Foundation Study Finds Billions in Charity Potential in San Diego

Officials with San Diego County's largest charitable foundation say a recent study of wealth, incomes and population trends makes them optimistic about soliciting donations from residents throughout the region.

Full-text article by Chris Bagley is available via The North County Times, 5.27.09.

Children’s Hospital Gets Most Votes in Contest

The results are in, and St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital is the winner of the Target Corporation’s “Bullseye Gives” contest on Facebook, in which 10 charities vied for votes from the social network’s users.

Full-text article by Stephanie Strom is available via The New York Times, 5.28.09.

Study Finds Glut of Charities in Texas Capital

With more than 6,300 charitable organizations, Austin has Texas’s most crowded nonprofit field, a situation that could be creating inefficiency and duplication of effort.

Full-text article by Andrea Ball is available via The American-Statesman, 5.26.09.

Lower-Income Americans Are Comparatively Most-Generous Givers

The latest survey of consumer expenditure by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found that the poorest fifth of U.S. households gave an average of 4.3 percent of their incomes to charities in 2007. The figure for the wealthiest fifth was 2.1 percent, and no other quintile gave more than 3 percent.

Full-text article by Frank Greve is available via The Philadelphia Inquirer, 5.27.09.

Hire More Fundraising Rain-Makers During Recession, AHP Study Concludes

As the recession's grip tightened on nonprofit hospitals and health care systems in the U.S. and Canada, high performing philanthropic fundraisers in charge of major gifts and planned giving programs were often their most effective and efficient rain-makers, according to the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy (AHP).

Full-text press release is available via PRNewswire, 5.14.09.

Donors Grow More Optimistic on the Economy

Battered by the recession, few donors plan to increase their giving anytime soon. But their confidence in the economy is now showing some signs of improvement — which could bode well for longer-term fund-raising efforts — according to a new survey cited by Prospecting, The Chronicle’s fund-raising column.

Full-text blog post by Holly Hall is available via Prospecting, 5.21.09.

Brandeis U. Suspends Payments to Staff Retirement Accounts

Brandeis University will halt payments to faculty and staff members’ retirement accounts for a year beginning July 1, a move that will cover most of the Massachusetts institution’s projected $8.9-million deficit.

Full-text article by Tamar Lewin is available via The New York Times, 5.21.09.

Mobile Money and Other Technology Made for Philanthropy

As members of NetHope continue their annual meeting in Redmond this week, it's fascinating to look at how the landscape of technology has moved from responding to crises to creating solutions tailor-made for development itself.

Full-text blog post by Kristi Heim is available via The Seattle Times,5.20.09.

Smart Giving in a Troubled Climate

Strategies include providing direct service to individuals who need it rather than cash donations, or allowing future financial pledges be become immediately available to troubled charities.

Full-text article by David Cay Johnston is available via The New York Times, 5.21.09.

U.S. Economy: Leading Indicators Index Gains as Recession Eases

The index of U.S. leading economic indicators rose more than forecast and a manufacturing gauge improved in signs the deepest recession in five decades could end later this year.

Full-text article by Shobhana Chandra is available via Bloomberg.com, 5.21.09.

Senate Proposes Change for Nonprofit Hospitals

The two top members of the Senate Finance Committee have released what they call policy options for revamping the nation’s health-care system that include a change in how the tax-exempt status of nonprofit hospitals would be handled under federal law.

Full-text blog posting is available via The Chronicle of Philanthropy's Government and Politics Watch, 5.19.09.

Economic Impact on Arts Organizations

Musicians in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra have agreed to a 2.5 percent pay cut for about two years and the donation of additional services to help the organization save about $4-million, reports The Chicago Tribune.

Symphony organizations in Indianapolis and New York, as well as several museums around the country, have employed the use of text messaging to engage their audiences, reports The New York Times.

A story on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition discusses whether big expansion projects at art museums, such as the $300-million project just completed at the Art Institute of Chicago, contribute toward the goal of revitalizing local economies and increasing attendance.

Women Take Lead Role In Deciding Donations

Women are taking an increasingly prominent role in determining their household’s charitable giving, with high-income women in particular more likely to seek financial advice and use sophisticated methods when making donations, according to a new study sponsored by Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund.

Full-text article by Paula Wasley is available via The Chronicle of Philanthropy, 5.19.09.

Foundation Center Partners With Grantmakers for Effective Organizations to Offer Members New Philanthropy In/Sight(tm) Mapping Tool

"Philanthropy In/Sight" is a next-generation mapping application that uses Google maps to plot the location of foundations and their grantees. Behind these maps is the Foundation Center's database of some 96,000 grantmaking institutions and more than 1.6 million grants distributed around the world. Users can drill down to view individual grants and cross-link between the funder, recipient, and grant profiles. Maps can be customized to view aggregate giving trends from the broadest country or state levels to more narrow congressional district or zip code areas.

Full-text press release is available via Ascribe, 5.18.09.

Habitat for Humanity Receives $100-Million Pledge

Habitat for Humanity International announced today a $100-million pledge from J. Ronald Terwilliger, chairman of Trammell Crow Residential, a Dallas real-estate company.

