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***Online
Exclusives***
| Thanks to our loyal
readers, and our vigilant editorial staff, we receive news and information
on the latest happenings in philanthropy. Below are just a few of our
most recent items. If you have a philanthropic "first" or breaking
news item, email it to us. |
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Posted
October 21, 2003
Using Real Estate To Address Today's Fiscal Crisis
An article submitted to us from our friends at
Equis Corporation.
To read the PDF click here.
Posted
October 20, 2003
Interesting Fact: Wal-Mart Equals
Philanthropy
For those of you looking to add an interesting statistic in your keynote
address or cocktail party conversation, some stats I read in a recent New
York Times article about Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in the world,
combined with my sources in the nonprofit sector are quite intriguing.
Wal-Mart (1)
1.4 million employees
$245 billion in sales
$10-14/hour - the average wages and benefits of a full-time worker
Philanthropy
1.4 million nonprofit organizations (2)
$241 billion in total giving (3)
$16.54/hour- the average value of volunteer time (4)
Sources:
1. New York Times, Wal-Mart,
Driving Workers and Supermarkets Crazy, October 19, 2003
2. Internal Revenue Service, Exempt Organizations Business Master File
(2003)
The Urban Institute, National Center for Charitable Statistics,
http://nccsdataweb.urban.org
3. Giving USA 2003, AAFRC Trust for Philanthropy
4. Independent Sector
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| Posted May 28, 2003
Give2Asia to launch SARS Fund.
Click here to read their
announcement (pdf file).
Posted
May 13, 2003
More DAFs than Foundations
More DAFs than Foundations: A significant event in philanthropy went
unnoticed in 2001. It's official...and you heard it here first, there are
now more
donor advised funds than foundations in the United States. The May 15,
2003, edition of The Chronicle of
Philanthropy reported that donors had set-up 62,245 donor advised fund
accounts by 2001, while the Foundation Center estimated that 61,180
private, community and corporate foundations were in existence that same
year. While the number of private foundations accelerated in the
late-1990s, donor advised fund growth has been even faster. Despite the
weak economy, the number of donor advised fund accounts grew 12.2 percent
70,066 in 2002.
What does this mean for philanthropy? On the one hand, it means that
philanthropy is becoming "democratized." Instead of the exclusive province
of individuals of significant wealth where you need $3-$5 million to set
up your foundation, the "price" of entry is a few simple forms, and
$10,000.
It also means that philanthropy is maturing. For decades, financial
experts have been advising their clients to diversify their portfolios,
and allocate their investments among a number of vehicles (CDs, mutual
funds, IRAs, etc.) so as to minimize their risk and maximize their return.
Now the same is occurring in philanthropy. A generation ago, wealthy
individuals equated philanthropy as two options -- the checkbook or the
foundation. Over the last 30 years, with the emergence of community
foundations, national donor advised funds, and planned giving specialists,
coupled with an interest among financial service firms to serve high net
worth clients, the same message is being delivered to philanthropists.
Don't tie up all your charitable assets in a foundation -- establish a
donor advised fund, set up a charitable remainder trust, or charitable
gift annuity.
Contrary to some of my colleagues, philanthropy is not a zero-sum game.
The rise of donor advised funds does take away from other charitable
giving options. Our experience is that it augments it -- expanding the pie
of giving. As Bill Bradley, Paul Jansen and Les Silverman noted in the
current Harvard Business Review (“The
Nonprofit Sector’s $100 Billion Opportunity") “[Donor Advised Funds]
offer tremendous convenience. They help donors research grantees, and by
lowering start-up costs…they actually encourage [donors] to give more.”
This is big news -- too bad everyone missed it.
(First Posted on "The
Philanthropist Weblog")
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| Posted April 8,
2003
Philanthropy as an Export: The annual
Transatlantic Community Foundation Network plenary meeting took place
in Newcastle (England) March 28 - April 2, 2003, despite the Iraq-war.
Community Foundation experts from the USA, Canada, Mexico and 10 European
Countries came together, hosted by the Community Foundation serving Tyne &
Wear and Northumberland, Europe's most successful Community Foundation (33
Mio. Euro in assets). The TCFN-conference gives strong evidence for the
consistency and reliability of the Transatlantic relations on the level of
Community Foundations. These feelings were emphasized by Sir John Weston,
former British ambassador to the UN and NATO, in his Dinner Speech. Sir
John is now chairman of the
Community Foundation Network UK. Currently 46 Community Foundations
from 14 different countries are members of TCFN. During the past decade
the Community Foundation concept has spread rapidly around the globe.
Although first invented in the US, its no longer a uniquely American
concept. Much of the growth in continental Europe has taken place in
Germany, thanks in part to the
Bertelsmann Foundation which established Germany's first Community
Foundation in its hometown of Gutersloh -- since then 46 Community
Foundations have been established. The results of the network are
published on
TCFN's website .
Thanks to:
Kärim Chatti, Program
Officer
Philanthropy and Foundations,
Bertelsmann Foundation |
| Posted
March 26, 2003
America's Most Prestigious Boards: Make no
mistake, serving on the board of directors of a charitable institution is
special. But what if you also had the opportunity to serve with the likes
of actor Denzel Washington, American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault, or
FedEx Founder and CEO Fred Smith? Worth magazine interviewed dozens of
experts in the 20 largest metropolitan areas to compile a list of the 100
most prestigious nonprofit boards of directors. Worth is currently
redesigning their website, so we have
included the list of the nonprofits. A complete description of the
institutions can be found in Worth’s March 2003 edition.
Source: Worth magazine, and
the typing skills of Harvest Today's editorial staff. |
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