The economy's sluggish growth suggests that American households will give 3.9 percent less to charity in 2010,  according to a new projection by two researchers at Boston College's Center on Wealth and Philanthropy. But if the economy heats up, donations could return to pre-recession levels in 2010.

John J. Havens and Paul G. Schervish, the Boston College scholars, based their projections on a new way they devised to give up-to-the-minute estimates of how much donations are likely to grow or fall, rather than waiting months and years for researchers to estimate how much Americans contributed to good causes.

Currently, charitable donations are tracked by Giving USA, the annual tally of American philanthropy, but those data are...

Many nonprofit organizations have been the lucky recipients of four-digit online donations, but the Human Rights Campaign has devised a strategy to actively solicit them.

For the last three years, the Washington advocacy group, which focuses on gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender issues, has run a series of e-mail campaigns to recruit new members for its Federal Club, a donor society for people who give $1,200 or more annually.

The Human Rights Campaign has learned that it's important to identify donors who won't be put off by a request for a large gift, according to a new case study that discusses the group's e-mail campaign. The case study was published by M+R Strategic Services, a consulting company in Washington.

Over time, the advocacy group has developed its criteria...

While most charities have struggled to raise money during the recession, a few charities have beat the odds, achieving increases of 10 percent or more despite--or perhaps because--of the bad economy.

Even as many social-service organizations have grappled with soaring demand and declining donations in recent months, Feeding America, the national network of food banks, has thrived. In the final quarter of last year, for example, Feeding America raised $26.5-million, up 51.4 percent from the same period in 2008.

Leades of the anti-hunger group says the increase is in large part because donors recognize the extreme rise in demand for basic services like food and shelter as the economic crisis has taken its toll.

Those donors include corporations interested in polishng their image in the wake of...

As relief organizations analyze the donations they have received for Haiti, several groups have found that while the total number of gifts is higher than after the Asian tsunamis in 2004, the average...

The 1865 assasination of Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, in Washington, turned the small arts organization into a national historic site that many people today regard as more museum than playhouse.

When the theater reopened a few months ago, after an extensive renovation, officials implemented a new "timed-entry" ticketing procedure for people who visit the site for its historical rather than theatrical offerings. To avoid overcrowding, visitors go online and reserve a time slot in advance for when they will tour the facility.

That gives Ford's an advantage over other historic sites and museums that, while popular, are not as constrained in size: In reserving tickets online, visitors provide their e-mail and mailing addresses, which Ford's has started using to seek new donors with a demonstrated interest in the...

Having trouble deciding between the Valentine's Day card with the cute puppies or the one with the witty message?

What about the one that could help the Salvation Army win up to $1-million -- or maybe the card that could help St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital do the same?

Target, the retail-company, is giving Internet users the chance to decide how much of a $1-million gift five charities could win, based on a selection they make when sending an online Valentine's Day card.

Target's Facebook page features the cards, all of which have videos with a football theme to help people get in the Super Bowl spirit.

The five charities -- Kids in Need Foundation, United Through Reading Military Program, St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital, United Way, and the Salvation Army -- will get a portion of the...

Raising money by soliciting pedestrians has become a despised profession in Britain, where street solicitors are known as "chuggers" or charity muggers.

Now, in a new video, The Guardian's entertainment editor, Paul MacInnes, poses as a street fund raiser and asks passersby to tell him: Why do people hate chuggers?

Wearing a bright yellow vest and holding a clipboard, Mr. MacInnes finds that he cannot get anyone to talk to him, much less donate money. Only after stashing the vest and clipboard does he begin to find people who wil talk.

One man, for example, tells Mr. MacInnes that most chuggers are "mercenaries." He says that they have been known to grab hold of people and even pull earphones out of pedestrians' ears in order to make their pitches. He also...

Voting opened on Monday in Pepsi's Refresh Project, the latest effort by a company to let consumers have a say in how its philanthropic dollars should be spent.

Visitors to the project's Web site can choose among more than 700 ideas submitted by individuals and charities. Top vote-getters as of Monday afternoon were a proposal by an elementary-school teacher's assistant to form a club to promote self-esteem among girls, and camping trips for disadvantaged young people that are run by a charity connected with the University of Arizona.

Pepsi plans to give away $1.3-million each month, with grants ranging in size from $5,000 to $250,000.

In the last few years, more corporations have been experimenting with ways to give consumers a chance to help direct their charitable money. Last May, the retail-company

Add online generosity to the list of things notable about the nation's capital and its suburbs.

People in Alexandria, Va., a city located just outside of Washington, donated more money online per capita to charities that use Convio software in 2009 than Americans in any other large city.

For every 1,000 people, they gave $20,244.

Residents of Cambridge, Mass., donated the second-largest amount ($14,729 per 1,000 people), followed by Arlington, Va. ($14,362), another Washington suburb, and by Washington, ($13,746).

Convio, a company that provides software to charities, based the rankings on an analysis of online contributions it processed for 273 large cities. The company estimates that it processes about 10 percent of all online giving.

Other cities on the top 10 list were Minneapolis; Seattle; Berkeley, Calif.,; St. Louis;...

Inspired by the school uniform she wore as a child in India, the New Yorker Sheena Matheiken has been wearing the same dress for 273 days in an attempt to raise money for the