Should You Scrap Your Fund-Raising Event?
Some charities have taken the extreme step of canceling their annual fund-raising galas in light of the economic downturn.

But Robert Evans, a fund-raising expert, advises against making a last-minute decision to cancel a special event. Read more

The Sky is Falling
Gloom and doom. The sky is falling. Budgets are bad. We need to cut back. It’s time to do even more with even less.

Sound familiar? If you work in the nonprofit or educational sector, it should. It seems like every few years we go through this cycle—and every few years, we react in the same way.

I’m fond of quoting Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity where he pointed out that if you keep doing things in the same way it is simply not rational to expect that you will get a different outcome. And yet that is exactly what we do. Read more

US charity donations hit 2007 record despite soft economy
Americans shook off economic uncertainty and gave a record 306.4 billion dollars to charitable causes in 2007, an increase of 3.9 percent for the year, a survey showed Monday.

The annual survey by Giving USA Foundation and the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University showed a rise in overall donations but hesitation by individual donors and companies affected by economic woes.

George Ruotolo, chair of the Giving Institute, said charitable contributions held up even with Americans fretting about high oil prices, the subprime real estate crisis and the ongoing war in Iraq. Read more