Anonymous Giving Is on the Rise

Wealthy philanthropists are increasingly choosing to give their charitable donations anonymously, in part to protect their privacy but also to avoid rifts among family members expecting an inheritance.

Full-text article by Steve Chawkins is available via The Los Angeles Times,
3.31.2008.

Online Giving Appeals to the Wealthy, Study Finds

Affluent people are increasingly likely to use the Internet to make their charitable donations, a new survey of nearly 3,500 donors has found. But charities are turning off some of their biggest donors — people who give $1,000 or more, the survey found.

Full-text article by Elizabeth Schwinn is available via The Chronicle of Philanthropy, 4.3.08. [Subscription required.]

Bleeding Hearts but Tight Fists

Liberals are surprisingly less charitable than conservatives.

Full-text article by George F. Will is available via The Washington Post, 3.27.08.

Leave Endowments Alone

Universities with endowments worth hundreds of millions of dollars, even billions, are sitting on them rather than using them to reduce tuitions, say some influential members of the U.S. Senate. They are threatening to force the colleges with the largest funds — perhaps the top 100 or so from the more than 4,000 two- and four-year institutions — to pay out 5% a year. The typical college now spends about 4% for various purposes.

Full-text article via USA Today, 3.27.08.

Nonprofits could find donations dwindling as economy limps along

Although most nonprofit organizations appear to be weathering the latest economic downturn, uncertainty remains, reports The Boston Globe.

Smaller social-service agencies are already feeling the pinch, and even large educational and cultural institutions that typically have a hefty endowment cushion are worried about how changing financial conditions might affect their higher-end donors. In response, some groups are now seeking new ways to structure gifts.

Full-text article by Sascha Pfeiffer via The Boston Globe, 3.26.08.

Economy's Troubles Could Hit Colleges Unusually Hard

Financial experts everywhere agree that the economy appears headed toward a recession. The question is how long it will last and how deep it will be.

The last recession, in 2001, lasted less than a year. Prolonged recession might force some private institutions out of business, experts say.

Full-text article by Brad Wolverton is available via The Chronicle of Higher Education, 3.25.08. [Subscription required.]

Thoroughly Modern Do-Gooders

Fashions in goodness change, just like fashions in anything else, and these days some of the very noblest people have assumed the manners of the business world — even though they don’t aim for profit. They call themselves social entrepreneurs, and you can find them in the neediest places on earth.

Full-text article by David Brooks is available via The New York Times, 3.21.08.

UF's Florida Tomorrow campaign impacted by slumping economy

UF’s Florida Tomorrow capital campaign is experiencing a slow-down in donations due to the national economic decline, and university officials said they are bracing for tougher times ahead.

Full-text article by Deborah Swerdlow is available via The Independent Florida Alligator, 3.21.08.

New University of Texas-Arlington vice president will try to foster a spirit of giving

The University of Texas at Arlington has announced the appointment of James Lewis as vice president for development.

Lewis comes from Austin College in Sherman, where he led a campaign that raised more than $120 million to improve campus facilities; helped increase the number of million-dollar donors from 11 to 46; and helped increase total gifts from about $2 million annually in 1995 to an average of $13 million annually for the past six years.

Full-text article by Paul Bourgeois is available via the Arlington Star-Telegram, 3.23.08.

Donors Sue University Over $2-Million Pledge

Donors to St. Bonaventure University, in New York, have sued the institution, saying that they were not provided with information about how their $2-million pledge for an addition to the school’s library was being spent.

Full-text article by Caroline Preston is available via The Chronicle of Philanthropy, 3.20.08. [Subscription required]

New Data Predict Major Shifts in Student Population, Requiring Colleges to Change Strategies

Colleges and universities know that the composition of the nation's student body is headed for a major change. They've been seeing the evidence for years. Population data published by the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education confirms that major shifts are under way.

The complete study "Knocking at the College Door: Projections of High School Graduates by State, Race, Ethnicity, 1992-2002" is available via WIC's Web site.

Full-text article by Elyse Ashburn is available via The Chronicle of Higher Education, 3.20.08.

Woodruff Foundation may be Grady's big benefactor

The Robert W. Woodruff Foundation, Atlanta's largest philanthropy, has emerged as the most probable source of a $200 million bailout for Grady Memorial Hospital.

The identity of the donor has been a mystery since last summer when the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce announced that an anonymous donor was willing to provide a major amount of money to save the foundering hospital.

Full-text article via The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 3.21.08.

U. of California Is Expected to Name Mark Yudof as Its President

The university's search committee recommended on Thursday that Mr. Yudof, chancellor of the University of Texas system, replace Robert C. Dynes, whose term was marred by criticism over the California system's compensation practices.

