Archive for the ‘Give Page’ Category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Size Isn’t What Matters In Philanthropy

Monday, November 23rd, 2009

While celebrity philanthropists tend to dominate the headlines, charities are waking up to the importance of cultivating a base of modest givers.

  • Many organizations are responding to the recession by casting a wider net for more donors who can give smaller amounts.
  • Fidelity Investments, which houses the largest pool of donor-advised funds, used to require all outgoing donations be at least $100. A year ago they dropped the minimum to $50.
  • Small grants have produced some of the more important success stories, including the $96,691 that the Ford Foundation gave to Mohammed Yunus to found the Grameen Bank (which specializes in providing financial services, including microcredit, to impoverished people in Bangladesh).

Facts & Figures

  • March of Dimes recently raised $6 million at Kmart checkout lines, where shoppers were asked to add a manageable $1 donation to their purchase.
  • Global Giving, an online fundraising organization, has raised $22 million since it started in 2002, with an average donation of just $54.
  • After the disastrous Southeast Asian tsunami in 2004, Americans gave $2.78 billion in aid. The median gift was $50; the average gift was $135.

Best Quote

“We are deluded by the attention paid to the large contributors in our country. Small checks coming through the mail are the bread and butter for most organizations.” – Wendy Smith, Author of Give a Little: How Your Small Donations Can Transform the World

The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is…

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

The earned income tax credit (EITC) is a tax break that low-income families receive for each additional dollar they earn. It provides them with extra money to pay for food, education, and health-care for their children while giving them an incentive to keep working – the more they work, the more tax credit they receive. Some believe government entitlement programs like welfare encourage people to remain unemployed, but the EITC avoids this and has been proven to help struggling families work their way out of poverty.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is…

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

The World Health Organization (WHO) is a special agency within the United Nations that focuses on global health issues and works to provide the best possible healthcare to people around the world. They do this through lots of research, advocacy, and other initiatives aimed at improving health worldwide.

U.S. Nonprofits Brace For Less Cheer This Holiday Season

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

American-based charities are still reeling from the significant decline in charitable contributions and starting to prepare for a lean holiday season.

  • The same number of people are giving money to  nonprofit organizations as before the recession, just with smaller donations.
  • Many nonprofits are having to make the tough decisions to cut back on staff while the demand for their services has only increased.
  • Charities report that volunteerism is up this fall.

Facts & Figures

  • 74% of Americans plan to increase their charitable giving once the economy improves.
  • The most successful fundraising organizations expect to see their income go down by an average of 9% this year.
  • State unemployment rates remain at 10%.

Best Quote

“I say this to our staff all the time: ‘Our mission is not in a recession.’” – Nancy Brown, CEO of American Heart Association

Governors In It To Win For Their Schools

Friday, November 13th, 2009

The Obama Administration is encouraging state-level education reforms with the inclusion of $4.35 billion “Race to the Top” incentive built into the federal stimulus.

  • Race to the Top is a federal grant that ties teacher and principal salaries to student test scores, adopts internationally benchmarked academic standards, improves lowest-performing schools, creates systems to track students long-term, and allows for the inclusion of more charter schools.
  • Although considered small by Washington standards, the grant is propelling state legislators to make changes so that their states are eligible for the funding.
  • In October, Governor Schwarzenegger (of California) signed a bill that links teacher pay to student test performance, after calling a special legislative session in August.

Facts & Figures

  • The United States educates an estimated 50 million students every year.
  • If distributed to each and every student, Race to the Top would provide an addtional $87 per year.
  • Grant distribution begins in January 2010.

Best Quote

“They don’t want to be on the losing side of this. Everybody wants to be the education governor, but nobody has asked them to prove it in the past several years. This year the onus is back on them.” – Charles Barone, Democrats for Education Reform

And You Thought Swine Flu Was Bad…

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

A new study explains in no uncertain terms that climate change will have very serious consequences for the future of human health.

  • The public health implications of rising sea levels and shrinking Arctic ice are vast and include malnutrition caused by droughts, disease carried by mosquitos, and severe asthma from increased air pollution.
  • The study, released by the Trust for America’s Health, states that these threats will be dramatically reduced if the federal government prioritizes a cap on greenhouse gas emissions.
  • One way to prepare for the onslaught of issues that will face urban areas is to plant more trees in cities, as they both clean and cool the air.

