2007 Digital Future Report

A report by the Center for the Digital Future at the USC Annenberg School released the results of research that comprise a unique data base that captures broadband at home, the wireless Internet, on-line media, user-generated content, and social networking.

Click here for the highlights of the report.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy: Philanthropy 400

The Chronicle's annual rankings of the charities that raise the most money can be found here (note: subscription required). This year's data shows that the nation's most-successful groups increased contributions by 4.3%. A great resource.

Study Finds That Companies That Companies Give More to Charity are More Profitable

Herb Greenberg, from The Wall Street Journal, reports that companies that give more to charity tend to be more profitable. Research conducted by Dover Management shows "that companies with a good relationship between philanthropy and operating earnings have outperformed the broader index by 3.5 percentage points a year over a five-year period."

Read the full 10.27.07 article from the Wall Street Journal.

XML, API, CSV, SOAP! Understanding the Alphabet Soup of Data Exchange

Peter offers an explanation of how data can be stored, types of data formats and methods to transfer data, and how APIs are used.

Let's say you have two different software packages, and you would like them to be able to share data. What would be involved? Can you link them so they exchange data automatically? And what do all those acronyms mean? Peter Campbell explains.

Read this article by Peter S. Campbell published by Idealware in October 2007.

The Triumph Of "Trickle Up" Economics

The Internal Revenue Service recently released its report on 2005 individual income taxes. The headline is that the super-rich were even more rich than in any year since the IRS first had comparable data in 1986.

Read this CBS News October 18, 2007 story. Read the summary of latest federal individual income tax data.

Money in New York: The Patron Gets a Divorce

This article explores the philanthropic generosity of Leonard Riggio, one man who made Dia:Beacon, one of the largest museums to open in this country since the Museum of Modern Art in the late 1930s, possible.

Click here to read this 10.14.07 New York Times article by Joe Nicera.

The Measures of Wealth

This New York Times piece explores the dichotomy between the rich -- and the not so rich -- in New York City. An interesting read.

Click here to read the full 10.14.07 article.

Hedge Fund Bonuses

According to a New York Times article, cash bonuses are expected to rise between 1 percent and 9 percent this year from last, according to a study conducted by an executive search firm, Glocap Search, Institutional Investors News and Lipper HedgeWorld.

Read the full 9.11.07 article from the New York Times.

Book: Business Success Is Not Duty Free

WSJ article on Conor O'Clery book about Chuck Feeney, co-founder of Duty Free Shoppers. The article talks about Feeney's philanthropic arm, Atlantic Philanthropies, an organization that has given away about $4 billion to date.

Read the 9.26.07 Wall Street Journal book review.

Web 2.0 and Social Networking

Natasha Lomas comments on the life cycle of the social networking sites and the recent Web 2.0 conference. Read the full 10.19.07 New York Times article titled "Social networking faces uncertain future."

Additionally, read the 10.19.07 Tekrati article titled, "Social networking's explosive growth to level out in 5 years, says Datamonitor." This article provides insight into a new report by market analyst Datamonitor which forecasts global active memberships in social networking sites to reach 230 million at the end of 2007.

Income Inequality Widens

An article by Greg Ip from the Wall Street Journal on how the boom in financial markets parallels the rise in share for the wealthiest Americans.

The richest Americans' share of national income has hit a postwar record, surpassing the highs reached in the 1990s bull market, and underlining the divergence of economic fortunes blamed for fueling anxiety among American workers.

Widening Gap: The wealthiest Americans' share of national income has hit a postwar record, surpassing the highs reached in the 1990s bull market, and highlighting the divergence of economic fortunes blamed for fueling anxiety among American workers.

Click here to read this 10.12.07 article.

Millionaires by the Millions

Paul B. Brown, a columnist for the New York Times, writes about millionaires in the U.S.

Click here to read the 10.20.07 article.

Podcast Update!

Bentz Whaley Flessner is pleased to announce the release of a new podcast.

Listen to Scott Fendley talk with Joseph Calger, the Associate Chairman of Development Services at the Cleveland Clinic, about record management and data maintenance.

To listen to or download the podcast, click here.

Finding Grants Through Online Databases

This article from the Nonprofit Times by Waddy Thomson profiles the differences between the following five products and offers insight into databases offering information on grant-makers.

The Foundation Center's Foundation Directory Online
FoundationSearch
GuideStar's Grant Explorer
GrantStation
Prospect Research Online (aka PRO Platinum)

Read the article

Conference

Academic Impressions Conference
Building a Donor-Centered Stewardship Effort
October 22-24, 2007, Atlanta Georgia

Join Scott Fendley as he presents on the following topics:

Capturing the Story of the Donor
Analyzing your Donors' Stories and Drawing the Right Conclusions
Making the Most of Your Plans by Improving Your Stewardship Practice Management
Identifying the Key Takeaways

Conference details

Pink October? Blame 'Cause Marketing'

An insight into corporate sponsorship.

The pink sales campaigns are probably the biggest and best-known efforts in the world of "cause marketing," where companies team up with charities with the aim of bringing in more money for both.

Read more of this 10.15.07 Associated Press article from MSNBC.

Press Release: Announcing SecureID

Over the past six years, AlumniFinder has set the standard for data quality by helping institutions locate their lost alumni. Now through a partnership with Entiera we are able to offer two new, revolutionary products to our customers. Both have proven potential to dramatically enhance your alumni communications and fundraising efforts.

