A survey conducted by the City University of London takes a look at why British donors give to arts and culture.

Conducted in behalf of Arts & Business, a group in London that encourages philanthropy to the arts, the survey finds that 90 percent of donors to the arts in the United Kingdom give relatively small amounts (less than $1,000).

Donors tend to be frequent visitors to the institutions they support. Ninety percent of people in the study said they attended three or more events at the organizations they gave to in the past two years, while many said they had visited “a lot more.”

The vast majority said that having to purchase tickets to see events at the organizations they supported did not affect their charitable contributions.

Ninety-six percent contributed to other causes, according to the survey, which was based on interviews with 51 donors and information from...

With its programs supported by an annual appropriation from Congress, the nonprofit United States Institute of Peace has not historically depended on the largesse of private donors.

But that changed a few years ago, when the Washington think tank began to plan a new headquarters building at the corner of the national mall near the downtown monuments. The group determined that it would need $186-million for the building, which house its scholars, provide a place for world leaders to speak, and include an education center for the public.

Fund raising wasn’t “in the culture of the organization,” says Robin West, the organization’s board chair and chairman of PFC Energy, an international energy consulting group. But he and Stephen Whisnant, hired in 2007 as the institute’s campaign director, have sought to shake up the culture.

Mr. West, who like other board members is selected by...

How is the recession changing the ways in which donors think about their giving?

On a conference call organized by Bank of America, Ellen Remmer of the Philanthropic Initiative — a donor-advising group — suggested that more donors were assuming a “beginner’s mind” approach to their charity.

“We do really see a new openness,” she said. “We’re calling it the beginner’s mind, in thinking about how they can be helpful and acting in a different way.”

She said donors were moving away from supporting “the latest, greatest new program” and instead thinking about how their dollars can help charities the most. They are giving more to operating costs and trying to understand “what a nonprofit needs to be sustainable,” she said.

Ms. Remmer, who is president of the Philanthropic Initiative, said philanthropists are going on “listening tours” and speaking to more experts and charity...

Which brings in more money: an image of a sad child or a happy one? It depends, says Jeff Brooks on the Donor Power Blog.

Mr. Brooks criticizes a recent study in the Journal of Marketing Research, which says that people are particularly sympathetic and likely to donate when viewing sad expressions.

“These findings straddle the line between blindingly obvious and just plain wrong,” he says.

Obvious, Mr. Brooks says, because people who have done research on fund-raising results know that sad images are often more effective.

But wrong because “the research didn’t look at actual fund-raising results,” he says. Mr. Brooks says that sorrowful expressions aren’t always more effective.

“Sometimes a happy image just kicks butt over a sad one,” he says.

And some children furrow their brows when they are sad, which may be misinterpreted as a scowl and draw little sympathy,...

Simon Frank, a consultant to charities who works in London, was at a meeting with a group of fund raisers the other day when he was struck by the titles they used to describe their work: “head of supporter relationship marketing,” for example, and leader of “supporter acquisition.”

Mr. Frank, who works at a company called Beautiful World, began to wonder why there seems to be a “rash of obscure job titles” in the fund-raising world.

“Are charities (at least some of them) becoming embarrassed at the idea of asking for money?” he asks. “Could part of the reason be the proliferation of ‘social-media experts’ flooding into the sector offering charities advice?”

“These self-proclaimed gurus, many of whom have little or no fund-raising experience, sell a beguiling dream of online social communities coalescing around charities and good causes in a beatific haze of generosity,” Mr....

How can charities tailor their fund-raising solicitations to suit today’s meager times?

Here’s one way approach taken by Mercy Corps, in an e-mail solicitation to prospective and lapsed donors:

The international relief charity sent this message to 64,000 people who subscribe to its e-mails but who have never contributed, or have given only small amounts and not within the past two years. It sent a very similar e-mail — asking for slightly larger donations — to another 64,000 individuals.

“We didn’t want to downgrade any of our most recent donors,” says Dan Sadowsky, who manages the charity’s e-mail appeals.

The solicitation gives a nod to the recession with the phrase “times are tough for many of us.” It also seeks to help donors visualize how valued small gifts can be to the charity.

“You can look at this e-mail and get the message very quickly,” says Mr. Sadowsky....

How will giving fare in 2009? To explore that question, Lucy Bernholz summarizes on her blog Philanthropy 2173 what we know, what is being projected, and what we don’t yet know about how giving might perform this year.

We know, for example, that giving dropped by 2 percent last year, based on Giving USA’s figures. We also know that some charities are benefiting from stimulus money and that there will be more scrutiny of nonprofit groups as a result of investment changes, the Madoff scandal, and other factors.

Ms. Bernholz notes some projections: For example, the Foundation Center and Guidestar are projecting that foundation and individual giving could decrease between 9 and 13 percent this year, and again in 2010.

Among the many things we don’t know: details of foundation giving in the first two quarters of this year; whether gifts from donor-advised funds were especially...

A poll of Christians living in the United Kingdom finds they are still giving despite the recession, the nonprofit consultant Mark Phillips writes on his blog.

Sixty-nine percent of people in the survey, which was conducted in May by ComRes on behalf of Premier Christian Radio, have maintained their levels of giving since the recession began, and 16 percent are giving more.

Just 13 percent said they are contributing less, and 1 percent reported halting their giving altogether.

Tables from the survey of 512 people are available here.

By contrast, a study of British donors conducted in April by Bluefrog, Mr. Phillips’s consulting group, found that 31 percent were no longer giving to charity, compared with 26 percent in a similar study in November.

The number of millionaires in the biggest 10 cities in the United States declined by more than 15 percent last year, a discouraging sign for fund raisers.

But that decline was smaller than the 18.5 percent drop in millionaires nationwide, according to a new study by Capgemini, a consulting and technology company.

The company’s U.S. Metro Wealth Index found that the ranks of the wealthy declined the most precipitously in some mid-size cities such as Orlando (which lost 42 percent of its millionaires last year), Las Vegas (38 percent), and Phoenix (34 percent). Declining tourism and real-estate values contributed to the loss of wealth in those cities, the study said.

Among the 10 biggest cities, Houston lost the most millionaires (21 percent), followed by Philadelphia (18 percent), and Boston (17 percent).

The number of millionaires in New York City and San Jose declined the...

Mashable, the popular blog about online social networking tools, has become the latest player to harness such networks in behalf of charities.

On June 1, the media company kicked off its Summer of Social Good, a three-month fund-raising campaign that is reaching out to people through Facebook, Twitter, and other sites and encouraging them to donate to a fund that will go to four charities.

Adam Hirsch, Mashable’s chief operating officer, says the campaign is in part a fund-raising experiment that he hopes can prove useful to charities interested in trying to solicit donations through online media.

Each week, the campaign introduces a new theme to engage users. In mid-June, Mashable ran a contest called “Stories4Good,” in which donors were encouraged to blog about an experience using social media to do good.

Another week’s theme — “FindingtheGood” — asked people to share...