accounts to give to nonprofit groups. Over the five-year period ending in 2009, The Chronicle study found that assets held in donor-advised funds at 64 [...]

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee has received a five-year, $1.5 million grant from the Joseph J. and Vera Zilber Family Foundation for youth and wellness programs at the LaVarnway Boys & Girls Club. Most of the grant will fund youth employment, career readiness, and community leadership services at the LaVarnway club — [...]

The United Nations Foundation and the Better World Campaign have announced the launch of a fellowship program for journalists covering the progress of the Millennium Development Goals.With support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the program will make it possible for journalists to travel to New York City in September prior to the start [...]

With the housing and financial crises having dealt a blow to the nation’s large, publicly traded home builders, Habitat for Humanity has emerged as one of the top builders in the country. Habitat, which was founded thirty-four years ago in Americus, Georgia, to build, repair, and rehabilitate homes for low-income families, recently was ranked eighth [...]