The challenges facing contemporary society are enormous. Think about helping to solve hunger, homelessness, climate change, disease (including pandemics), gun violence, income inequality, discrimination, threats to democracy, education, environmental degradation and so much more. Traditional philanthropic investments have been working for decades to make a dent in solving these problems. In some cases, much progress…
Category: Family & Individuals
Hungry for Change – simple questions to ask about the ongoing problem of food insecurity in the U.S.
The winter holidays are right around the corner. Soon, many Americans will gather around the dinner table with family and friends to give thanks for abundant blessings and freedoms as they indulge in a cornucopia of delicious traditional foods. Leftovers will last for days. Then, in December, people of different faiths and traditions will celebrate…
Charity “Grand Bargain” strained by Religious Nonprofit Tax Exemption
Over a century ago, Mark Twain prophetically cautioned that “no church property is taxed and so the infidel and the atheist and the man without religion are taxed to make up the deficit in the public income.” In 1937, 73% of Americans said they were a member of a church. A Gallup survey in 2020…
Setting New Table for Family Philanthropy Helps Families Thrive
Many of us grew up sitting at the family dinner table. Often, it was rectangular, with the family’s primary bread winner(s) sitting at his or her end of the table. Regardless of the shape, the rest of the family sat at designated seats, night after night, year after year. Sometimes, long after the kids had…
Nonprofit hospitals highlight important questions about the Charity “Grand Bargain”
The charity “Grand Bargain” in the U.S. allows nonprofit organizations to perform charitable, religious, educational and scientific purposes for the “public good,” often relieving government from performing those same functions. In return for their contribution to the public good, nonprofits are deemed tax-exempt organizations, which means they typically don’t pay income, sales or property tax…
Pressure builds to increase giving requirements and expand charitable deductions
Over $1.1 trillion currently sits in private foundations and donor-advised funds (DAFs) in the U.S. These two charitable intermediary tools have grown tremendously in recent years, fueled by tax-deductible contributions for the wealthiest of Americans. By 2019, 12.7% of all individual giving went to DAFs and an additional 15.1% went to private foundations – an…
Eight Steps for Effective Family Giving
Over the last decade of working with multi-generational families, helping them to become more effective with their philanthropy, I have learned many lessons. The field of strategic philanthropy is more sophisticated and complex than ever and the understanding of philanthropic “best practices” has evolved. Some of the challenges we face in today’s world may seem…
Pandemic Puts Nonprofits in Peril: What Donors Can Do
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a crushing impact on the nonprofit sector that employs about 14% of the U.S. workforce, nearly half of which works for nonprofit hospitals and universities. The remaining half, working mostly for smaller and under- or un-endowed entities, has been severely impacted. In December 2020, the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil…
Potbellied Pig Rescue and Hate Groups: Charities Aiding the “Public Good?”
The charity “deal” in the U.S. goes something like this: Nonprofit organizations are established and approved because they perform a service that is thought to be good for society, often relieving government from performing those same functions. In return for their contribution to the “public good,” they are deemed tax-exempt organizations, which means they usually…
Philanthropy predictions for 2021
2020 is a year most of us are happy to leave behind. Amid the many disheartening challenges we endured, there were also some positive developments in the philanthropy field that will impact giving in 2021 and beyond. Here’s some of what I’ll be looking for in this New Year: From charity to justice 2020’s racial…