Fidelity Charitable announced Tuesday that it is now raising more than it did before the recession started, a sign that at least some nonprofits can expect a thaw in giving among affluent donors.
The charity, which raises more than all but United Way Worldwide and the Salvation Army, announced that it had collected $2.9-billion last year, up from $1.6-billion in 2010 and $1.9-billion in 2007, before the recession took hold.
Most gifts to Fidelity are in the form of stock that has risen sharply in value, and last year’s jump to $2.9-billion—an increase of about 80 percent—reflects rises in the stock market in the past few years, Fidelity officials said. From March 2009 to the end of 2011, stocks grew in value by 86 percent.
Donors were not just pouring more money into their funds: They were also distributing more money to their favorite causes. The amount donors channeled …
A curious e-mail message hit my inbox a few days ago.
“I wanted you to hear from me before you heard from someone else,” the writer began. “I am going to prison in February.Like each one of you, I am a broken person. My life is filled with bad decisions, poor excuses, and moral failings.”
Then Jeremy Gregg, executive director of the PLAN Fund, a microfinance group, explains that he is leaving to become chief development officer at the Prison Entrepreneurship Program.
Mr. Gregg says he sent the tongue-in-cheek message to hundreds of friends and colleagues because he wanted to share something he’s learned from volunteering at the seven-year-old prison program: People behind bars aren’t that different from you or me, he says, and they need a hand putting their lives back together.
That’s why the Prison Entrepreneurship Program offers an intensive five-month training that pairs…
Donors who made text-message gifts to aid survivors of the devastating earthquake in Haiti two years ago have continued to turn to their cellphones to give after other disasters, according to a new study.
Four in 10 of those donors texted a contribution to help people in Japan following last year’s earthquake and tsunami, according to a survey of 863 people who made a text-message gift after the earthquake in Haiti. More than a quarter of donors to Haiti reported that they gave via cellphone after the BP oil spill in 2010, and nearly 20 percent said they made a text-message gift to help victims of last year’s tornadoes in the South.
The survey was conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, together with the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard and the mGive Foundation, with a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
As Pennsylvania State University grappled with the fallout from its child sex-abuse scandal, university officials were instructed to remind outraged donors that they couldn’t get any money back, according to an internal memo released about two weeks after the scandal erupted in November.
The memo outlined “talking points” for telling donors that the university has not changed its policy, which states that once a gift is made, it won’t be returned.
The focus on fund raising was included in one of four internal memos publicized in an Associated Press article that sheds new light on how the university initially responded to the crisis, which resulted after assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was charged with sexually abusing 10 boys. He has denied wrongdoing.
The other memos outlined damage-control steps taken by Penn State’s new president and provided a reminder that…
Fund raisers this year battled a still-uncertain economy as they tried to increase charitable giving.
The most-viewed post on this blog summarized a report with dozens of ideas about how to increase charitable giving. But fund raisers were also looking for creative ways to inject new life into traditional approaches, as demonstrated by another popular most about a modern twist on the gala.
Here are the five most-viewed Prospecting posts of 2011:
While the still-struggling economy poses fund-raising challenges in 2012, the potential for changes in the tax code will motivate some wealthy people to step up their giving, two fund-raising consultants say.
The consultants, Robert F. Sharpe and Barlow Mann, have made available a free hour-long Webinar on fund-raising advice and predictions for the coming year.
Among the tax issues likely to spur giving, they say:
Charitable deductions. President Obama has proposed limiting how much the wealthiest Americans can write off on their taxes for making gifts, and though Congress has not agreed so far, concern about the deficit could give the plan more traction in 2012. Donors who are worried about the potential for new limits in 2013 may be motivated to give in 2012, or accelerate payments on pledges from past years, so they can get a healthy tax break.
You’re not alone, says the actress Scarlett Johansson in an animated video that’s helping to increase year-end donations to Oxfam America, the U.S. branch of the global development charity. The video is part of a campaign that pokes fun at holiday-gift traditions to spur support for Oxfam.
In the video, Ms. Johansson is the voice of an animated female character who discourages viewers from giving lame holiday gifts—like a picture of a kitten or an ugly sweater. Instead, she suggests going to the group’s online portal, Oxfam America Unwrapped, and purchasing something more meaningful: chickens for a farmer, books for kids, or fruit trees for a village. “Now, these are really great gifts,” she says.
The video has garnered a “lot of traffic,” says Stephanie Kurzina, vice president for development and communications a…
Catholic parishes—and the charities that rely on them—have been feeling the pinch of the financial downturn.
Contributions declined at more than half of parishes from 2008 through 2010, according to a new study. Roughly 20 percent of parishes said giving remained flat during that time, while 13 percent reported that contributions decreased at first and then rebounded. About 10 percent of parishes said donations rose.
The Center for the Study of Church Management at Villanova University analyzed the data 390 Catholic parishes provided as part of the Faith Communities Today survey, which was conducted by the Cooperative Congregational Studies Partnership.
Parishes’ budgets for charitable contributions were among the first victims of the downturn, according to the survey. About 55 percent of parishes reported that they reduced the amount of money they contributed to mission…
Neil Strauss is not a fund raiser, but he knows a lot about human relationships and motivation.
Mr. Strauss, the author of The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists, spent years testing and perfecting the techniques men use to meet and attract women. One of the most effective techniques could also be useful to fund raisers, he said at the annual NextGen: Charity conference, in New York.
“The best way to sell yourself is to have somebody else selling themselves to you,” he says.
Instead of telling donors why they should give to your organization, Mr. Stauss says, ask them to explain why they would be good donors. When donors articulate why they would want to support your organization, they will convince themselves to give.
“Sometimes you almost have to talk people into doing what they already want to do,” Mr. Strauss says. “There’s no one who doesn’t want to…
Wealthy women are far more likely than rich men to make charitable donations as a way to honor the legacy of someone they care about or to serve as an example to young people, according to new study released Monday by Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
About a third of affluent women make donations to burnish someone else’s image, while only 16 percent of men do, the study found. And more than 43 percent of women said they give to set an example for young people, but only a quarter of the men said the same.
The study, conducted by researchers at the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy, compared attitudes about giving among 628 men and 283 women with a household income of at least $200,000 or a net worth of at least $1-million, not counting the value of their primary residence.
Researchers said the study contradicted a “popular belief that men predominantly control…
Prospecting follows news and trends about fundraising at nonprofits. You’ll find a mix of advice and techniques that have worked for other charitable organizations, as well as updates on new studies and forecasts that will help you do a better job seeking private money.
Holly Hall, who has covered fundraising for more than two decades at The Chronicle, edits the blog. She also writes many of the items, as does reporter Raymund Flandez, who specializes in fundraising innovations, and other Chronicle staff members.
Keep up with Holly Hall on Twitter at @HallHolly and with Raymund Flandez at @Raymundf23.
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