Posts Tagged ‘philanthropy’

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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

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

Recession Or Not, The Wealthy Are Passing

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009

There are some ways that money moves around in an economy that have very little to do with the stock market or unemployment statistics.

  • Even though the recession has ruined many a good portfolio, Boston College’s Center on Wealth and Philanthropy is predicting a “golden age of philanthropy” between 1998 and 2052.
  • Wealthy individuals often distribute their assets at death among heirs, tax payments, charities, and legal fees, and these distributions are largely unaffected by the current economic climate. As a result, analysts project that this is the largest wave of charitable giving ever in the United States.
  • Some people, though, are donating large chunks of their net worth while they are still alive, thereby eliminating the portion that would typically go to the government after death, and confounding the researchers at Boston’s CWR.

Facts & Figures

  • CWR researchers projected an overall wealth transfer of $41 trillion between 1998 and 2052, mostly as resulting from asset exchanges at death.
  • The $41 trillion estimate still applies during the recession because researchers used a very conservative 2% annual increase in wealth in their calculations.
  • Federal data show approximately $12 trillion being transferred to heirs between 1998 and 2017.

Best Quote

“The downturn is not going to keep people from dying, and it is not going to keep a wealth transfer from occurring.” – Paul Schervish, Director of The Center on Wealth and Philanthropy at Boston College

How do you decide whether to give anonymously?

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

Ultimately, there is no correct answer to whether or not you should attach your name to your donations – it’s entirely a personal choice. However, there are valid arguments for either option.

People who want their donations to bear their names often want the recognition that comes with giving, but sometimes there’s a deeper motive. By making your donation public knowledge, you’re setting an example for others – saying, in effect, that this is a worthy cause to which your peers can and ought to donate. To some people, giving anonymously can feel like they’re somehow ashamed of their donation or that they don’t want to own up to it. Public donors want to give the exact opposite impression.

People who do decide to give anonymously often believe they are being more genuinely altruistic by doing so. If they give privately, they get no recognition for giving, and some people think this makes their motives more pure. In addition, some people who want to give outside their own foundation or organization choose to donate to other causes anonymously, basically in order to avoid the question, “If your organization is so great, why are you giving to another one, instead of sending all you can spare to your own cause?” (The answer, of course, is that there are always multiple causes worthy of attention, and you can’t necessarily be involved on an administrative level in all of them.) Since you’re already doing good by giving in the first place, choosing whether to be anonymous or not is basically a win-win situation – just pick whatever option, in your opinion, makes a good thing even better.

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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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

Heather Box Says There Are A Lot Of Ways To Give

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

Heather Box is the Deputy Director of The League of Young Voters. She says that she has always been involved with politics – she just didn’t know it was politics at the time. Here Heather tells us how she became a philanthropist with both money and time.

>>TILE brings you exclusive interviews from people doing great things in SPEND, GROW, and GIVE. To view more, click on TILEcasts in the TILE Library.

Have a burning question or someone you’d like to see interviewed? Let us know – just Ask TILE!

Why do you need to keep records of your charitable donations?

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

The government is prepared to award you tax deductions in return for your charitable donations, but it’s up to you to prove those donations were actually made. The IRS requires a great deal of documentation to ensure that all your donations are legitimate, so it’s essential to keep good records and make sure your chosen charities received everything you gave them. The specific requirements for tax deductions are as follows.

If your donation was money, you need to provide a credit card statement, canceled check, or bank statement that details how much, when, and to whom you donated, as well as written acknowledgment from the charity of how much you paid them and when. If your donation was more than $250, the acknowledgment letter should also include whether the charity gave you anything in return for your donation, and if so, the approximate value of the services rendered.

Property donations also get you tax deductions, but the records you keep have to be much more detailed. Every property donation can be tax deductible only if at least the following records are provided: the name and address of the charity, the date of the donation, a description of the property and its location, an estimated value for the property and how you arrived at that number, and the amount you want to be paid as a tax deduction. If the property is worth more than $250, there are even more rules:

  • For property donations from $250-$500, you also need an acknowledgment letter from the charity.
  • From $500-$5,000, you must document how and when you acquired the property, as well as how much it cost you.
  • If you estimated the property’s value at more than $5,000, you need a qualified appraiser to verify your estimate.

