Paying for Overhead: A Study of the Impact of Foundations' Overhead Payment Policies on Educational and Human Service Organizations

Examines the impact of foundations' overhead funding policies on educational and human services organizations, using data from two original surveys and six case studies

The Challenges and Opportunities of Rural Philanthropy in America

Focus of research: giving in rural America. Giving by rural and non-rural residents; Giving by high-income rural and non-rural residents; Motivations for and impediments to giving

Religious Giving

Religious giving has grown every year in both nominal and inflation-adjusted dollars since it has been tracked by Giving USA in 1955. Even during recessions, religious giving has grown, but it has grown relatively slowly averaging only 2% per year over the last 40 years compared to 5% per year for total giving. Over the last decade religious giving has grown 2.1% per year vs. 6.5% per year for total giving. The result is that religious giving as a share of total giving has fallen dramatically from over one-half for many years to under one-third today. In spite of the fact that many talk of the Biblical tithe, the author finds that less than 3% of US households give 10% or more to religious organizations and only 8.3% give 5% or more of their income to religion (including the 2.6% who give 10% or more). The paper also finds substantial variation in average giving levels by various religious affiliations. However, virtually all of the major religious affiliations for which there was data in both 1987/89 and 2001, the author found religious giving as a share of income has fallen by between one-fourth and three-fourths and that most faiths have experienced a decline of approximately one-third. The paper finds that income and wealth are important predictors of how much households donate and that tax itemizers give more than non-itemizers, even after controlling for differences in income and wealth. Marrieds and those with more children give more to religion. Religious giving grows with educational attainment but does not vary by race or ethnicity after controlling for income, wealth, etc. Not surprisingly, those with a religious affiliation give more than those without and those who are unemployed give significantly less than those who are employed

A Better Method for Analyzing the Costs and Benefits of Fundraising at Universities

This article develops a new methodology for a more compre-hensive and useful analysis of the costs and benefits of fundrais-ing, as well as the total costs and net benefits associated with development efforts in general. This approach does a better job of linking the timing of return of fundraising efforts and mea-suring the actual return on investments in fundraising (as opposed to the reported return) than the widely used guidelines from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and the National Association of College and University Busi-ness Officers (CASE/NACUBO) (1990). The implications are a better methodology for practitioners that they can use to enhance internal decision making and a better methodology for boards to use in evaluating performance and accountability. Recently, other large, public universities have begun using sev-eral of these concepts in the assessment of their development offices (Rooney, 1998)

What's Been Happening to Charitable Giving Recently? A Look at the Data

Examines the impact of the recession on giving by individuals, foundations, bequests, and corporations; the effects of tax policy changes on individual giving and bequests; and the potential effects of capping the charitable deduction at 28 percent

Measuring the Impact of a Comprehensive Health and Wellness Initiative

As healthcare costs continue to rise across the country more companies are beginning to look for new strategies to cut costs. The evolving health and wellness industry has been shown to reduce expenditures from costly medical services by improving long term healthy behaviors in the work force, aiming to impact the demand and supply sides of healthcare. This paper looks at the history behind the health and wellness movement and specifically evaluates Healthy Incentives, King County\u27s own health and wellness initiative and the impact such a program has on direct medical expenditures as well as key health risk factors that are affecting millions of working Americans