Full-text article by Paul Fain and Sara Hebel is available via The Chronicle of Higher Education, 3.21.08. [Subscription required.]

Jumping for the Cause Without Being Asked

Giving is an important route to writing what Paul G. Schervish, who heads the Center on Wealth and Philanthropy at Boston College, calls your “moral biography.” By getting deeply involved in a few projects, both financially and personally, by being creative and helpful without being asked, by becoming a pre-emptive philanthropist, you can discover how writing that moral biography can be hugely satisfying, even fun.

Article discusses pre-emptive philanthropy. When pre-emptive philanthropists don’t find the projects they want to finance, they often start their own.

Full-text article by Jack Shakely via The New York Times, 3.18.08.

Whitney Museum Receives $131 Million Gift

The Whitney Museum of American Art, in New York, will receive $131-million from Leonard A. Lauder, chairman of the Estée Lauder Companies and chairman of the Whitney board since 1994, The New York Times reports. The majority of the money will go toward the museum’s endowment.

Full-text article by Carol Vogel is available via The New York Times, 3.19.08.

Google for Nonproft Groups

The Internet search company Google has opened a “new portal” for nonprofit groups that explains how to adopt various Google applications for charitable work.

Full-text article by Sam Kean is available via The Chronicle of Philanthropy, 3.19.08. [Subscription required.]

Couple donates $55 million to UT music school

The University of Texas school of music has received a gift of $55 million from two Austin arts patrons in what is believed to be the largest single music school gift at a public university.

The music school will be named for Dr. Ernest and Sarah Butler in honor of their donation. The couple has supported the school for more than 25 years.

Full-text article is available via The Houston Chronicle, 3.18.08.

Breaking the Silence

Dal LaMagna, founder of the Tweezerman company, plans to leave his wealth to his children in the form of charitable trusts.

With the largest intergenerational transfer of wealth in American history now under way — the Boston College Center on Wealth and Philanthropy has estimated that $41 trillion will change hands by 2052 — Mr. LaMagna and others are reconsidering the meaning of inheritance, thinking not just about the money but about the values they want to pass with it.

Full-text article by John Leland via The New York Times, 3.18.08.

The Problem With Nonprofits

Q&A with Billy Shore, founder and executive director of nonprofit Share Our Strength.

Full-text article by Justin Ewers is available via U.S. News & World Report, 3.4.08.

Georgia Tech President to Lead Smithsonian

A year after a financial scandal forced the head of the Smithsonian Institution to resign, the organization announced Saturday that it had named a highly regarded university president, G. Wayne Clough of the Georgia Institute of Technology, as its chief.

Full-text article by Robin Pogrebin is available via The New York Times, 3.16.08.

Nonprofit turnover lower than for-profit

The average job turnover rate among nonprofit employers is 21 percent, less than half the average for private industry, a new study says.

The share of employees leaving private firms was nearly 45 percent in 2006, according to U.S. Department of Labor statistics, more than twice the 21 percent nonprofit turnover rate measured by online job site Opportunity Knocks in 2007.

Full-text article via Philanthropy Journal, 3.5.08.

Senate Signals Support for Expanding IRA Rollover to Include Life-Income Gifts

The Senate approved its fiscal year 2009 budget resolution (S. Con. Res. 70). The resolution includes language that calls on Congress to reinstate the IRA Charitable Rollover, which expired on December 31, 2007, and expand the provision to allow for life-income agreements, including charitable gift annuities, charitable remainder trusts and pooled income funds. This language was added to the budget resolution by an amendment from Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and was co-sponsored by Senators Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Blanche Lincoln (D-AR). The amendment was agreed to in the Senate by unanimous consent.

The language added to the budget resolution by the Dorgan amendment is a significant development in NCPG’s efforts to retro-actively extend the IRA Charitable Rollover and expand it to include life-income gifts. In particular, the Dorgan amendment is recognition of the role that planned giving can play in encouraging philanthropy by all Americans.

The budget resolution is a non-binding document that sets aggregate spending and revenue targets for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2008 and outlines broad policy goals.

More information is available via the National Committee on Planned Giving.

Young, rich and socially active

A movement of relatively young American heirs practice what they call social justice philanthropy, which emphasizes giving to small, local groups.

Full-text article by Abby Aguirre via The International Herald Tribune, 3.13.08.

Princeton hospital getting $25 million donation

University Medical Center at Princeton is getting a $25 million donation - believed the largest gift ever to a New Jersey hospital.

The donation comes from David and Patricia Atkinson, who now live in Pennsylvania. Atkinson was a partner in various money management firms and his wife was a longtime volunteer at the hospital.