Secure ID - We're now taking enhanced data security and integrity to the next level. SecureID is a unique, perpetual identifier unrelated to Social Security number. Some of the benefits of SecureID include:

*Eliminates the need to use Social Security numbers in your alumni database. Once assigned, the SecureID is permanent for an individual, and tracks name changes, moves, and other life events.
*Eliminates the risk of identity theft. By removing the Social Security Number and replacing it with SecureID, identity theft is virtually impossible. SecureID also complies with Federal and State data privacy laws.
*Improves data quality. SecureID assignment is made using the most up-to-date and comprehensive reference database available. The SecureID process identifies inaccurate or duplicate records in your database, and helps find unknown addresses and telephone numbers.

AlumniDashboard - This web based tool helps increase ROI by giving you convenient access to your Alumni/Donor records through the AlumniDashboard platform. This easy to use system can provide everything from simple count/extract/report capabilities to sophisticated marketing analytics and "best practices" multi-channel, multi-stage campaign management. Often the SecureID and the AlumniDashboard pay for themselves after the first campaign by delivering a more targeted meaningful message to various alumni segments and by lowering overall fundraising costs associated with undeliverable/duplicate mail and old phone numbers.

For more information go to http://www.entiera.com/SecureID.pdf?a=arki3-0325-28 to download our brochure.

Press Release: Kintera Launches Industry's First Open Platform

Kintera has partnered with nearly 30 industry leading organizations - Solid Cactus, Mobile Commons, DailyStrength, TMA Resources, CopperKey, Quantrix, Razorsight and Freecause to name a few - in both the enterprise and nonprofit technology sectors to develop new solutions to the challenges organizations face.

Read more about Kintera Connect.

The World's 100 Most Powerful Women

Forbes released its special report on the world's 100 most powerful women.

Click here to read the 8.30.07 Forbes special report.

New Book!

CASE has just published a new edition of "Advancement Services : A Foundation for Fundraising." Scott Fendley, Senior Associate at Bentz Whaley Flessner, authored two chapters in, "Easy And Effective Campaign Reporting" and "Rebuilding A Stewardship Program." For more information, please go to the CASE website : http://www.case.org/Publications/Detail.cfm?ProductID=3181.

U.S. Trust to Launch National Marketing Campaign Recognizing Today's Wealthy as the Architects of Their Own Success

U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management is launching a national advertising campaign, which spotlights the changing profile of today's wealthy individuals and families. The $25 million campaign marks the first major advertising initiative for U.S. Trust since its acquisition by Bank of America Corporation earlier this year.

The brand-building effort represents the most extensive private wealth management advertising campaign that either legacy organization has ever undertaken. National and local print and broadcast advertisements will debut across the nation beginning on October 8.

Full-text press release via Bank of America, 10.3.2007.

How the Rich Hide Their Wealth

This ABC News item talks about how the rich go to great lengths to shield assets from the public.

By Scott Mayerowitz
ABC News Business Unit
Sept. 21, 2007

There are hundreds of people in the world whose names you might never know but who own millions -- if not billions of dollars.

These wealthy individuals often go out of their way to hide their assets from scrutiny -- sometimes from the public and sometimes from their own government.

Read more.

Carnegie Corporation Shifts Its Grant-Making Approach

By Ian Wilhelm

The Carnegie Corporation of New York has announced it is changing its grant making and simplifying how it categorizes its giving.

After a yearlong review, which included discussions with grant beneficiaries, outside academic experts, and others, the foundation said it wanted to make its efforts more strategic.

Read the full 10/3/07 article from the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

The corporate and foundation fund-seeking process

Here is a well-done piece of handling/clearning vendor relationships through advancement.

To protect the interests of the university and its relationships, all fundraising efforts must be coordinated through University Advancement. Before contacting a funder or CFR staff, faculty members must discuss potential projects and sources of support with their department chair and dean.

Read the full article on VCU's website.

New Philanthropy Capital

Another example of senior figures in the securities industry shifting their focus to the charitable sector. James Garvin, former co-head of equity capital markets at UBS is now a director at New Philanthropy Capital, a research firm that applies the discipline of equity research to advise wealthy individuals and foundations on making effective charitable donations.

Full-text article by William Wright available via Financial News, 9.28.07.

Trusts Veer From Donors Wishes

This article in the New York Times reports on a trend of trusts that veer off of the wishes of the donors when there are no family members to oversee the trust, and the banks that held the trusts were bought by global banks.

Donors Gone, Trusts Veer From Their Wishes

By Stephanie Strom

Published: September 29, 2007

When Mamie Dues died in 1974, she left the fortune her husband, Cesle, had made in movie theaters in El Paso to a foundation controlled by a local bank there. The couple had no heirs and no other family.

"They lived modestly in a little apartment house and spent most of their time watching TV," recalled J. Sam Moore Jr., a lawyer who drew up their wills. "They took little or no interest in civic affairs, but they did feel strongly about this place, and they mandated that their foundation be concentrated on crippled children in El Paso, and in Texas more broadly."

Three decades later, however, the foundation's legal address is in Delaware, and a global bank, JPMorgan, manages it from an office in Dallas. While its assets have grown to almost $6 million, from $5.1 million in 2000, its giving has fallen sharply, and the local group that once decided who would receive its money no longer has a say in its operations.

Read the full article