Archive for the ‘Give Page’ Category

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The Doctor Who Saved More Lives Than Anyone In History

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

Dr. Borlaug saved millions of people from dying of hunger, so how is it possible that 1 billion people will still go hungry this year?

  • The life of Green Revolution leader Dr. Norman Borlaug was celebrated this week after his recent death at the age of 95. His work to feed the hungry is credited with having saved more lives than any other person in history.
  • The systemic reasons for hunger can be directly linked to the production and dissemination of grain. America’s export of grain to poor nations has interfered with their ability to develop independent and strong local economies.
  • Sub-Saharan Africa has been particularly hard hit by its inability to replicate key aspects of the Green Revolution, such as irrigation.

Facts & Figures

  • More than one billion people will suffer from hunger this year.
  • In July, President Obama and other Western leaders pledged $20 billion for agricultural development in poor countries.
  • Due to an exploding population in Africa, a severe drought threatens the lives of millions of people.

Best Quote

“World peace will not be built on empty stomachs or human misery. It is within America’s technical and financial power to help end this human tragedy and injustice, if set our hearts and minds to the task.” – Dr. Norman Borlaug

VIPs Can’t Afford The Gala… Should The Party Go On?

Friday, September 25th, 2009

Everyone is feeling the recession – even the rich – and that’s making it difficult for nonprofits to find honorees for their glitzy gala fundraising events.

  • The spring benefit season in New York (usually heavily funded by Wall Street) has been hurt by the struggling financial sector.
  • Potential honorees are opting out, not wanting the responsibility of asking friends and family for money in such lean times.
  • Some organizations, like Carnegie Hall, have canceled their galas, while others have gone ahead with their events without an honoree.

Facts & Figures

  • Groups earn anywhere from a few percentage points of the annual budget to the majority of a year’s expenses.
  • Nonprofit endowments are down 25 to 30%.

Best Quote

“This idea of getting on the phone and saying, ‘Wouldn’t you like to be honored at our gala?’ – that’s more difficult, more challenging now than in my 30 years of experience at this.” – Will Maitland Weiss, Executive Director of the Arts and Business Council of New York

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Climate Change An Increasingly Popular Career Path For College Students

Friday, September 25th, 2009

This translation explores the changing landscape of the economy and different ways young people are getting involved with issues that matter.

  • Concern about climate change is inspiring unprecedented numbers of undergrads to study science and engineering, which is timely as there will soon be a shortage of engineers in this country.
  • The White House’s multi-billion dollar push to support “clean energy” will foster a new sector of  “green jobs.”
  • Helping solve large-scale societal problems is a major draw for young people.

Facts & Figures

  • Enrollment in graduate engineering programs dropped more than 5% from 2003 to 2005.
  • The rate at which American workers with science and engineering skills retire is expected to triple over the next decade.

Best Quote

“The most critical challenge over the long-term is people and brainpower.” – Karen Harbert, Executive Vice President and Managing Director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for 21st Century Energy

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Battered Bonuses, Dropping Donations

Friday, September 25th, 2009

You may find it interesting which type of charities see the most decline during bad economic times. Just like certain industries might be hurting more than others, charities see uneven declines as well – this piece might help you when thinking about different donation strategies.

  • In 2008, charitable donations fell drastically as the effects of the recession were being fully realized.
  • Even with such a decline, total giving was still at at an historic level – higher than every previous year except 2007.
  • Charities are uncertain how the recession will continue to affect donations, but they are pretty sure that giving will keep declining for a while longer.

Facts & Figures

  • In 2008, gifts and pledges decreased 5.7% to $307.65 billion.
  • Charities that provide basic services (food banks and shelters) saw an estimated 15.95% decline in donations for 2008.

Best Quote

“We saw corporations begin rethinking their giving in greatly different ways, and we saw individuals begin to revisit their philanthropic priorities.” – Del Martin, Chairman of the Giving USA Foundation

Philanthropy’s Information Revolution

Friday, September 25th, 2009

Philanthropy: Optimized by Google

  • Google is dramatically changing the landscape of the philanthropic sector.
  • While Google’s overall impact has been negative for the newspaper and music industries, the “googlization” of philanthropy has benefited the nonprofit world by giving more people access to information that helps them donate.
  • Guidestar, Charity Navigator, PubHub and Social Actions are all sites that aggregate information for donors about non-profits.

Facts & Figures

  • PhilanthropySearch.org scans the websites of the 100 largest foundations, philanthropy consulting firms, university reserarch centers and other philanthropy-related sites.
  • SocialActions.com aggregates more than 50 sources of online social activity, including change.org, globalgiving.org, razoo.org and volunteermatch.org.

Best Quote

“Most important, the Googlization of philanthropy means that organizing the information will not be done by the information creators, but by third parties and – excitingly – the people who want to consume that information.” – Sean Stannard-Stockton, The Chronicle of Philanthropy

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Nonprofits In Debt? Businesses Aren’t The Only Ones Going Bankrupt

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

While nonprofits are somewhat restricted when it comes to investing, they can basically act like any hedge fund or corporation. In the past, this leeway allowed nonprofits to grow their assets enormously, but right now it’s causing them some financial headaches.

  • For a while now, nonprofits have been actively making risky investment decisions and racking up debt. This high-risk, high-return investing style allowed many colleges, museums, and nonprofits to expand rapidly.
  • A large portion of the debt is from tax-exempt bonds that nonprofits were allowed to issue – cheap debt, with potentially high returns. After the financial crisis, nonprofits’ assets plummeted in value, yet they still had huge debt obligations.
  • Without an increase in revenues (through donations or property sales), many charities are going to end up bankrupt!

Facts & Figures

  • According to the IRS, the value of tax-exempt bonds issued by nonprofits rose from $98 billion in 1993 to $311 billion in 2006.
  • Brandeis University has $208 million in tax-exempt bond debt and is selling its art collection to pay for it.
  • Copia, a culinary institution in California, went bankrupt because of $78 million in bond debt.

Best Quote

“[O]ver the next several years nonprofits across the country will have to renegotiate bond covenants, reduce services, cut staff or actually default and face foreclosures, repossessions, and in some cases, even bankruptcy.” – Norman I. Silber, Law Professor at Hofstra University

Community Philanthropists Wanna Know: Where Brooklyn At?

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

If you’re not happy with what you’re given, sometimes you have to go out there and get it yourself.

  • Out of a sense that New York’s most populous borough isn’t receiving its fair share of philanthropic attention despite a huge amount of charitable giving by New Yorkers, Brooklyn-based Independence Community Foundation is taking matters into its own hands.
  • The largest private charity in Brooklyn is changing its name and its tax status to become the first borough-specific foundation with the ability to publicly raise and distribute funds within its own borders.
  • Local nonprofits are concerned that the new foundation will divert local donations away from their programs, but officials from the foundation say they will focus on new donors rather than trying to lure existing ones.

Facts & Figures

  • The combined net worth of Brooklyn’s residents is estimated to reach $154 billion in 2010.
  • According to a 2002 Foundation Center study, almost 90% of charitable donations in New York are sent to Manhattan.
  • Brooklyn has 2.5 million residents, making it bigger than the 4th-largest city in America.

Best Quote

“When you’re out here looking at the fact that New York State is still No. 1 in philanthropic giving, with over $5 billion annually, and then you start to look at how much is coming to Brooklyn, given our size and given our need, you realize that the landscape of philanthropy is quite uneven.” – Marilyn Gelber, President of Independence Community Foundation

Solar Power Doesn’t Have To Be Ugly

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

A new generation of environmentally-friendly solar power products seek to blend into your life instead of announcing themselves in the form of giant black panels.

  • Companies that make photovoltaic cells are beginning to manufacture solar power equipment that’s meant to be incorporated into buildings, instead of installed on and around existing structures.
  • These new products, often in the shape and style of existing roof tiles or shingles, are expected to be popular among the burgeoning green building industry. (Depending, of course, on how much and how quickly the economy begins to recover.)
  • Though this kind of built-in solar power is very new to the U.S., government subsidies throughout Europe have made it an increasingly popular choice there.

Facts & Figures

  • In California, a typical homeowner would pay approximately $20,000 to have her home outfitted with enough photovoltaic cells to generate half of her home’s power needs.
  • Built-in solar products cost 10-20% more to install than conventional solar power products.
  • In Europe, government incentives mean an investment in “building-integrated photovoltaics” pays for itself in five to seven years.

“The new materials are part of the building itself, not an addition, and they are taking photovoltaics to the next level — an aesthetic one.” – Alfonso Velosa III, Research Director at Gartner and Co-Author of a Report on the Market for Building-Integrated Photovoltaics

U.S. Poverty Rate Rises As Incomes Drop

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

Poverty isn’t just an international problem. The recent economic downturn has highlighted a deepening domestic struggle to stay afloat.

  • The U.S. Census Bureau revealed statistics showing that the blight of poverty is spreading throughout the country, especially in the Western and Midwestern states.
  • Many of the newly impoverished Americans are children, even as two-worker households are increasingly seeking assistance in the form of food stamps.
  • Areas with the greatest increase in poverty rate are the same areas that have seen many jobs and wages disappear in the recession.

Facts & Figures

  • For 2008 data collection purposes, a family of four with two children is considered to be below the poverty line when they earn less than a total of $22,000 a year.
  • In 2008, the poverty rate increased in 31 states; 2007 saw an increase in only 10 states. Only Michigan saw its poverty rate increase in both 2007 and 2008.
  • The national rate of poverty is 13.2%, but the highest rate in the country can be found in Mississippi (21.2%), followed by Kentucky, West Virginia, and Arkansas (at about 17% each).

Best Quote

“There are lots of people who are using food stamps for the first time, because they don’t have any other options.” – Mark Mather, Demographer at the Population Reference Bureau

The Recession Might Be Over For US, But Not For Those Who Didn’t Cause It

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

The recession hit hard here in the U.S., but people in poor countries are really out of luck.

  • More and more people are being pushed into extreme poverty by the global recession, and the World Bank is asking the 20 largest countries to lend a hand.
  • Poor countries that didn’t have a hand in creating the global recession are being hit really hard. They are often forced to cut funding for vital programs in education, health care, and basic infrastructure.
  • To build a more sustainable future, the World Bank is pressing for global economic growth to be less dependent on U.S. consumer spending and for less-developed nations to play a more significant role. But to do so, they need aid and access to financing.

Facts and Figures

  • The Group of 20 meeting is scheduled for this week with the goal of evaluating the state of the world economy.
  • By 2010, the recession will have pushed 89 million people into extreme poverty.
  • Last year the top eight economies pledged to give $20 billion in agricultural aid to poor countries, but these pledges haven’t been entirely fulfilled.

Best Quote

“The April summit was for the financial sector, this summit needs to be for responsible globalization.” – Robert B. Zoellick, President of the World Bank Group

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