Changing Our World Inc.

With the U.S. economy stuck on pause, or perhaps headed for a double-dip recession, nonprofits must plan for the possibility that public funding may never fully rebound and even may continue to shrink, a new report says.

And with the rise in unemployment, which historically has correlated to a drop in individual giving, and with flagging consumer confidence, "it is unlikely that philanthropy will be able to shoulder the decline in public finance," says the report "The Public Finance Crisis: Can Philanthropy Shoulder the Burden," by Changing Our World.

Bill Gates, the college dropout who started the world's richest charitable fund, said needy people depend on self-made millionaires and billionaires to donate money before passing their wealth on to less-generous heirs.

"Our experience worldwide is that first-generation wealth is actually more generous than dynastic wealth," Gates, the richest American, said Thursday in a news conference in New Delhi. "Both here in India and U.S. and other countries, the biggest givers are those who are receivers of first-generation wealth."

While the popular uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa have posed immediate challenges for charities, many nonprofit officials say they are hopeful that philanthropy will soon have new opportunities in the region. The starkest example of a new climate may be in Tunisia, where the mid-January ouster of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, the country’s authoritarian president, has meant that nonprofits once repressed by the government are now advising the political transition.

MANCHESTER, N.H., July 28, 2009 ― FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), a not-for-profit organization founded by inventor Dean Kamen to inspire young people’s interest and participation in science and technology, announced today that Roy Temper has been named Vice President of Development.

Like any charity event, a golf tournament has the potential to raise a good deal of money for a nonprofit organization. Community members and local companies alike often are eager to participate with charitable contributions and other support.

But — also like any event, charity or otherwise — golf tournaments take a good deal of planning to be successful.

Why Bill Gates Is Not a Prospect for Your Campaign FS Advisor: July 19, 2005 By Robert Hoak Every year, development directors of nonprofits wait with bated breath for the arrival of the Forbes 400 List of the Richest People in America, the fundraiser’s guide to where the big money is. Right? You have a great project. Bill Gates gives away a lot of money. You should have Bill at the top of your prospect list. He would be a great prospect, right? Wrong! Unless your organization is immunizing against Hepatitis B in Andhra Pradesh or administering a library with a cutting-edge technology

That dream. We’ve all had it: You’re back in school, sitting down to take the final exam, and you haven’t attended a class all semester. And the exam is on advanced Russian or trigonometry … or nuclear physics.

That’s how it can feel to walk into a major-gift meeting without being properly prepared. It’s that make-it-or-break-it moment, the final exam that will decide your grade.