#PHILANTHROPY: Evidence Of ‘Emerging Charitable Markets’ & How To Tap Into Them
An article on yesterday’s E-Jewish Philanthropy caught our eye because the authors did a really interesting bit of research into the top givers in US in this calendar year. The study by Robert I. Evans and Avrum D. Lapin demonstrates how useful a careful parsing of statistics can be for fundraisers, and how that parsing can uncover shifting trends in the philanthropic world.
The ostensible foundation of their work was to try to explain why some 130 of the wealthiest Americans on the famed Forbes 400 list are Jewish, yet only about thirty of them have given gifts that break into the list of top donors as compiled by The Chronicle of Philanthropy. They have discovered not so much a shift in the habits of giving among Jewish donors but demographic and economic shifts that are opening what they call ‘emerging charitable markets.’ Who is participating in these markets?
| Category Banking & Finance, Cause Marketing, Civics, Community, Development, Donor Acquisition, Fundraising, Grants and Funding, Major Gifts, Measurement, Nonprofit, Planned Giving, Report, Resource | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#COMMUNICATIONS: NFC Means More Than Paying By Mobile Phone
Near Field Communication has been around for a few years now, though the most popular mobile device, the iPhone, does not (yet?) carry the necessary transmitters to take advantage of it. The technology requires its own dedicated chip to send and receive data. Thus far, Google’s Android phones have been taking the lead in the US economy, but one of the more pulsating rumors about the iPhone 5 is whether it will contain said chip. The web consensus seems to be ‘probably not yet’, but as people become ever more aware of what NFC can do, then Apple will surely enter the market.
| Category Advertising, Banking & Finance, Communications, Marketing, Mobile, Mobile, News and Current Affairs, Nonprofit, Reviews, Social Marketing, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#ProAging: GAP Index Highlights Global Challenges Of Care For Aging
The fact of the aging of the global population is something our readers are likely at least acquainted with. The phenomenon has arisen as life expectancy has lengthened even in developing countries and populations in developed countries often are not having enough children even to replace themselves. The result is that most national populations whose citizens or subjects are over 60 are quickly moving toward 30%. To put that number in historical perspective, The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) posits that, before the Twentieth Century, the percentage of inhabitants over 60 was 5-8%.
The CSIS released a sobering report earlier this year that measured the ‘Global Aging Preparedness’ (GAP) Index. The report stresses the demographic facts of the so-called ‘Silver Tsunami’ (a tide that can not now be turned, even if we all started having larger families) and the current economic situations of a number of countries both rich and poor, both developed and developing. So how did the US do?
| Category Aging, Banking & Finance, Boomers, Civics, Community, GI Generation, Health, Healthcare, Healthcare, National/International, Nonprofit, Politics, Publications, Report, Resource, Seniors Life | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#Fundraising: How To Apply For A Grant From Intel
This week in our ongoing periodic series on grant providers and how to apply for their support, we look at the tech company that helps build Microsoft and Apple computers: Intel. The corporation is best known for its processors and motherboards and for its 5-note jingle - but its stand on corporate social responsibility is truly impressive. A post on the company’s CSR blog site by Perry Gruber back in 2008 nicely shows the synergies Intel envisions between corporate wealth and nonprofits and charities that do work that also helps those corporations who support them. A (Flash) video about Intel’s more recent philanthropic outreach can be viewed here.
| Category Banking & Finance, Blogs, Civics, Communications, Fundraising, Grants, Grants and Funding, How-to, Nonprofit | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#ProAging: AARP Busts Some Social Security Myths
As we enter ‘crazy time’ in the electoral calendar (a calendar that now runs from the Friday after the last election to the day of the next one), we will hear ever more about the desperate need to balance the federal budget and pay down the national debt. Few will strongly argue against these budget-balancing ambitions. The arguments are over just how to do that.
Social Security payouts make up some 20% of the federal budget, tied with national defense and one percentage point behind Medicare/Medicaid. Yet Social Security is usually singled out as one of the three federal line items that must be trimmed (Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, and … um … oops.). The American Association of Retired Persons challenges five of the most commonly-stated myths about the state of Social Security, even in the midst of the economic malaise we continue to struggle with.
Myth Number One? