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…
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Bruce DeBoskey is an award winning, nationally-syndicated author of columns and articles in newspapers and magazines such as The Denver Post, The Miami Herald, the Chicago Tribune, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the Albuquerque Journal, the Sacramento Bee, the Kansas City Star, the Lexington Herald-Leader, the Charlotte Observer, the Fort-Worth Star-Telegram, 5280 Magazine, the Costco Connection, Boston College's Corporate Citizen Magazine, The Denver Foundation's Give Magazine, the Boulder Jewish News, Investments & Wealth Monitor, Company Week and many more. Bruce's columns are distributed by the Chicago Tribune News Service to over 600 newspapers and other news outlets across the U.S. and abroad.
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…
Don’t Stand by this Holiday Season
We’re living (and dying) in a “quadfecta” of 1) A raging, unprecedented pandemic, 2) Economic inequality and hardship at the highest levels in memory, 3) Racial injustice permeating almost every aspect of American life and 4) Climate change eating away at our planet, and the lives it sustains. Although we’re all experiencing the same storm,…
Erasing hunger in America requires more than charity
The holidays are around the corner and, for tens of millions of our neighbors across the U.S., this will be a time of scarcity, insecurity, worry and, in the richest nation on earth, hunger. Consider these facts: Prior to COVID-19, 37 million people in the U.S. struggled with hunger. Feeding America, the nation’s third largest…
Start planning your year-end giving now
In 2019, U.S. giving to charity totaled nearly $450 billion. Historically, nearly one-third of that amount takes place in December, with 12% of all giving occurring in the last three days of the year. December and last-minute giving is often rushed, not well-planned, nor strategic. In order to maximize the impact of your giving, whether…
How donors can advance racial justice
George Floyd…Breonna Taylor…Daniel Prude…Jacob Blake. The long road to racial justice in this country has been rocky and painful. It started long before these four people became household names and will, tragically, go well beyond their injuries and deaths. In response to these tragedies, many donors – whether in private or public foundations, donor-advised funds,…
Communities and nonprofits need corporate giving now more than ever
Just one year ago, in 2019, U.S. corporate philanthropy increased by 13.4% over 2018 to $21.09 billion. However, those donations represented a mere 5% of the nearly $450 billion in total U.S. giving. Today, the world has changed and we are experiencing the triple whammy of the uncontrolled coronavirus, the long-overdue expansion of the racial…
Lack of accountability and transparency put philanthropy at an inflection point
Right now, the very way philanthropy works in the U.S. is being critically examined by a growing chorus of experts and scholars who are challenging some of the basic assumptions that underlie giving. The tax code, lack of accountability and transparency, scant government oversight, the outsized opportunity to influence public policy, media adulation of megadonors…