Wealthy Donors

Tony Blair, who took Britain to war in Iraq and Afghanistan, is donating millions in earnings from his forthcoming memoir to a charity for injured troops. The Royal British Legion said Monday that the former prime minister has agreed to give all proceeds from "A Journey" to its Battle Back Challenge Center. The center opens in 2012 and will provide state of the art sports facilities and rehabilitation services for seriously wounded personnel.

Canada has 54 billionaires who could join the sole Canadian on Bill Gates and Warren Buffett's list of philanthropists pledging half of their wealth to charity. So what are they waiting for? Canadians haven't been invited to participate in the project in quite the same way Americans have, said Marvi Ricker, head of philanthropic services at BMO Harris Private Banking. Since the Microsoft power couple and oracle-investor challenged the richest U.S. citizens to donate half of their estates to charity six weeks ago, 40 American billionaires have signed on. Among them are Star Wars creator George Lucas, New York

As dozens of US billionaires pledge their fortunes to charity and the country struggles to shake off recession, philanthropy is a growing status symbol of the rich, experts say. Being wealthy may no longer be about how many properties or fast cars a millionaire owns — it could be about how much money they are giving away — bringing hope to charities that Warren Buffett and Bill Gates’ philanthropic push inspires others. 'It will be something that’s very important to the wealthy — to be able to say: ‘I give my money away as much as I spend it

But major college fundraisers know there have been fewer alumni willing to whip out their checkbooks these days. So they've been focusing almost exclusively on major donors for large gifts -- a strategy that paid off this week with news of some record-breaking increases in private contributions. "The number of million-dollar gifts are up dramatically," said Gene Tempel, president of the IU Foundation, "and we've been emphasizing those major gifts." The Bloomington-based foundation helped Indiana University raise $342.8 million in fiscal year 2010, a 38 percent increase from 2009 and the second-highest amount ever. Purdue and Notre Dame reported

U.S. billionaires pledging to give away at least half their wealth to charity can turn to the man in charge of Bill Gates' and Warren Buffett's philanthropy for advice -- but he doesn't want their donations. Since 2008 Jeff Raikes has been chief executive of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the world's largest charitable organizations with a $33 billion endowment funded by Microsoft(MSFT.O) founder Gates and investor Buffett. Raikes said the Gates and Buffett Giving Pledge campaign to urge America's rich to give away most of their fortunes during their lifetime or upon their death, which

The economy continues to cause the biggest donors to cut back on giving, a new study finds. The study of nearly 7,000 donors found a split between typical donors — those whose smallest gift was $81 — and more affluent donors, whose smallest gift was $135.

Only 8 percent of typical donors said they plan to give less in 2010, down from 17.5 percent last year. But among affluent donors, 11 percent said they'll give less this year overall and 17 percent of the top 10 percent of donors who gave the most money to charity.

Nonprofit organizations across the country are concerned that a budget plan on the verge of adoption in New York State limiting charitable deductions for “high earners” could catch on with other cash-starved state governments — and Congress — and cause a loss of significant contributions.

New York passed a budget plan that has a provision that would cut deductions taxpayers who earn more than $10 million annually can claim in half.

The Giving Pledge, the campaign launched by Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett to encourage the nation's billionaires to give at least half of their fortunes to charity, has announced that forty families and individuals have signed on to the pledge in its first six weeks.

Eighty-seven percent of financial advisers expect income taxes to increase for most of their clients in the next 12 to 18 months, with 26 percent predicting their clients will increase charitable giving to offset the tax hikes, according to the 2010 Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund Advice & Giving survey of 500 financial advisers.

Forty-eight percent of advisers “expect their clients to maintain their level of giving, despite continuing market uncertainty and an overall decline in U.S. charitable giving in 2009,” according to the Fidelity report.

Billionaire Paul Allen has taken his friend Bill Gates up on his challenge to publicly pledge the majority of his wealth to philanthropy.

Allen, who is 57, said today that he plans to leave the majority of his $13 billion estate to philanthropy to continue the work of his foundation and to fund scientific research. It was also a way of marking the 20th anniversary of the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, which he started in 1990 with his sister, Jo Lynn Allen, and has since given 3,000 grants totaling about $400 million.