Executive Issues

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn., November 4, 2009 — The Minnesota Council on Foundations (MCF) today released its Giving in Minnesota, 2009 Edition research report, the most comprehensive analysis of charitable giving in the state. In examining foundations and corporate giving programs with fiscal years ending between June 1, 2007, and May 31, 2008 - the most recent time period for which complete data are available - MCF analyzed the state's charitable giving for the months leading up to and during the very earliest part of the recession.

November 4, 2009, The Chronicle of Philanthropy — A new report suggests that grant makers will cut back their giving this year more than previously expected.

November 3, 2009, GovExec — Since he arrived at the Office of Personnel Management in April, Director John Berry has been an active advocate for federal charitable giving. The summer-long Feds Feed Families canned food drive collected more than 1 million pounds of goods for food banks nationwide, and Berry is confident that federal employees of all ages also will deliver for the 2009 Combined Federal Campaign, which kicked off in early September and runs through Dec. 15.

With the global number of users on Facebook now fast approaching the size of the U.S. population, it’s surely clear that time is up for anyone who still wants to ignore online social networking as a passing fad. However, while nonprofits now generally recognize the need to take it very seriously, most still struggle to understand how they can best fit it into their fundraising programs.

November 1, 2009, The NonProfit Times — When the Children's Aid Society in New York City went looking for a new CEO, they were looking for someone with an entrepreneurial spirit. They found Richard Buery, Jr.

INDIANAPOLIS, November 2, 2009 — Gender does not generally predict whether someone who donates to charity is likely to leave a charitable bequest in his or her will, according to a study released today by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.

October 29, 2009, The Chronicle of Philanthropy — Bruised by the deepest recession in decades, the nation's most-successful fund-raising organizations anticipate that giving will decline this year by a median of 9 percent, according to a new survey by The Chronicle of Philanthropy. That would mean that half of the charities in the survey expect an even steeper drop.

WASHINGTON, October 28, 2009, Reuters — Charitable giving tends to peak in the last two months of the year as donors are doubly inspired by the holiday spirit and the prospects of boosting their year-end tax-deductible spending. But they often diminish the power of those donations by not carefully targeting their gifts or by making them in a less tax-advantaged way.

October 23, 2009, The Associated Press — As charities prepare for year-end donation drives, the worst recession in decades has given pause to the philanthropist next door.

INDIANAPOLIS — More than two-thirds of congregations in a new study on congregational finances in the current recession reported that their fundraising receipts increased or remained the same in the first half of 2009 compared to 2008, even as the recession was worsening.