UN asks fliers to click $2 for MassiveGood health charity

Former President Bill Clinton joined United Nations officials Thursday to formally open an online effort to enlist American air travelers in an effort to fight diseases in the developing world. Through the MassiveGood program, travelers can donate $2 or more when buying flight tickets online. Several major ticket distributors and sellers such as Travelocity will offer the giving option, but it will not be available directly from an airline's Web site.

Full text article by John Heilprin is available via The USA Today, 3/4/10.

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.

The New Guerrilla Philanthropy

On Saturday night at the Water Street Bar in the Dumbo neighborhood of Brooklyn, Marissa Shrum stood on a stage and described her first foray into the new world of "creative philanthropy." A few months earlier, a friend had given her $100 and a challenge: Distribute the money through a creative act of kindness, and then share your story. "At first I thought, 'Whoa. I have $100 and I can do anything with it,'" Shrum, 28, recalls. "But when I thought about the issues that excite me, it became a no-brainer." Shrum, who is a strategist at Mother New York, an ad agency, bought a video camera for students at the High School for Innovation in Advertising and Media, in Canarsie, Brooklyn.

Full text article by Helen Coster is available via Forbes, 2/9/10.

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.

With less money to dole out, foundations become more targeted in their giving

With less money to spend amid the economic downturn, many philanthropic foundations are shifting to a more strategic giving strategy, focusing on fewer goals with larger grants. More than three-quarters of respondents to a Foundation Center survey said they expect philanthropy to become more strategic as overall giving declines, with grant makers outlining a set of clear goals and supporting mainly larger organizations with administrations capable of tracking and reporting results.

Full text article by Monica Ginsburg is available via Crain's Chicago Business, 1/25/10.