Full-text article by Maria Di Mento is available via The Chronicle of Philanthropy, 5.14.09.

Will Higher Education Be the Next Bubble to Burst?

The public has become all too aware of the term "bubble" to describe an asset that is irrationally and artificially overvalued and cannot be sustained. The dot-com bubble burst by 2000. More recently the overextended housing market collapsed, helping to trigger a credit meltdown. The stock market has declined more than 30 percent in the past year, as companies once considered flagship investments have withered in value.

Is it possible that higher education might be the next bubble to burst? Some early warnings suggest that it could be.

Full-text article by Joseph Marr Cronin and Howard E. Horton is available via The Chronicle of Higher Education, 5.22.09. [Subscription required.]

What Recession? Places Like Sioux Falls, S.D., Prove Resilient

One part of the nation has avoided much of the current economic misery: the region from North Dakota to Texas, most of it sparsely populated. This area includes five of the six states that analysts at Economy.com have classified as not yet in recession. And other states in the Rocky Mountain West -- from New Mexico to Idaho --are facing relatively mild downturns.

Full-text article by Nicholas Riccardi is available via The Los Angeles Times, 4.11.09.

UNCG Raises $110.6 Million, Eyes Next Drive

For the capital campaign it kicked off July 1, 2004, with an initial goal of $78.2 million, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro expanded its previous North Carolina focus and worked aggressively to raise money throughout the U.S.

Full-text article by Todd Cohen is available via The Philanthropy Journal, 5.13.09.

Charitable Fundraising Salaries Decrease Slightly Across North America

Salaries for charitable fundraisers in the United States and Canada decreased in 2008, according to the latest Association of Fundraising Professionals’ (AFP) Compensation and Benefits Study.

Full-text press release is available via AFP.com, 5.12.09.

"Dean" of American Fundraising Brakeley Jr. Dies at Age 93

George A. Brakeley Jr., a national leader in the philanthropic and fundraising consulting communities, died of natural causes on May 1 in Naples, Fla.

Full-text article is available via AFP.com, 5.8.09.

Stanford University's Office of Development Cuts Back

Given less money to spend on making money, Stanford’s Office of Development cuts the sales force that seeks gift support from alumni, friends, corporations and foundations. Experts caution that there could be a long-term consequences, even after the economy starts to recover.

Full-text article by Lisa M. Krieger is available via The San Jose MercuryNews.com, 5.11.09.

PBS Offers More Flexible Sponsorships

Companies will soon be able to sponsor some PBS programs for as little as one week at a time, rather than a full year.

Full-text article is available via The New York Times, 5.8.09.

42 Million U.S. Women Use Social Media: Blogs Most Influential

A survey by BlogHer indicates women are spending more time using online social media and less time reading traditional media or watching television. For marketers trying to get women's attention, the findings suggest the widest reach is through networks such as Facebook, but the biggest influence is through blogs.

Full-text article by Anita Campbell is availble via Small Business Trends.com, 5.10.09.

Target Takes Its Charity Budget to Facebook

Target will now allocate its charity budget -- about $3 million a week -- through Facebook, the company announced. The Bullseye Gives campaign will divide the funds among organizations selected by users. "Target isn't just doing good, but they're also benefiting the brand by way of adding new fans that they'll be able to communicate with on an ongoing basis through the social network," writes Adam Ostrow.

Full-text article via SmartBrief.com, 5.11.09.

The Trouble with Public Colleges

Record applications. Soaring tuition. Tighter budgets. State U. may no longer be as great a deal or as easy a backup as it once was. Parents and kids, time to rethink your strategy.

Full-text article by Pat Regnier is available via CNN.com, 5.11.09.

Couple Donates $800-Million Over the Past Decade

Gerry and Marguerite Lenfest, who have donated or pledged almost $800-million over the past decade, will this week receive the Philadelphia Award, a prestigious civic honor.

Full-text article by Peter Dobrin is available via The Philadelphia Inquirer, 5.10.09.

Chapman University Receives $25-million Gift for New Theater

Chapman University has received a $25-million donation that will be used to build a new performing arts center, officials announced.

Full-text article by My-Thuan Tran is available via The Los Angeles Times, 5.11.09.

Key Facts on Corporate Foundations

Charitable giving by the nation's nearly 2,500 corporate foundations remained virtually unchanged in 2008, according to Key Facts on Corporate Foundations. Giving totaled an estimated $4.4 billion last year. Corporate foundation giving in 2009 will most certainly decline; 51 percent of corporate foundations responding to the Center's survey said they expect to reduce their giving this year.

Social Media Beachcombing: Survival of the Twittest?

Twitter and other social media are quickly entering the mainstream, but it will be years before we see which innovations will endure,

Full-text article by Andy Hobsbawm is available via BusinessWeek, 5.8.09.

Obama Sticks to Charitable-Deduction Limits in New Budget Proposals

President Obama plans to stick to his proposal to cap the federal tax breaks wealthy people can get for itemized deductions, including charitable donations, when he submits the final piece of his budget plans on Monday, Peter Orszag, the White House budget director, confirmed.

