Starting tomorrow, if you happen to be in the center of New York City's Times Square, you may catch a glimpse of a 30-second public-service announcement about homelessness and hunger by the charity St. John's Bread and Life.

You'll also be prompted to donate $10 via text message by entering the word "Bread" and 27138 to send.

The Brooklyn, N.Y., charity runs a soup kitchen and food pantry to feed 2,200 people a day. It received a surprising gift from one of its board members in June: the chance to tell its story on the Sony JumboTron in Times Square. At no cost.

The board member wishes to be anonymous, says Anthony Butler, executive director of St. John's Bread and Life. "He's a big supporter of ours, a very wealthy benefactor. He's very active in this. It was his idea."

The auction prize, valued at $10,000 to $15,000, was won through a spring gala in May from the Little Sisters of the...

Donations to nonprofit hospitals dropped by 11 percent last year, according to a new study.

Hospital gifts fell by $944-million to $7.6-billion from 2008, according to a new report by the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy. It was the first fund-raising dip since 2002, when giving dropped by 31 percent due to a recession.

Health-care giving in Canada last year rose 5.2 percent, or $56-million, to $1.1-billion.

The association said more than 80 percent of donors to hospitals were individuals, while 12 percent were corporations and foundations.

"What's happening with individuals is not unlike what's happening with corporations," said William C. McGinly, chief executive of the hospital fund-raising group. "They're holding on to cash because of the uncertainty of the times."

He adds, "They're giving less or extending their pledges over long periods of time. A lot of that goes to the actual ...

The lion's share of fund raisers — 82 percent — face ethical dilemmas once a month or less, according to a new poll.

The informal online survey, conducted by the Association of Fundraising Professionals on its Web site from from late July to late August, garnered 493 responses. Fifty-eight percent of participants said that they encountered ethical challenges less than one a month, while 24 percent said once a month.

Ten percent of respondents reported facing ethical quandries at least once a week, and 8 percent said they encountered such situations two or three times per month.

"Ethics is critical to the success of fundraising and philanthropy, so it's important to understand just how often fundraisers face ethical situations," Paulette V. Maehara, chief executive of the association in Alexandria, Va., said in a written statement.

The organization plans to conduct future online polls...

If your organization is planning to incorporate more online fund raising this holiday giving season, you are not alone.

Holly Hall notes in the latest issue of The Chronicle that nonprofit groups are pushing more of their resources into e-mail, social media, and online solicitations as part of their year-end fund-raising mix.

She writes: "While charities are using every approach they can to attract donations, many groups are putting their bets on online giving this holiday season. At a time when most fund-raising methods—including direct mail, special events, and big-gift appeals—have faltered, online donations continue to grow.

"Network for Good, a nonprofit organization that processes online gifts to charities, found that contributions rose by 25 percent, to $31.4-million, in December 2009, compared with the same period in 2008.

"And so far this year, both Blackbaud and Convio, two...

Canadians are more likely than Americans to make donations online, according to preliminary findings from a new survey of 7,950 American and 7,050 Canadian donors.

Sixty-three percent of the American donors said they had already given online or planned to do so this year, while 72 percent of Canadians did.

The survey by Cygnus Applied Research, a Chicago research and consulting company, found that 75 percent of the Canadian donors said they would make at least one online transaction in 2010, a figure that increased to 90 percent among Canadian donors under age 35.

"Online giving has surpassed the tipping point," at least in Canada, said Penelope Burk, the president of Cygnus Applied Research. 

Ms. Burk and her colleagues speculated that one reason Canadians appear to be more comfortable donating online is that more of them have high-speed Internet access, which makes giving online...

Moms and Millennials are the most likely Americans to buy products that benefit a cause, according to a new survey, which defines Millennials as people from 18 to 24 years old.

But all Americans are becoming far more interested in buying such products: Two out of five consumers have bought a product or service in the past year because it was associated with a cause or issue. In 1993 only one out of five did so.

The number of mothers who buy such products is more striking, however. Nearly two-thirds bought the products in the past, according to an online survey of 1,057 adults by Cone, a Boston marketing firm. They are also more likely to switch brands based on association with a cause (93 percent versus 80 percent of all Americans.)

Young adults also are highly likely to buy products tied to a cause—more than half have bought such a product in the past year. 

The survey produced some...

Stand Up to Cancer raised more than $80-million in pledges for cancer research and efforts to speed up new therapies to patients during its television special last week.

That's 20 percent less than the $100-million raised during its inaugural telethon in 2008, when the actor Patrick Swayze first made remarks about his battle with pancreatic cancer. He died a year later.

Major League Baseball donated the most—$20-million—to the cause this year; it pledged $10-million in 2008. Other major contributors include the philanthropist and businessman Sidney Kimmel, as well as Amgen, the Annenberg Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and GlaxoSmithKline.

More viewers saw the telecast this year, though, than the first—an audience of 18.3 million, up 15 percent, according to Nielsen.

The one-hour, commercial-free fund-raising event was hosted by the network news anchors Katie Couric, Diane Sawyer an...

Tonight at a big gala on Ellis Island, the American Civil Liberties Union will celebrate raising $407-million in a five-year campaign that far exceeded the advocacy group's original goal of $250-million.

The ACLU initially planned to raise $100-million in cash and $150-million in bequests and other planned gifts by the time the organization turned 90 this year. But, despite the bad economy, the charity has ended up with more than $150-million in cash and over $250-million in planned-gift pledges, thanks to a series of challenge gifts and other big donations.

ACLU officials said that the new money will go to affiliates in states where resources have been scarce and to build the capabilities of its national headquarters.

Among some of the notable gifts:

* The financier Robert W. Wilson made a cash donation to match a portion of each new bequest or other planned-giving pledge, up to $10...

As football season starts, so too does a new fund-raising and promotion campaign by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, in Memphis, and the Fox television network.

Employees of Fox Sports selected St. Jude as the beneficiary of one of its employer's charitable giving programs.

All of the sport station's broadcasts of National Football League games this year will feature public-service announcements and on-air mentions about St. Jude's efforts to fight childhood cancer and other diseases—all the way through the Super Bowl. St. Jude patients will also be featured in pre- and post-game coverage.

Spots about the hospital will also air on other Fox outlets, including National Geographic and Fox News. All told, Fox expects that St. Jude will be mentioned on its airwaves about 1,300 times throughout the season.

Nine Fox Sports on-air personalities, including Pam Oliver (above),...

Donations received by 91 of the nation's largest nonprofit organizations grew by a median of 3.1 percent in the second quarter of this year, compared with the same period in 2009, a new Chronicle survey has found.

The quarterly survey, which examined cash contributions received in April, May, and June, found that while the charities reported an increase over 2009, median donations have actually declined by 1 percent since the first quarter of this year.

Still, the 3.1-percent growth represents progress since the worst part of the recession in the second quarter of last year, when cash donations plummeted by a median 18 percent.

Let us know how your organization is faring. Are you seeing signs of progress?