Full-text article via Newsday.com, 3.10.08.

Business-Charity Hybrid

Social-enterprise leaders gathered in Boston this week are seeking a new legal structure — the low-profit, limited liability company, or L3C — as a way to encourage investments by foundations and others in businesses with a social mission, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.

Full-text article by Nicole Wallace is available via The Chronicle of Philanthropy, 3.12.08. [Subscription required.]

Focus on Museums

Museums are in a period of major change that is often coupled with uncertainty, according to a special supplement in the Arts section of The New York Times, 3.19.08.

Donor Recognition at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus

Abercrombie & Fitch has pledged $10 million toward the construction of the emergency department at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus.

Major financial supporters always are recognized with wall plaques or some other kind of honor, but officials haven't determined if Abercrombie's name will appear on signs in and around the emergency department to open in 2012, said Jon Fitzgerald, president of the Nationwide Children's Hospital Foundation, the hospital's fundraising arm. The hospital previously has referred to the project as the Abercrombie & Fitch Emergency Department and Trauma Center.

In a letter faxed to the hospital Tuesday and signed by about 70 pediatricians and academics from around the U.S., the group urges hospital executives to drop any plans to put Abercrombie's name on the project.

Full-text article by Matt Leingang via BusinessWeek, 3.11.08.

Stephen Schwarzman's $100 Million Gift to the New York Public Library

A gift of $100-million from Stephen A. Schwarzman, the Wall Street financier, to the New York Public Library’s $1-billion expansion project will include the renaming of the main library building on Fifth Avenue after Mr. Schwarzman, reports Robin Pogrebin via The New York Times, 3.11.08.

Stephen Schwarzman was recently profiled in "The Birthday Party" published in The New Yorker, 2.11.08.

UCLA experts don't buy recession

Brushing aside conventional wisdom, UCLA economists say California and the nation will survive the housing slump and job losses without plunging into recession -- although it will still be miserable for many Americans.

Full-text article by Peter Y. Hong is available via the Los Angeles Times, 3.11.08.

Ann Lurie: A 'most generous' donor to causes near and far

Last fall, Ms. Lurie, a former pediatric intensive care nurse, pledged $100 million to build the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago, to be completed in 2012. On the eve of the first fundraiser for the center, Ann Lurie discusses her philanthropic efforts.

Full-text article by Mary Cameron Frey is available via Crain's Chicago Business, 3.10.08.

Tech Philanthropy in Austin, Texas

Back in 1999, Austin's tech community was growing fast. But entrepreneurs also were getting flack for their isolation from the community. Some people saw them as part of the problem, adding to the region's traffic and housing cost headaches.

As for philanthropy or volunteering, many entrepreneurs said they were too busy building their companies to spend time or money on anything else.

"The high-tech community was not held in very good light at the time," Bill Bock said recently. Bock was chief executive of software startup Dazel Corp in the late 1990s. "We needed to break the impasse — to find a way for startups to give back."

Full-text article by Lori Hawkins is available via the Austin American-Statesman, 3.10.08.

California Community Colleges Step Up Fund-Raising Efforts

California’s 109 community colleges, which rarely receive big gifts, are embarking on a search for large donations from businesses, foundations, and alumni, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.

Full-text article by Tanya Schevitz is available via the San Francisco Chronicle, 3.10.08.

New college graduates to find a strong job market

New college graduates this spring can count on a welcoming job market as employers seek to replace a baby boom generation reaching retirement age.

Employers are planning to hire 16% more 2008 college graduates than they did a year ago, according to a projections from a survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, a Bethlehem, Pa.-based group that tracks the market for new graduates.

Full-text article by Stephanie Armour via USA Today, 3.10.08.

Inc. Magazine/Inc.com's 2008 Executive Compsensation Guide

The Executive Compensation Guide is a comprehensive database of salaries across a variety of categories.

Math Suggests College Frenzy Will Soon Ease

Projections show that by next year or the year after, the annual number of high school graduates in the United States will peak at about 2.9 million after a 15-year climb. The number is then expected to decline until about 2015. Most universities expect this to translate into fewer applications and less selectivity, with most students probably finding it easier to get into college.

Full-text article by Alan Finder is available via The New York Times, 3.9.08.

Are We Talking Ourselves Into Recession?

While you can't talk a strong economy into a weak one, maybe we're making things worse by focusing on the negative news.

Full-text article by Chris Farrell is avialable via BusinessWeek, 3.6.08.

How Many Billionaires Does It Take to Fix a School System?

According to the Foundation Center, about a quarter of all foundation giving goes to education; overall, only religious organizations receive more charitable donations.

