Charities Must Focus on Multiple Ways to Reach Young Donors, Generation Study Finds

People in their 20s have been called the next “greatest generation,” the “trophy generation,” and even “narcissistic praise hounds.” For charity fund raisers, those people might be better known as the donors who are hardest to hold onto, according to the results of a study released on Monday. Members of Generation Y, the term most often used for this group, tend to be less loyal to an organization and hold high expectations for online attempts to attract them. But they also have a strong desire to help others and to raise money and attention from friends and acquaintances for their favorite causes.

Full text article by Caroline Preston is available via The Chronicle of Philanthropy, 3/15/10.

Most N.Y., Washington Charities Plan to Hire in 2010, New Surveys Find

Despite tough times for charities, a trio of new surveys of charities in New York, New Jersey, and Washington shows that most plan to hire in the year ahead—and that the overwhelming majority plan to raise staff salaries in 2010 or at least hold them steady. Charities are most likely to fill fund-raising and program staff positions this year, according to the reports by Professionals for Nonprofits, a staffing organization with offices in New York and Washington.

Full text article by Heather Joslyn is available via The Chronicle of Philanthropy, 3/1/10.

More Than a Quarter of Wealthiest Americans Say Recession Led to Donation Cuts

Twenty-eight percent of wealthy Americans say the recession has caused them to cut back on the total amount of money they give to charity, according to the annual Wealth and Values Survey, by PNC Wealth Management. Although such donors have reduced their giving, 55 percent of the respondents said they still believe they have a responsibility to donate to the nonprofit groups, about the same percentage who indicated such a view in the last three years’ surveys.

Full text article by Maria Di Mento is available via The Chronicle of Philanthropy, 3/1/10.

Understanding How Donors Choose: a Key to Fund-Raising Success

Many fund raisers spend so much time collecting information and doing research on their wealthy donors that it almost seems like they are stalking potential supporters, say Bernard Ross and Clare Segal, two British nonprofit consultants. Not surprisingly, donors sometimes get “a little freaked out” by the amount of personal and financial information fund raisers uncover, Mr. Ross says.

Full text article by Holly Hall is available via The Chronicle of Philanthropy, 2/21/10.

Fund Raisers See Glimmers of Hope, But Tough Challenges in 2010

The New Jersey Performing Arts Center expects to raise $10.7-million this year, 5-percent more than in 2009. Peter Hansen, the center’s vice president of development, says he is grateful to be projecting an increase of any size. This is the harshest fund-raising climate in his nearly 30 years in the profession, he says.



Full text article by Holly Hall is available via The Chronicle of Philanthropy, 2/7/10.

The Philanthropy 50: A Slow Year for Big Gifts Spurs Creativity by Wealthy Donors

In purely financial terms, last year was a dismal one for megagifts. The donors on the Philanthropy 50, The Chronicle’s annual list of the most-generous people in America, gave a total of $4.1-billion to charity in 2009, less than in all but one year since the newspaper began tracking the biggest philanthropists in 2000. The median gift was $41.4-million, meaning that half of those on the list gave more and half gave less. That figure compared with $69.3-million in 2008 and $74.7-million in 2007.

Full text article by Maria Di Mento and Caroline Preston is available via The Chronicle of Philanthropy, 2/7/10.

University Fund Raising Suffers Record Drop

With a battered economy and volatile financial markets taking their tolls on donors' pocketbooks, private giving to American colleges dropped sharply in 2009, according to findings of the annual Voluntary Support of Education survey, which were released on Wednesday. Donations were down $3.75-billion from the previous year—a decline of 11.9 percent, the steepest in the survey's 50-year history. Colleges brought in an estimated $27.85-billion in gifts in the 2009 fiscal year, according to the survey, which included 1,027 institutions and was conducted by the Council for Aid to Education. The year before, colleges raised $31.6-billion, which was the highest total ever reported in the survey. In 2009, alumni participation dropped to a record low, and the size of the average alumni gift was down, too.
Full text article by Kathryn Masterson is available via The Chronicle of Higher Education, 2/3/10.