Facts & Figures

  • Heat waves are expected to worsen in cities where the lack of plant life makes for “urban heat islands.”
  • Warmer weather allows insects like mosquitos to migrate northward, expanding their territory and their ability to spread diseases like West Nile virus and Lyme disease.
  • Increased heat supports air pollution by contributing to smog, causing increased respiratory illnesses in humans.

Best Quote

“Some of the most personal effects of climate change are going to be health-related ones. We should want the government doing as much as possible now to prevent these effects, or minimize them when they occur.” – Jeff Levi, Executive Director of the Trust for America’s Health

Young Billionaire Gives Back

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, made headline news when he donated $1 million to the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.

  • Brin, 36 years old, credits the organization with helping his family escape anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union and create a new life in the United States.
  • Citing Bill Gates as an inspiration, Mr. Brin plans to be very strategic with his grantmaking now that his foundation has built a significant endowment.
  • The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society plans to use the gift to  increase their use of technology and increase their work on immigration policy.

Facts & Figures

  • Sergey Brin’s personal wealth is estimated to be $16 billion.
  • Brin and his wife, Anne Wojcicki, have given over $30 million to charity so far.
  • The majority of Brin and Wojcicki’s philanthropic giving has been to the Michael J. Fox Foundation and other organizations working on Parkinson’s disease.

Best Quote

“I would never have had the kinds of opportunities I’ve had here in the Soviet Union, or even in Russia today. I would like to see anyone be able to achieve their dreams, and that’s what this organization does.” – Sergey Brin

When Paying Less Attention To AIDS Is A Good Thing…

Monday, November 9th, 2009

A heated debate is under way over how money should be allocated to fight illnesses that affect young children in developing countries. While much headway has been made in the fight against HIV/AIDS, children continue to perish from simple dehydration.

  • The U.S. is receiving increased scrutiny from UNICEF and other humanitarian organizations about the percentage of foreign aid that goes to fighting childhood AIDS as opposed to other diseases that afflict children in the developing world.
  • President Obama has promised to put more emphasis on child and maternal health but has simultaneously committed to increase money given to fight AIDS.
  • Leaders in the movement to fight AIDS in Africa, such as Jeffrey Sachs, suggest that other Western nations focus on different global health priorities, since the U.S. is spending so much on AIDS specifically.

Facts & Figures

  • Diarrhea kills 1.5 million children a year in developing nations – more than AIDS, malaria, and measles combined.
  • Oral rehydration salts cost literally pennies, but only 4 in 10 children suffering from dehydration in developing countries receive this simple treatment.
  • In Africa’s two most populous nations, Nigeria and Ethiopia, 540,000 children under the age of 5 died of pneumonia and diarrhea in 2007, which is more than twice the total number of people who died of AIDS.

Best Quote:

“AIDS is still underfunded, no question. But maternal, newborn and child mortality is tremendous tragedy and gets peanuts.” – Jeremy Shiffman, Political Scientist at Syracuse University

Life Expectancy At Birth is…

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

Life expectancy at birth is how many years a newborn baby can expect to live if current mortality rates remain the same – i.e., if the people in a given country continue to die from disease, famine, war, or anything else at the same rates that they currently do. It’s used to demonstrate the general health conditions of a country or region.

If a bank won’t lend to someone, why would you?

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

For a long time, banks and economists thought that the millions of poor people who now use microfinance services simply couldn’t afford loans, and they were right. They couldn’t afford the relatively large loans that banks offer to people in the developed world because even the lowest interest payments on a big loan would be way too expensive for them to make. It wasn’t economical for banks to lend small amounts of money to people who were far away from traditional bank branches and had a limited history of borrowing.

However, as many microfinance institutions have discovered in the last few decades, many of these people can afford a slightly different kind of loan: a microloan. Thus there are nonprofits and for-profit micro financiance institutions (MFIs) that realize it can be profitable to service the otherwise “unbanked” community.  Microfinance is self-sustaining when it attracts new kinds of investors who realize the potential and power in reaching the many more millions of people who desperately need, and want, access to financial services.
While individuals, companies, and governments are beginning to see the potential size and impact of the market, there are still plenty of people that really can’t afford a loan and, for the most part, they don’t receive any. Many different organizations – mainly charities and governments – offer other types of services that don’t charge any interest so that eventually these people might be able to afford microfinance services.

With the support of charitable organizations and everyone who donates to them, microfinance institutions and banks everywhere will be making lots more loans to people who can now afford them.

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »