Wachovia

Research company Phoenix Marketing International announced findings from its monthly study among affluent individual investors age 21+ with $100,000+ in investable assets.

Participants in the March 2012 monthly Phoenix brand health and advertising performance study reported that they typically donate less than $2,500 each year to charitable organizations. Donations do increase among higher income households, but not exponentially. Phoenix research shows that one-third of U.S. households with annual income in excess of $150,000 donate at least $5,000 annually and about one in six donate more than $10,000.

Charitable giving by America’s biggest companies will probably be flat in 2011, after a sharp rebound in 2010, according to a Chronicle of Philanthropy survey of 180 of businesses.

Cash giving rose by 13 percent, a relief to charities after the recession caused a decline of 7.5 percent by companies in 2009.

Seventy-four of the 107 companies from the Fortune 500 that provided projections said they expect this year’s giving to remain about the same as last year’s. Twenty-seven expect total giving to increase, while six expect a decrease.

The Arts & Science Council knew it wouldn’t be easy to pull off its 25-year cultural master plan to build new museums and a performing arts center. That wasn’t even counting the worst thing that eventually did go wrong: the recession and banking crisis that struck just two years into the council’s $83-million fundraising campaign, imploding its biggest corporate supporter and freezing philanthropists’ checkbooks.

Yet today Charlotte’s business district boasts three new art museums, a performing-arts theater and a remodeled children’s science museum.

Corporate profits are on the rebound, but most big businesses say it will be some time before they can give as much cash as they did before the recession, according to a Chronicle survey of 162 of the country’s largest corporations.

The United Negro College Fund has announced fellowship awards to eighteen African-American students through its Social Entrepreneurship K-12 Education Fellows Program, the inaugural project of UNCF's Social Entrepreneurship initiative.

Supported by a $1.08 million seed grant from the Walton Family Foundation and funding from the Wachovia Wells Fargo Foundation, the fellowship program is designed to build a pipeline of talented African-American college graduates equipped to enter careers that apply innovative, sustainable models to elementary and secondary education reform. Although research has demonstrated that reform efforts are more likely to be successful when their leadership includes members of groups likely to benefit from reform, organizations dedicated to school reform often lack diversity in their leadership.

Performance Research — While consumers generally appear to expect the same or higher level of corporate sponsorship from stable or profitable companies, a Performance Research study of American consumers revealed that one-third (32%) reported they are paying "Less attention" to corporate sponsorships than they were a year ago. Moreover, the majority would like to see less spending on sports sponsorships for companies experiencing any difficulties (62%), and particularly by those accepting federal assistance (68%).

SAN FRANCISCO, April 8, 2009 — Despite the down economy, Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) giving to nonprofits – combined with Wachovia Corporation – increased 5 percent to $226 million in 2008. Wells Fargo’s stand-alone 2008 giving rose 11 percent from the previous year to $102 million.