Bill Gates's New Online Effort to Talk About Philanthropy

Bill Gates, the world’s wealthiest man, is now sending messages through the popular social-networking site Twitter about his philanthropy. It includes discussions about public education, climate change, and even a travel diary. Also, to discuss his charitable work the world’s wealthiest man has started a new Web site known as Gates Notes.

Full text article by Ian Wilhelm is available via The Chronicle of Philanthropy, 1/20/10.

Spirit of giving drops off after holidays

Many charities are facing a January dry spell following the burst of giving and volunteering that marked the holiday season. “Households recovering from their holiday excesses” are less likely to give at the start of the new year, said Patrick Rooney, executive director of Indiana University’s Center on Philanthropy.

Full text article by Judy Keen is available via USA Today, 1/11/10.

University endowments fall 19 percent

While university endowments' average investment return was negative 19 percent for fiscal 2009, the toll would have been worse without the slight late-year rebound, a new study says. Last year's performance brings the 10-year average return, net of fees, to 4.2 percent, say preliminary data from a survey by the National Association College and University Business Officers and Commonfund.
Full text article is available via the Philanthropy Journal, 1/6/10.

Biggest Gifts and Pledges Announced by Individuals in 2009

As the crucial year-end giving season wraps up, charities have little to cheer about from the tally of giving by the nation’s wealthiest Americans. The 10 biggest gifts donated by Americans in 2009 totaled just $2.7-billion, according to a new Chronicle analysis, compared with $8-billion in 2008 and more than $4-billion in 2007.

Full text article is available via The Chronicle of Philanthropy, 12/31/09.

Gauging the Dedication of Teacher Corps Grads

People who participate in Teach for America, the fast-growing program that sends new college graduates into schools with large numbers of needy students, do not necessarily get involved in other areas of civic life, such as voting and charitable giving, as they grow older. According to a study conducted by Stanford University sociologists at the suggestion of Wendy Kopp, Teach for America’s founder, graduates of the nonprofit teacher corps vote, give, and participate in other civic activities at lower rates than those who were accepted into Teach for America but either declined or dropped out before finishing the two-year term.

Full text article by Amanda M. Fairbansk is available via The New York Times, 1/3/10.

The Nonprofit Market: A Look Back and a Look Ahead

Looking back on the year, 2009 can be characterized as a rollercoaster ride for nonprofits. Fearing the worst, the industry so far has seen an 11 percent decrease in donations, according to a September 2009 report by the Charities Aid Foundation and National Council for Voluntary Organisations. This has been especially hard on small organizations, with many of them getting squeezed out by their larger, more national counterparts. At the same time, many charities with similar missions have come together, creating partnerships or merging in order to survive the economic downturn — and ensure the proper support for their causes. Although this has been a difficult time for nonprofits, 2009 has made organizations aware of how they need to shape up.

Full text article by Robin Fisk is available via Fundraising Success, 12/29/09.

Volunteers Give 10 Times More Than Other Americans, Survey Finds

Americans are far more likely to donate big sums to charity if they volunteer. On average, people donate 10 times more money if they have volunteered in the past year, according to the study. Two-thirds of volunteers said they give money to the same groups to which they donate time.

Full text article by Caroline Preston is available via The Chronicle of Philanthropy, 12/3/09.

Donors Are Expected to Give $4-Billion Online During Holidays

Nearly two-thirds of Americans plan to give online to charities in November and December, and their donations could exceed $4-billion, $1-billion more than they donated during the holiday season last year, according to a new survey.

Full text article by Holly Hall is available via The Chronicle of Philanthropy, 12/2/09.

ECONOMIC SCENE: No quick recovery for charitable giving

A recovery in charitable giving is likely to lag well behind an end to the recession. Contributions dropped 2 percent from 2007 to 2008 and are likely to decline more steeply this year, according to the Giving USA Foundation. Another study by that organization concluded that, based on giving patterns in the aftermath of the Depression and the recession of 1973-75, inflation-adjusted giving won’t return to the 2007 level until at least 2012, even if the recession ended by this June.