It’s important to keep records of all of the above, as well as any additional documents that can help prove you actually made the donation. If any piece is missing, you probably won’t get any money back.

Tracy Gary: Give and Get Giving

Monday, September 21st, 2009

tracy-gary.png Tracy Gary, a member of the Pillsbury family, is a philanthropist, nonprofit entrepreneur, and legacy mentor who has worked tirelessly to help others experience the joy of giving charitable dollars to causes they care about through her organization, Inspired Legacies.

TILE: What is your first memory of giving?
Tracy: I have always been blessed by being surrounded by generous people. One of my mom’s best friends was a philanthropist. One day he sat me down when I was seven and asked me to help him on some giving he was doing. He had been reading the paper that day and he would always find people that he felt needed help. He said to me, “Always look beyond your own needs. There are always people who have more trouble and more hardship than you, but it takes being awake to others and to trying to always be caring.”

He then gave me $40.00, which was a lot of money back in 1957 – it’s like getting $400 now! Over the next month we visited 2-3 projects in New York that might really use that $40.00. Those were my first ever “site visits” and I have been on over 4000 now. This simple act on Mr. Petrie’s part changed my life forever.

My mother and father were strategic and also very socially networked through their giving. I learned early on that making a difference could happen for others while one also built community. A portion of my allowance was for giving away, another for spending, and another for saving/investing – similar to TILE! By the time I was 14, my parents set up a giving account, and gave me extra money when I volunteered for more than five hours a week. But it was mostly because they were so generous and connected and happy through that involvement that I saw this as a great way to live my life. And it truly has been!

TILE: What suggestions or advice do you have for TILE members who are choosing what causes they want to support for the first time?
Tracy: Think for a moment what really MOVES you to anger, sadness, or action. Start with 1 thing you want to see changed in your lifetime. Think big! For example: I want to eliminate pollution in my neighborhood and in the world. If you are going to live until say, 95, and you’re 20 years old now, in 75 years you can really do a lot!

You may want to keep a notebook or start a file on your computer where you can keep track of your interests, so when you learn about a group or an outstanding leader, you can write it down, bookmark it on your computer, and keep a file of the things that move you. TILE is a great springboard to start your giving. Check out TILE causes, visit organizations’ websites, make donations, go in to see them, volunteer.


TILE: What was the primary inspiration that caused you to devote your entire life to starting, supporting, and working with charities?
Tracy: I have seen great suffering and people who deserve an opportunity to better their lives. I know I have more than I need and that most of us have WAY more than we need. People need food to eat, a home, clothes, a job, and people to connect to.

Giving is a way that I can help others and shape and shift the world I want for myself and other people to thrive in. Life is not just about surviving, it’s about evolving and supporting those around us to thrive and grow and change. For some of us this means giving more and buying less. For others it means getting a better job. For others it means taking care of our communities and the health of our families and the planet.

People care everywhere. If we focus and act with intention, our collective power and love can truly move mountains. Get started today… “BE the change you want to see in the world.”

>> TILE brings you exclusive opinions, explanations, and interviews from experts in every industry. To read more, click on Ask the Experts in the TILE Library.

Have a burning question or an expert you’d like to see interviewed? Just Ask TILE!

No Really, Let Us Engrave Your Name On That Building…

Tuesday, August 18th, 2009

Sometimes it’s really important for donors to take all the credit.

  • The rise in anonymous giving has people wondering whether or not it’s a good thing.
  • On the one hand, people who give huge donations publicly are sometimes seen as arrogant, since the media ranks big donors against each other – just like a competition.
  • On the other hand, in general, the best givers are those who have given in the past. Giving anonymously makes it harder for fundraisers to pinpoint these important donors. Arguably, the media hype they attract can also inspire smaller donors to get more involved.

Facts & Figures

  • In 2008, 19% of donations over $1 million were made anonymously, compared to the 3-5% norm for the past decade.
  • Americans gave a record $306 billion to charity in 2007.
  • While anonymous giving rose to an unprecedented 19% in 2008, total U.S. giving declined for only the third time in 50 years.
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