Why the $41 Trillion Wealth Transfer Estimate Is Still Valid: A Review of Challenges and Questions

Despite the economic downturn and the fall of the equity markets, the nationally noted projection that a wealth transfer of at least $41 trillion will take place in the United States by the year 2052 remains valid. Following a thorough review of our 1999 report "Millionaires and the Millennium: New Estimates of the Forthcoming Wealth Transfer and the Prospects for a Golden Age of Philanthropy," we conclude in this article that its projections have not been significantly affected by recent and prevailing economic conditions. The current report reviews the validity of the$41 trillion estimate in light of recent economic conditions, as well as several other critical challenges. While the new commentary does not explicitly deal with the middle- and upper-growth scenarios, the arguments made in support of the $41 trillion estimate often apply to the higher estimates. The principal conclusion is that the$41 trillion estimate remains valid as a 2% growth estimate, even in light of recessionary growth, depressed stock market, and several other criticisms discussed in th

Wealth and the Commonwealth: new findings on wherewithal and philanthropy

Drawing in large part on the 1995 Survey of Consumer Finances, the authors describe the pattern of charitable giving by families at the upper reaches of income and wealth, as well as across the income spectrum. The overriding empirical motif is that the distribution of charitable giving is more highly skewed toward the upper end of the financial spectrum than previously documented, and that there appears to be a trend toward becoming even more so. The overriding theoretical motif is that income and wealth are so thoroughly imbricated, especially at the upper end of the financial spectrum, that the analyses of the determinants of charitable giving need to shift from their current focus on the dynamics of income to a complementary focus on the dynamics of wealth

Geography and Generosity: Boston and Beyond

Presents findings from a study of the giving patterns of residents of Boston, Massachusetts, and New England, compared with other cities, states, and regions, based on an index created as an alternative to the Catalog for Philanthropy's Generosity Index

A Golden Age of Philanthropy?: The Impact of the Great Wealth Transfer on Greater Boston

Estimates the baseline household wealth and the expected wealth transfer in the Boston metropolitan area over the next fifty years. Examines the distribution of wealth, final estates, and charitable bequests, and analyzes the transfer's significance

Center on Wealth and Philanthropy Charitable Giving Indices: Social Indicators of Philanthropy by State

Ranks each state's total charitable giving in 2004 relative to the financial capacity of its population to give, with separate indices for before-tax income, after-tax income, and after-tax income adjusted for two cost-of-living measures

A Methodological Comparison of Giving Surveys: Indiana as a Test Case

Every 4 years, the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University conducts a telephone survey (called Indiana Gives) of the giving and volunteering behaviors of Indiana citizens. In preparing to conduct Indiana Gives for 2000, a larger methodological question was asked: How much does survey methodology matter in generating accurate measures of giving and volunteering? In this most recent wave of the Indiana survey, conducted in October and November 2000, eight groups of approximately 100 randomly selected Indiana residents were asked to complete one of eight surveys related to giving and volunteering. It was found that the longer the module and the more detailed its prompts, the more likely a household was to recall making any charitable contribution and the higher the average level of its giving. These differences persisted even after controlling for differences in age, educational attainment, income, household status, race, and gender.ARNOV

Geography and Giving: The Culture of Philanthropy in New England and the Nation

Looks at aggregate household wealth and income at the national level and for Massachusetts as a state, and analyzes levels of charitable giving in relation to household income

Synergistic HNO3_{3}–H2_{2}SO4_{4}–NH3_{3} upper tropospheric particle formation

New particle formation in the upper free troposphere is a major global source of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN)$^{1,2,3,4}$. However, the precursor vapours that drive the process are not well understood. With experiments performed under upper tropospheric conditions in the CERN CLOUD chamber, we show that nitric acid, sulfuric acid and ammonia form particles synergistically, at rates that are orders of magnitude faster than those from any two of the three components. The importance of this mechanism depends on the availability of ammonia, which was previously thought to be efficiently scavenged by cloud droplets during convection. However, surprisingly high concentrations of ammonia and ammonium nitrate have recently been observed in the upper troposphere over the Asian monsoon region5,6. Once particles have formed, co-condensation of ammonia and abundant nitric acid alone is sufficient to drive rapid growth to CCN sizes with only trace sulfate. Moreover, our measurements show that these CCN are also highly efficient ice nucleating particles—comparable to desert dust. Our model simulations confirm that ammonia is efficiently convected aloft during the Asian monsoon, driving rapid, multi-acid HNO$_{3}$–H$_{2}$SO$_{4}$–NH$_{3}$ nucleation in the upper troposphere and producing ice nucleating particles that spread across the mid-latitude Northern Hemisphere