Full text article by David R. Francis is available via The Christian Science Monitor, 11/30/09.

Bloomberg Pledges $125 Million to Reduce Traffic Deaths

Michael R. Bloomberg, the mayor of New York, has pledged $125-million for an international program aimed at reducing and preventing deaths and injuries from automobile crashes. The five-year program will benefit 10 low- and middle-income countries with large numbers of deaths resulting from traffic crashes. The six organizations that will coordinate the program with the countries’ government agencies are the Association for Safe International Road Travel, Global Road Safety Partnership, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, World Bank Global Road Safety Facility, World Health Organization, and World Resources Institute Center for Sustainable Transport.

Full text article by Betsy McKay is available via The Wall Street Journal, 11/18/09.

Charitable Giving 2009 - A great burden grows

Uncertainty is the watchword for Washington-area nonprofit groups as they enter the traditional giving season with their budgets stretched even as demand for social services continues to spike. Requests to the United Way of the National Capital Area doubled this year, to $20-million, more than five times what the organization has available. Nearly a third of charities in the region have cut staff and frozen programs or shut down this year, according to a survey by the Center for Nonprofit Advancement.

Full text article by Susan Kinzie is available via The Washington Post, 11/22/09.

What's Wrong With Charitable Giving—and How to Fix It

With the economic downturn shrinking their bottom lines, corporations are exploring numerous ways to stretch their charitable dollars. Corporate philanthropies are turning to alternatives to cash gifts, such as offering pro bono services and policy work and exploring public-private partnerships and program-related investments to further their charitable goals.

Full text article by Pablo Eisenberg is available via the Wall Street Journal, 11/9/09.

Donor Motivations for Giving Vary With Income and Education, Report Finds

According to a recent study by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, regional trends and values have less of an impact on donor motivation than income and education. Based on a survey of more than ten thousand households and funded by the Community Counseling Service, the report found that 18 percent of respondents said the most important reason for giving to charity was to help meet basic needs for other people such as food, shelter, clothing, and heat, while 17 percent said the most important reason was to make the world a better place.

Full text of this article is available via the Philanthropy News Digest, 10/27/09.

Couple donates $5 million to UVa Health System

A couple with a record of philanthropy has donated $5 million to fund diabetes research at the University of Virginia Health System. The gift by Paul and Diane Manning comes on top of nearly $3 million they've donated to the university in recent years. Paul Manning, whose two children have diabetes, says he thinks the health system has the best shot in the country of ultimately discovering a cure for Type I diabetes. Manning is the chief executive officer of PBM Products in Gordonsville, which markets and distributes baby formula to more than 20,000 retail locations.

Full-text post by Brandon Shulleeta is available via the Charlottesville Daily Progress, 10/25/09.

Charities See Donations Drop As Need Spikes

Major philanthropies expect more unfulfilled pledges in face of recession, but also see uptick in volunteerism. Surveys of the largest 100 United Ways in December and January suggest a decline of 2% to 5.6% in giving this year.

Full-text article by Tom Watkins is available via CNN.com, 2.13.09.

Family Foundation Giving Up Sharply

The Foundation Center recently released its Key Facts on Family Foundations, a report that found giving by U.S. family foundations to have jumped by twenty one percent in one year, reaching $17 billion in 2006.

Study findings are available via Foundation Center, 4.2008.

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.

2 Young Hedge-Fund Veterans Stir Up the World of Philanthropy

Holden Karnofsky and Elie Hassenfeld, former hedge fund analysts, are the founders and sole employees of GiveWell, which studies charities in particular fields and ranks them on their effectiveness. GiveWell is supported by a charity they created, the Clear Fund, which makes grants to charities they recommend in their research.

Full text article by Stephanie Strom is available via the New York Times, 12.20.07.

www.givewell.net