Posts Tagged ‘philanthropy’
Posted by Jon Howard on January 15, 2010 in Effectiveness, World News
It’s hard to be hard-headed about giving to Haiti when people are hungry, thirsty and injured. But before you reflexively hit the DONATE NOW FOR HAITI button on the first email (or text message) you see, take a moment to consider your own values. Even in emergencies, perhaps most of all in emergencies, it’s important to try to give in ways that can help to avert similar disasters in the future.
Timothy A. Wise reminds us that “aid is power” in his 2005 blog posting Humanitarian Crises: What is a Progressive to Do? A lot of American aid power goes, intentionally or unintentionally, to helping entrench American businesses and exports at the expense of local products and producers. Food aid often winds up driving local produce and producers out of business. Reconstruction contracts with international construction firms undercut local professionals, builders and workers. Wise advises sticking with agencies which were present before the crisis and will stick around later and those with clear strategies to build local capacity.
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Posted by Gayle Gifford on December 21, 2009 in Fundraising
I’m always curious about donor thinking and like to explore the why’s of giving. As there is one donor I know pretty well, I thought I’d dissect her giving. 
Taking stock
Before the year draws to an end, I review my all my charitable contributions to see how I’m doing and to be sure I’ve haven’t forgotten any of my favorite causes.
I can do this pretty quickly because throughout the year as I make gifts I’ve been recording them on my “Contributions” spreadsheet. That way, I can see at a glance who I remembered and who I forgot. I find this a lot easier than my old system of searching through my canceled checks and credit card statements. The spreadsheet also helps me remember when I receive a new appeal if I’ve already reached my giving target for that organization. And it has really helped speed up my tax preparation.
Giving schedules
The end of year is a real cash crunch for me as our house insurance, car insurance, life insurance are all due. There are also holiday gifts and plane tickets to get my sons back from college. So it’s not a great time for me to be making donations.
I’ve been trying to spread my giving out throughout the year. Larger gifts I’ve been doing in installments or at times that I’m feeling more cash flush. I really don’t love putting gifts on credit cards as I’d rather all my giving went to the organizations I support.
But at the end of the year, if I’ve missed an important cause, out comes the credit card.
Giving Benchmarks
One of my speculations about giving is that people would be more generous if they had better benchmarks.
A few days ago my daughter shared that she was going to set a person tithing formula for her giving. Many faiths have a “tithing requirement” that sets a benchmark for personal support. States that have high percentages of their population in faiths that tithe seem to report higher overall giving. Yet most of us don’t view our charitable giving in this way.
In 1987 Independent Sector launched a campaign to Give Five, encouraging individuals to give 5% of their income and five hours a week to the causes they cared about.
Today, the average US donor gives to charity in these amounts:
- Low income households give about 4.5% of their income
- Middle class households give about 2.5%
- Higher income households give about 3%
So how does our household compare? Read More >>
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Posted by Gayle Gifford on June 16, 2008 in Great quotes, Tidbits
My friend and colleague Herb Kaplan died June 14, 2008 at age 78.
Herb taught me the word “tzedakah,” the Hebrew word for the acts we call charity. The root of tzedakah means righteousness, justice or fairness. Herb and I shared that belief in the power and obligation of philanthropy.
“Give until it feels good” was Herb’s answer to anyone who asked him “how much should I give?”
He loved young people and chose to mentor them, including young fundraising professionals.
The Association of Fundraising Professionals, Rhode Island Chapter, honored Herb by naming its endowment fund at the Rhode Island Foundation for him. Herb championed the growth of this endowment so that its earnings would fuel the professional development of more young fundraisers.
Thank you, Herb, for your life, your good works and your lessons.
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Posted by Gayle Gifford on May 28, 2008 in Better Boards, Big ideas, Fundraising
I just received a link from the Association of Fundraising Professionals to a Christian Science Monitor article on a proposal being floated in Massachusetts to tax college endowments that exceed $1 billion.
The pros and cons of the discussion are centered around whether the colleges are spending enough of their endowments to lower tuition … and the colleges are responding with all kinds of statistics about their contributions to the local economy.
But the question I haven’t seen posed yet to the Harvards of the world is the one I asked above: How much is enough?
A few years ago I was facilitating a strategic planning process with a community center in a small oceanside community. Overall, the townsfolk were pretty well-off financially (with the exception of the service folk and farmers whose families had lived in this community forever). The community center was fortunate to have a small endowment that helped supplement their annual operating expenses.
During the course of our conversation, one of the board members posed the question: If someone wanted to leave us a million dollars, should we take it? I was floored… in my 20 Read More >>
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