Giving Circles and Fundraising in the New Philanthropy Environment

Looks at giving circles, groups of like-minded individuals who pool their resources to support charitable causes. Provides lessons learned from leaders of charitable organizations about how to approach and develop a relationship with a giving circle

Book Review: The Concept of Community: Lessons From the Bronx

A book review of DeRienzo, H. (2008). The Concept of Community: Lessons From the Bronx. Milan, Italy: IPOC di Pietro Condemi

Obama\u27s budget offers smart shift

Beginning in 2011, President Barack Obama\u27s proposed budget plan would reduce the value of charitable tax deductions for wealthy Americans (families with more than $250,000 in income, 1.2 percent of households) to 28 cents on the dollar. At the same time, the president\u27s budget also would increase taxes for this group (from 33 percent and 35 percent to 36 percent and 39.6 percent of their income) to help pay for reshaping the nation\u27s health care system. The tax deduction changes would not affect foundations or Americans making less than$250,000 a year. Some in the philanthropic community argue that this change would decrease the charitable giving of wealthy donors. However, the data are unclear as to whether the changes really would have a net negative effect

Who Benefits From Giving Circles in the U.S. and the U.K.?

Giving circles have emerged around the world as an alternative to mainstream, bureaucratic philanthropy. This article examines the types of organizations that benefit from giving circles in the U.S. and the U.K., drawing on data from interviews, surveys, observations, and documentation collected in both countries. The findings show that giving circles tend to fund certain types of organizations — often those that are small and locally based, startups and newer organizations that are reorganizing or transitioning, those that have a business orientation, and those that can engage members or show significant impact in relation to their size. While some populations, such as women and girls and those from minority racial and ethnic groups, appear to be benefiting more from giving circles than had been the case in traditional philanthropy, giving circles may do little to shift the norm — that most philanthropy does not go to the poor and needy. For organized philanthropy, supporting giving circles may be a means to expand giving to traditionally underserved groups and might help shift funding to smaller community organizations

Social Networking, Learning, and Civic Engagement: New Relationships between Professors and Students, Public Administrators and Citizens

Social networking is increasingly ubiquitous, and there is growing demand for professors and public administrators to use social networking to engage with students and citizens in new and more collaborative ways. However, using such tools effectively poses challenges for professors and public administrators. The focus of this paper is to explore the implications of using social networking for learning, professor-student relationships, and civic engagement. Using social networking applications in public affairs classrooms may provide an opportunity for professors to connect with students in new ways to enhance student empowerment and learning and enable students to learn how to more effectively use these tools for citizen empowerment and engagement

The Hidden Costs of Cause Marketing

From pink ribbons to Product Red, cause marketing adroitly serves two masters, earning profits for corporations while raising funds for charities. Yet the short-term benefits of cause marketing—also known as consumption philanthropy—belie its long-term costs. These hidden costs include individualizing solutions to collective problems; replacing virtuous action with mindless buying; and hiding how markets create many social problems in the first place. Consumption philanthropy is therefore unsuited to create real social change

Gastrophilanthropy: Utopian Aspiration and Aspirational Consumption as Political Retreat

In this paper we inquire into the practice of gastrophilanthropy—the individualized consumption of food products under the aegis of philanthropic action. In particular, we examine the case of the philanthropic cupcake. By positioning gastrophilanthropy within the complex of consumption and social relations of power we attempt to shed light on why it has become so well accepted in society today and how the impulse to consume and the impulse to be philanthropic relate to each other and to the contemporary political moment. We question the transformative impact of gastrophilanthropy on those who practice it and on those for whom it is supposedly practiced

Social and Technological Innovation in Teaching Public Affairs: Introduction to the Symposium

Technology can be defined as “the social, material, or cloud/cyberspace tools used to manipulate human behavior to achieve a specified objective.” In the classroom, teachers use a variety of technologies to elicit desired student response or output and ultimately to achieve a level of learning appropriate for particular students. For example, decisions to use a chalk/white board versus PowerPoint during a lecture are often made based on the nature of engagement desired with the students. Arranging seats or desks in a classroom in a lecture format, an open circle, or an open square generates different types of engagement among and with students. Social media and networking tools enable relationships to develop that may not have been possible in a strictly face-to-face environment, particularly within the time constraints of a typical class period

The Impact of Giving Together

Giving circles are made up of individuals who pool their resources and then decide together where these should be distributed. They also include social, educational, and engagement components that seem to engage participants in their communities and increase members’ understanding of philanthropy and community issues. This study examines if and how participation in a giving circle has changed members’ behaviorrelated to giving, volunteering, and civic engagement. In addition, we asked if and how participation in a giving circle has changed members’ awareness or knowledge about philanthropy, nonprofit organizations, and community issues. Finally, we wanted to know if and how participation in a giving circle has changed members’ perceptions or attitudes about philanthropy, community issues, citizen, government and nonprofit roles and responsibilities or political and social values. To address these areas, data were gathered through a survey of 341 current and past members of 26 giving circles of various types, sizes, and identity groups across the U.S., as well as a control group of 246 donors and public service graduate students and practitioners; semi-structured interviews with 30 giving circle members and past members from 11 giving circles; and participant observation in four giving circles.Aspen Institute Nonprofit Sector and Philanthropy Program Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University University of Nebraska at Omaha School of Public Administratio

Snapshot: The Impact of Giving Together

Donors in giving circles give more, give more strategically, and are more engaged in their communities, according to a new study by Dr. Angela Eikenberry and Jessica Bearman with research assistance from Melissa Brown, Hao Han, and Courtney Jensen. ever since giving circles—groups of individual donors who pool their money and other resources and decide together where these should be distributed—emerged as a philanthropic trend, we have speculated about their impact. Do donors give more or give differently because they are involved in a giving circle? Do they become more engaged and active in their communities? Are they more politically active? Until now, the evidence of giving circles’ impact on donors was mainly qualitative. Now, this new study examines, in a more comprehensive and quantitative manner, the impact of giving circles on their members’ giving and civic engagement.