World is home to more than 10 million millionaires

CNN.com reports today (6/25/2008) that "The number of people around the world with at least $1 million in assets passed 10 million for the first time last year, according to a report. And their bank accounts are growing even faster."

Read the article.

Wealth Report 2008

The Capgemini World Wealth Report was recently released. According to the report, the "high net worth population [has risen] to over 10 million, with assets reaching $40.7 trillion, as average HNWI wealth surpasses $4 million for first time."

View the report.

The Greatest Givers

BusinessWeek has launched a special report on individual and corporate philanthropy in America.

The report includes the following articles:
The Most Elite Club in the World
The 50 Most Generous Philanthropists
The Greatest Givers
How Companies Dig Deep

Additionally, there are also various videos to watch, including a video interview with Sandy and Joan Weill, two philanthropists who gave $435 million to charity in 2007 alone, about what motivates they give.

Click here to read the report.

Online Giving

The following link from the 6.12.08 Chronicle of Philanthropy provides access to a chart illustrating how much select groups of charities have raised in via the internet over the past five years. [Subscription required]

Net Household Wealth Slid 2.9% in Quarter

In the 6.6.08 issue of the Wall Street Journal, Kelly Evans reports that "Stock-market losses and falling home values in the first three months of this year led to the largest quarterly drop in the net wealth of American households since 2002."

Read this article.

TNS Reports Another Record-Breaking Year for Millionaire Households

TNS has released results from its annual Affluent Market Research Program (AMRP). For the sixth consecutive year, TNS found that the number of millionaire households has increased significantly. Key findings from the survey include:

• - Millionaire households (households with $1MM+ net worth, not including primary residence) increased by 5.9 percent from June 2006 to June 2007, reaching an estimated 9.9 million
• - The mean age of the U.S. millionaire households is 66 with an average net worth (NIPR)of $4.6MM
• - The single most important financial goal of surveyed millionaires (56 percent) continues to be "assure a comfortable standard of living during retirement"
• - Retirement and education are top of mind for this population, with most often cited financial event in the past year of "rolled over a retirement account (13 percent);" followed by "paid for a child's education (9 percent)" and "paid for a grandchild's education (8.5 percent)."

View the full summary report.

Upcoming Conference

Mid-Atlantic Researchers Conference 2008
June 11-13, 2008, Lewisburg, PA

In a workshop on Data Mining and Campaign Analytics, Josh Birkholz will discuss how data mining is becoming a central strategy of sophisticated fundraising organizations, the importance of incorporating statistics into your organization, and how analytics provides actionable campaign decision support.

Pamela Poland will also present two sessions at this conference:

Prospect Management and Tracking Fundamentals
Prospect management and tracking system allows an organization to concentrate on those prospects who offer the greatest potential to the organization, to manage complex portfolios with simple processes, to communicate with constituents in a unified manner, to prioritize major gifts prospects, and to keep on track with cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship of prospects and donors. Learn the basic elements of effective prospect management and tracking in this dynamic session.

Strategic Prospect Management, Beyond the Basics
As the competition for philanthropic dollars increases, the need to optimally prioritize prospect pools and to leverage our resources, both effectively and efficiently grows in turn. In this interactive session, prospect management best practices, key issues, and trends will be examined. Learn helpful approaches to pipeline and portfolio management, cultivation and solicitation strategies, performance metrics and other issues. Participants will have the opportunity to take away helpful approaches that can be applied to the specifics of their institutions.

Conference details