News/Stats/Studies

Over the past decade, U.S. foundation support for programs benefiting Hispanics and Latinos has held steady at approximately 1 percent of overall foundation funding, even as the Hispanic population in the country has grown significantly, a new report from the Foundation Center finds.

According to Foundation Funding for Hispanics/Latinos in the United States and for Latin America, total grant funding targeting Latinos in the U.S. between 2007 and 2009 averaged about $206 million a year, while funding for Latin America averaged roughly $350 million annually.

The National FFA Foundation announced it raised a record $16 million through corporate and private financial contributions to support FFA in 2011.

The foundation welcomed 40 new corporate sponsors in 2011, raising the total number to 1,212. Three new corporations combined for a $3 million gift to FFA. The foundation also drew more than 80 new companies and organizations as exhibitors at the 2011 National FFA Convention & Expo, the nation’s largest gathering of students. More than 53,350 FFA members, teachers and school administrators attended the 2011 event.

In an online study of donors who had given by any method, conducted Nov. 15-17, 2011, Dunham + Co. discovered that online giving has become an important option for donors who are 60 years of age or older.

The study found that while 61 percent of all donors surveyed had given an online gift at some point, a surprising one out of two donors (51 percent) 60 years old and older said they had done so.

As end-of-the year giving gets under way, some charities like the American Red Cross are skipping disaster pictures and switching to gentler imagery to urge people to forgo extraneous holiday gifts and, instead, give “something that means something.”

To deliver its message, the American Red Cross has a new animated character in its multimedia campaign highlighting the seasonal dilemma of whether to please family and friends with material gifts or to give them something that betters the lives of others.

Despite signs the economy is improving, nonprofits that rely on state money should brace for at least two more years of tough times, a new report warns.

The report, prepared by Changing Our World, a philanthropy consulting firm, traces the evolution of the economic crisis, assesses its impact on state budgets, and explores whether philanthropy can make up for the loss of government spending on social programs.

The T.J. Martell Foundation, the music industry’s largest foundation that supports leukemia, cancer and AIDS research, is proud to unveil the “My New Year’s Wish” campaign in time for the holiday season.

By logging onto mynewyearswish.com, donors have the opportunity to make a tax deductible contribution, upload their photo and add their New Year’s Wish or New Year’s Resolution for 2012.

Sixty-five percent of charities surveyed report increased demand for their services in 2011, but just 41 percent saw increased fundraising results in the first nine months of 2011 compared to the same period a year ago, according to the Late Fall 2011 Nonprofit Fundraising Study, conducted by the Nonprofit Research Collaborative.

Smaller charities, those with less than $3 million in total expenditures and which make up 90 percent of the nation’s nonprofit organizations, saw disproportionate declines in funds raised and were more likely to report they are planning budget and services cuts in 2012.

The Open Society Foundations announced the appointment of Christopher Stone as its next president, effective July 2012. For almost three decades the Open Society Foundations have been committed to promoting justice, human rights, health, and education around the world.

Stone currently is the Guggenheim Professor of the Practice of Criminal Justice at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and director of the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations.

People in the United States and United Kingdom overwhelmingly trust nonprofits and charities ahead of governments and corporations to create social change, yet most say they will make charitable donations at the same or reduced levels as last year, according to a new survey by Fenton and GlobeScan.

Several recent surveys indicate that charities and nonprofits can expect giving to be more bountiful at the end of 2011, particularly compared to the last two years. Moreover, donors seem to be taking into account current economic challenges and government cutbacks when deciding where to give: A recent poll by the Charity Navigator, for instance, found human-service groups, such as food banks and homeless shelters, top the list of where respondents plan to give.