Tom Hsieh has taken a unique approach to fighting poverty in his hometown of Los Angeles.

Mr. Hsieh, who owns a telecommunications company, has committed to supporting his family on the U.S. median household income.

In 2008, his family lived on about $38,000 although he earned more than $200,000. He donated the balance of his after-tax income donated to antipoverty groups in Los Angeles.

What motivates Mr. Hsieh’s giving? How does he decide what causes and organizations to support? What lessons can other donors learn from him? And what should fund raisers and other charity officials understand as they seek to encourage more people to give in this difficult economic time?

Fund raisers will have a chance to get answers to these and other questions when Mr. Hsieh and a fellow philanthropist, Anne Ellinger, participate in a special online discussion on Thursday, December 3, at noon ...

Despite the stock market’s upward trend in recent weeks, most wealthy people continue to be wary of making big charitable commitments, fund raisers say.

One way to work around the problem is to encourage people to make certain types of planned gifts — donations that provide income as well as tax benefits to the contributors, says Robert F. Sharpe, a Memphis fund-raising consultant. Among the types of gifts he thinks fund raisers should promote: gift annuities, charitable remainder trusts, and lead trusts.

Many fund raisers have been trained to seek three- to five-year pledges to give a specific cash sum, he notes. When a donor hesitates to make such a contribution, he says, fund raisers typically ask the donor to put the charity in his or her will.

But donors can easily change their minds about whether to leave a bequest and the charity could end up with nothing. And even if the...

Bank of America is trimming its employee matching-gift program, a move other companies have made during the economic downturn.

According to the Charlotte Business Journal, the financial-services corporation will no longer match the donations made by former employees who retired from the company. The Journal said the bank matched up to $5,000 in gifts made by its retirees.

A spokeswoman told the newspaper that the decision was prompted by the bad economy and the fact the large company has a growing number of employees.

A Chronicle survey in July found that other companies have made similar moves. Ten businesses reported that they reduced or cut their employee matching-gift program.

Some corporate-giving experts have said companies are likely to trim matching gifts in the future, though they expect such programs to continue because they are important to employee morale. ...

Many charities are concerned that donations will suffer this month and next with the weak economy taking its toll on the normally busy giving season. But recent surveys suggest that year-end contributions, as well as donations next year, may not drop as much as some fund raisers fear.

In the latest such research, the American Red Cross commissioned a poll of more than 1,000 adults this month.

Despite the fact that nearly one in four Americans said their pay had decreased because of the economy, nearly 80 percent said that their holiday donations to charity would stay the same (62 percent) or increase (17 percent) this year.

While 20 percent of Americans said their holiday contributions would decline, the people polled were more likely to trim costs by economizing on holiday travel (44 percent), decorations (40 percent), and parties (31 percent).

Sixty-seven percent of...

Colorado Public Radio plans to hold a three-day fund-raising drive the week after Thanksgiving — but the beneficiary will be the Colorado Symphony Orchestra.

“Colorado Public Radio recognizes the CSO’s unique role as one of Colorado’s key cultural assets and petitioned the Federal Communications Commission for permission to conduct a one-time-only, on-air fund-raising drive to support its major classical music provider, the Colorado Symphony,” Max Wycisk, president of Colorado Public Radio, said in a statement.

The orchestra has been hit hard by the economic crisis, which forced the organization to reduce its current operating budget by $2.5-million. This fall, musicians agreed to salary and benefit concessions, which included a 12.5 percent pay cut, up to four weeks of unpaid furlough, and a suspension of employer contributions to the musicians’ retirement fund.

The special...

Most capital campaigns by colleges and universities that seek to raise $1-billion or more are on track to meet their goals, despite the bad economy, according to a new report.

The report, by Marts & Lundy, a Lyndhurst, N.J., fund-raising consulting firm, analyzed 26 of the biggest campaigns now under way. Seventeen of the drives started before December 2007, when the recession officially began, and the nine others began in 2008.

Using regularly updated data on billion-dollar campaigns in higher education from The Chronicle of Higher Education and “big gifts of $50-million” or more compiled by The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Nelson Lees, a senior consultant at Marts & Lundy, conducted the analysis.

Mr. Lees first calculated the average monthly increase reported by all 26 campaigns. He then compared it with the average monthly increase it would take for those same institutions to...

Thanks to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, American foundation support for HIV/AIDS-related causes grew 11 percent last year, to $618-million, says a new report.

But when the Gates organization is excluded, foundation giving actually declined 3 percent compared to 2007, said Funders Concerned About AIDS, a coalition of grant makers in New York.

In a new report, the coalition is urging foundations to step up their support for HIV/AIDS vaccine research, prevention, and other projects, saying the economic downturn threatens to erode recent gains in fighting the pandemic.

According to a survey of 79 foundations, 42 percent say they expect their AIDS giving to decline in 2008, 38 percent say it will remain steady, and 15 percent expect it to increase.

For the second time, Funders Concerned About AIDS issued its annual study of foundation giving on the same day as its European ...

Despite the bad economy and rising unemployment rates, a majority of American professionals say they will give to the same number of nonprofit organizations next year as they did in the preceding 12 months, according to preliminary results from a new survey.

Fifty-eight percent of respondents in the survey said they will probably give to the same number of nonprofit organizations next year, and nearly a quarter said that they had donated more than $5,000 to nonprofit causes in the preceding 12 months.

The research, conducted by the American Society of Association Executives, was based on a survey of more than 5,000 adults. The respondents included its own members as well as members of five other associations.

Sixty-six percent of respondents predicted that their “employment situation” would be the same next year, and another 26 percent said they expected theirs to improve. Only 8...

A new report offers a decidedly mixed picture of corporate philanthropy.

It says a majority of companies increased their giving in 2008, but overall the total amount of corporate giving dropped that year.

The report says 53 percent of the 102 large companies surveyed expanded their philanthropy despite the bad economy, while the rest decreased their charitable contributions. The growth was primarily in donations of products, services, and other noncash donations.

“These findings demonstrate that supporting community partners remained a top priority in 2008 despite the hurdles imposed by tight credit markets, a reduction in consumer spending, and widespread economic uncertainty,” says the report, which was produced by the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy, a research group in New York.

However, it seems the increases did not outpace the decline in giving. Since 20...

Little-known charities again struck big in America’s Giving Challenge, a contest designed to show the power of online social networks to raise small donations.

Groups participating in the month-long challenge competed to raise the largest number of gifts using the Causes application on Facebook. At stake was $245,000 in prize money from the Case and W.K. Kellogg Foundations.

Nearly 7,900 charities brought in 105,420 donations totaling $2.1-million in the competition, which ended last week. That was 17 percent more money — but 50 percent more donations — than last year’s contest, the first of its kind. More than twice as many groups participated this year.

While final results have yet to be announced pending a review of winning charities, it’s clear that smaller organizations outperformed larger groups.

Overseas China Education Foundation, a volunteer-run charity in Houston...