Full-text article by Suzanne Perry is available via The Chronicle of Philanthropy, 5.9.09.

Twitter Quitters

It seems that while people are joining the micro-blogging site in droves, a whole lot of them don’t sticking around for long. A Nielsen Co. report released yesterday shows that 60% of Twitter users do not return to the microblogging site the next month. And for the 12 months prior to Oprah Winfrey joining Twitter this month with great media fanfare, the site had a retention rate of less than 30%.

Full-text article by Sharon Gaudin is available via ComputerWorld, 4.29.09.

Updates on Billion-Dollar Campaigns at 32 Universities

The 32 American universities that are seeking to raise at least $1-billion collected a total of $400.5-million in gifts and pledges during the last month for which they had data available.

Full-text article by Marisa Lopez-Rivera is available via The Chronicle of Higher Education, 5.6.09. [Subscription required.]

Arts and The Economy

The country's economic situation has hit hard across many industries, from automotive to business -- and even the arts. Interview with Michael Kaiser, president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Full-text interview is available via The Washington Post, 5.5.09.

How Much Should Board Members Give?

How to get board members to make personal donations — and solicit money from others —is debated in a new post in Give and Take, The Chronicle’s roundup of the best blog posts about the nonprofit world.

Bush Library Raises $100 million in 100 Days

Following traditional presidential-library practice, the Bush effort has sought large contributions directly from a small group of wealthy benefactors. But it has also taken a page from the playbook of modern political campaigning, establishing a national finance committee with 100 co-chairs in every state.

Full-text article by Michael Weisskopf and Michael Duffy is available via Time, 5.4.09.

Colleges Take a New Look at the Role of Private Lenders

Colleges around the country are banking more heavily on increased support from the federal government to help students weather the financial aid storm; a recent survey by the research firm Student Lending Analytics found that 10.7% of colleges in the subsidized program are switching to direct federal lending for the 2009-10 academic year.

Full-text article is available via theday.com, 5.4.09.

Universities Cutting Teams as They Trim Their Budgets

After three decades of steady growth in the number of teams and student-athletes, colleges and universities large and small, private and public, east and west, are slashing millions of dollars from their sports budgets.

Full-text article by Ken Belson is available via The New York Times, 5.3.2009.

No Actors, Just Patients in Unvarnished Spots for Hospitals

Advertising is showing fewer “skilled” doctors and “caring“ nurses, and a more YouTube-influenced sketch of what hospital care is like for patients.

Full-text article by Andrew Adam Newman is available via The New York Times, 5.4.09.

Community Colleges Challenge Hierarchy With 4-Year Degrees

Nationwide, 17 states, including Nevada, Texas and Washington, have allowed community colleges to award associate’s and bachelor’s degrees, and in some, the community colleges have become four-year institutions. Others states are considering community college baccalaureates.

Full-text article by Tamar Lewin is available via The New York Times, 5.2.09.

Six Online Fund Raising Campaigns That Work

Nonprofit groups are increasingly looking for effective ways to raise money online. But many groups are still unsure which strategies actually work. Take a look at six recent efforts that are generating significant money for organizations via The Chronicle of Philanthropy, May 2009.

Researchers Call for National Strategy to Adapt Social Networks to Public Good

Facebook and Wikipedia are just the beginning. The real power of social networks will be showcased by projects that unite far-flung participants to help track disease outbreaks, revolutionize neighborhood-watch programs, encourage energy conservation, and serve other civic and community goals, according to a group of researchers calling for greater government and university investment in social networking.


Full-text article by Jeffrey R. Young is available via The Chronicle of Higher Education, 5.4.09.

I'm Honored. No, Actually, I Can't Afford It.

With banks, brokerage houses, real estate firms, hedge funds and even law firms struggling for survival, benefit honorees are in short supply.

Full-text article by Judith H. Dobrzynski is available via The New York Times, 5.1.09.

The Online Divide Between Work and Play

A growing number of colleagues have requested to connect with you on social networking Web sites. You have mixed feelings about giving these professional contacts a window into your personal life. What should you do?

Social networking is “all about establishing boundaries,” she says. “If you have something online that you wouldn’t share openly with people in the office, you probably want to think twice about inviting them in.”

Full-text article by Matt Villano is available via The New York Times, 4.25.09.

Nonprofits Can Capitalize on Economic Downturn

Since the stock market began its downward spiral last fall, it has attempted to drag endowments, private donations, and government funding down with it. Now is the
time for nonprofits to view the economic slump as a golden opportunity to fortify themselves by building relationships with their donors.

Full-text article by Michelle Bononan and Naree Viner is available via The Pasadena Star-News, 5.2.09.

Advising Groups on How to Track Online Mentions

Monitoring what people are saying online about an organization is critical, Carie Lewis, Internet Marketing Manager at the Humane Society of the United States, in Washington, told participants at a session of the Nonprofit Technology Conference.

Full-text blog post by Nicole Wallace is available via The Chronicle of Philanthropy, 4.30.09.