News/Stats/Studies

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.

Girl Scouts of the USA announced that it is launching Girl Scouts Forever Green, its signature 100th year anniversary action project focused on waste reduction, energy conservation and rain gardens. Alcoa Foundation provided a two-year $1.5 million grant to expand the program globally to 20 countries. This grant will enable U.S. and international councils to work together and lead their families, schools and communities in improving the environment and protecting natural resources.

Donations to charities are bouncing back after two years of recession, but the weight of philanthropic giving still rests on the shoulders of older Canadians.

Statistics Canada data released Monday show that tax filers claimed donations of just under $8.3-billion in 2010, up 6.5 percent from 2009. At the same time, the number of donors increased 2.2 percent to just over 5.7 million Canadians, but the average age of donors remains 53 — a figure that has remained relatively the same for the past decade.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation announced a $3 million commitment to provide capital for financing retail, production, processing and distribution of fresh food to reach lower-income communities in Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico and New Orleans. The capital will be made available through the foundation’s mission-driven investment work in partnership with NCB Capital Impact (Capital Impact) of Arlington, Va., a Community Development Financial Institution.

An extra 1.1 million people made donations in the year to April but the median average monthly donation — which excludes the effect of the most wealthy philanthropists — fell from $18.85 to $17.28.

The Office for National Statistics surveyed more than 3,000 adults for the study.

It found the total value of donations was about $17.3 billion — the same as last year.

The survey was carried out by the ONS on behalf of for the Charities Aid Foundation and National Council for Voluntary Organisations.

A trio of money managers who shared a $254 million Powerball jackpot kicked off the first of many charitable donations by splitting a $1 million gift among five veterans' service organizations.

The Putnam Avenue Family Trust announced that donations of $200,000 each were being given to the five groups for their work helping veterans and military members who have recently returned from deployments: the Bob Woodruff Foundation, Building Homes for Heroes, Services for the UnderServed, the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund and Operation First Response.