The New York Times Magazine invited five interested parties to lunch to discuss the new world of educational philanthropy.

Full-text article is available via The New York Times, 3.9.08.

Freakonomics in the Times Magazine: Bottom-Line Philanthropy

In their March 9, 2008, column in the Times Magazine, Dubner and Levitt ask: why can’t a charity be run more like a business? They look at two philanthropies that have adopted unorthodox business models.

Full-text article available via The New York Times, 3.8.08.

Debate on Economy Grows More Urgent

A surprisingly bleak employment report sent tremors through Washington and roiled the presidential campaign recently, infusing new urgency into the debate over how to reverse an accelerating economic slide and fueling a political contest over who to blame for it.

Full-text article by Peter Baker is available via The Washington Post, 3.8.08.

What Makes People Give?

John List, former University of Chicago economics professor and environmental expert on President Bush's Council of Economic Advisers, and Dean Karlan, an economics professor at Yale, study human behavior to understand what makes people give their money away.

Full-text article by David Leonhardt is available via The New York Times, 3.9.08.

NPR Chief Executive Ousted After Fights With Board

Ken Stern, the chief executive of National Public Radio, has left the organization after a number of disputes with the Board of Directors, reports The Washington Post.

Full-text article by Paul Farhi is available via The Washington Post, 3.7.08.

America's 50 Best Hospitals

HealthGrades, the nation’s leading independent healthcare ratings organization, today identified America’s 50 Best Hospitals, an elite class of top-performing facilities. The HealthGrades America’s 50 Best Hospital designation represents the healthcare industry’s only quality ranking based solely on objective clinical outcomes among U.S. hospitals.

To identify the 2008 designees, HealthGrades researchers analyzed approximately 100 million hospitalization records from nearly 5,000 hospitals, from the years 1999 to 2006. To be listed among America’s 50 Best Hospitals, facilities must have demonstrated clinical outcomes among the top five percent in the nation, not just in one medical specialty, but aggregated across 27 different procedures and diagnoses, and must have maintained this superior level of care during all years studied. These hospitals were found to have an average 27 percent lower mortality rate, on average, than all other U.S. hospitals.

Full-study is available via HealthGrades, March 2008.

Updates on Billion Dollar Higher Education Campaigns

The 28 American universities that are seeking to raise at least $1-billion collected a total of $623.5-million in gifts and pledges during the last month for which they had data available.

The campaign with the largest gain in the last month was Stanford University, with $127-million.

Full-text article by Marisa Lopez-Rivera is available via The Chronicle of Higher Education, 3.6.08. [Subscription required.]

Nation's Top Taxpayers Gave Record $7.6-Billion to Charity in 2005

The nation’s top 400 taxpayers reported record total charitable donations of $7.56-billion, or an average of $19.2-million per federal tax return, in 2005, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Full-text article by Tom Herman is available via The Wall Street Journal, 3.5.08.

Stock Donations Occur Just Before Price Dips, Study Finds

A new study has found that many corporate leaders who donate their company’s stock to their personal or family foundations often do so just before the company’s stock price drops, enabling them to claim big deductions on their taxes, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Full-text article by James Bandler and Mark Maremont is available via The Wall Street Journal, 3.5.08.

CEO Job Doesn't Appeal to Many Potential Nonprofit Leaders, Study Finds

A study released today shows that many potential charity managers are not inclined to pursue leadership posts, demonstrating how hard it could be to replace the baby boomers now retiring from top nonprofit jobs, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.

Full-text article by Jennifer C. Berkshire is available via The Chronicle of Philanthropy, 3.6.08.

New Findings from COPPS about Household Giving

About six in 10 U.S. households contribute to charity routinely, according to new findings from the Center on Philanthropy Panel Study (COPPS). The ongoing survey asked the same 8,000 families about their charitable gifts made in 2000, 2002 and 2004. While the total percentage of households that gave was similar in all three years (67 to 70 percent), it was not always the same households. The study found that a fairly large proportion of all U.S. households - nearly one third - shift between donating and not donating.

Full-text press release is available via The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, March 2008.

All About: Eco-philanthropy

An estimated 9.5 millionaires in the world are worth $37.2 trillion, Merrill Lynch reports. The world's elite rich gave an estimated $285 billion to charity in 2006.

If the excessive lifestyles of the rich have been partly to blame for destroying the environment, then it seems equitable that they use their money to preserve it. But the degree to which they are actually helping does largely depend on what they do with their money. And some 'beneficiaries' of that aid are yet to be convinced.

Full-text article by Rachel Oliver via CNN.com, 3.3.08.