Fundraising in a down economy

Here are some good recent articles incase you are a bit nervous:

Nearly 60 percent of wealthy households who stop giving to a charitable organization attribute the change in their philanthropic behavior to no longer feeling connected to the organization, a new study from the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University and Bank of America finds. 

According to the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, charitable giving in the United States tends to be recession-proof. Indeed, donations to U.S. charities have increased during thirty-nine of the past forty years, and a change in the tax laws - not the stock market crash - can be blamed for the single decline, in 1987, said Melissa Brown, associate director of research for the center. Somewhere between 69 percent and 72 percent of people give routinely, added Brown.

Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy

In a break from past practice, some major foundations have initiated or strengthened efforts to harmonize the social and environmental effects of their endowment investments with their philanthropic goals, the Los Angeles Times reports. Against the traditional grain of investing, the Ford, F.B. Heron, Jessie Smith Noyes, and Nathan Cummings foundations, among others, have long worked to align their charitable and investment practices. During 2007, Douglas W. Nelson, president of the Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation, challenged other foundations to devote 2 percent of their assets to mission-based investments in an effort to create a national pool of $10 billion to be leveraged with as much as $60 billion from other sources. These efforts as well as a series of LA Times articles last year about the investment practices of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have spurred other foundations to explore mission-related investing. The William and Flora Hewlett, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur, David and Lucile Packard, and Rockefeller foundations have all recently engaged in efforts to align investment choices with charitable aims or examined ways to expand existing social investments. In addition, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation recently directed its endowment managers to invest in timber only where forests are managed for sustainability, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation established a $100 million fund to bolster grant support for needy children, families, and communities in the United States and Africa.

Development tools

Quick tips for corporate asks

• Phone first. Find out specifically who to ask *and* whether they giveto this sort of stuff. Check your local library; ask if they have grantinfo or if they or some nearby library is a local Foundation Centerrepository. You can look up which corporations give to what.
• Can you get the letter signed by a VIP? Mayor, school principal,local TV news anchor/print news editor, Chamber of Commerce person?
• Approach the Chamber of Commerce president for suggestions -- who to askand how to ask.
• Be straightforward and to the point -- the point being why the READERwants to give (doing good, good p.r., turning around troubled youth,community recognition, etc

Aspen Philanthropy Letter

Here is a good, free on line resource. The Aspen Philanthropy Letter (APL) reports on new ideas in philanthropy and sees itself as "an early alert system" by highlighting reports both critical and supportive ofcurrent practice and policy .

Interesting report on Corporate Giving

Giving in Numbers 2007 is a good overviewof the latest trends in corporate giving. The survey the report is based on looked at 136 big companies. These companies alone gave $11.2 billion in corporate gifts. Most reported greater giving in 2006; 35 % reported increases of 10 % or more in total giving. Why? "Continued strong profits; improved measurement of pre-existing giving; corporate growth through mergers and acquisitions; the launch of new multiyear funding initiatives; and more accurate valuations of pro bono services." You

High Imapct Philanthropy

This is a good book to get your thinking about the changes technology (and the people who got rich through it!) has made on fund raising strategies. It is written by Kay Sprinkle Grace and Alan L. Wendroff and published by Wiley Press (2001). There are used copies available from on line booksellers.

The role of sympathy in fundraising

Wharton marketing professor Deborah Small and two co-authors delve deeper into the issue of sympathy and how it relates to charitable giving in a paper titled, "Sympathy and Callousness: The Impact of Deliberative Thought on Donations to Identifiable and Statistical Victims." Read it on line: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/1767.cfm

Why philanthropy is so inefficient - and what can be done

I really enjoyed this provocative book describing changes needed in philanthropy: Berholtz, Lucy (2004) Creating Philanthropic Capital Markets: The Deliberate Evolution. John Wiley and Sons.

Giving Circles a Growing Philanthropic Force, Study Finds

Utah doesn't have a regional association of grant makers or a community foundation. And we may be missing the boat as a result. But we have a few 'giving circles'. Over the last few years, giving circles have become a philanthropic force responsible for raising $100 million in support of diverse charitable causes, a new report from the Washington, D.C.-based Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers finds. The resulting report, More Giving Together: The Growth and Impact of Giving Circles and Shared Giving (26 pages, PDF), found the number of circles in the United States has more than doubled over the past two years, and that giving by those circles totaled $13 million for community needs in 2006. Moreover, they seem to have staying power, with nearly a third of those surveyed having conducted more than five rounds of grantmaking.

Donors are thinking beyond "Checkbook Philanthropy"

According to Melissa A. Berman, president and CEO of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors in New York City, donors are exhibiting more focus, more urgency, and a desire for more involvement in their giving, compared with previous generations. Click here to read the full article : “Write a Check? The New Philanthropist Goes Further.”