Social Service/Public Welfare/Human Services

Agencies that serve individuals with developmental disabilities continue to bring millions of dollars into the region’s economy, with four organizations achieving combined revenues of nearly $280 million last year.

Those four organizations, led by the $109.3 million People Inc., are among 248 organizations with combined revenues of $1.94 billion, according to the Business First 2010 Million Dollar Nonprofits research report.

We'd like to introduce SOFII to those of our readers who don't know about it and share some of the fundraising efforts that have made it into the site's Best of the Best Showcase.

Toronto Community Foundation head discusses the organizations unique business model and being named "Outstanding Foundation" by the AFP Greater Toronto.

A suburban Philadelphia philanthropist who believes charity is a powerful incentive thinks he can help get Americans back to work one donation at a time.

Gene Epstein, 71, is promoting a $250,000 effort called Hire Just One, with plans to make $1,000 donations to charity in the name of businesses that hire an unemployed person and keep the worker on the payroll for at least six months.

Both fundraising revenue and donor growth remain flat from the first half of 2009 to the first half of 2010, according to the 2010 Target Analytics donorCentrics Index of National Fundraising Performance: 2010 Second Quarter Results report.

The ACLU's Leading Freedom Forward campaign transformed the organization's mind-set and major- and planned-giving strategies.

The $100 million gift to Human Rights Watch from billionaire George Soros announced last week will extend the overseas presence of the influential American rights champion and ensure its financial health for years to come. But the goal of the gift is more ambitious still: to alter the way human rights are promoted in the 21st century, making rights advocacy less of an exclusively American and European cause.

These are still grim times for many nonprofit organizations.

And then there's Goodwill Industries of Greater Detroit, a $22 million "business that happens to be a nonprofit," President Lorna Utley, a former General Motors Co. executive, told me this week. "About half of our revenue is earned. Very little of ours is philanthropic. A lot of our sources (for revenue) are changing."

Because they have to.

When the Haiti earthquake hit back in January, the outcry and response were swift and plentiful. In this new era of the iPhone and other mobile devices, the biggest buzz in the fundraising sector was generated from the mobile-giving explosion following the disaster. But the biggest takeaway for fundraisers — all of them, not just disaster-relief organizations — is that donors have certain, higher expectations these days, and your organization must meet them.

NEW YORK – June 7, 2010- In an unprecedented decision, The Charles Bronfman Prize today announced that two prizes will be given this year, each accompanied by a $100,000 award.  Both recipients are being recognized for their outstanding accomplishments in the field of Human Rights:  Jared Genser, Founder of Freedom Now, for his tireless defense of prisoners of conscience worldwide; and Sasha Chanoff, Founder of Mapendo International for his extraordinary efforts rescuing and resettling at-risk and forgotten African refugees. 

The Charles Bronfman Prize recognizes young humanitarians whose work is inspired by personal values and is of universal benefit to all people. Its goal is to bring public recognition to individuals whose Jewish values infuse their humanitarian accomplishments, and provide inspiration to the next generations.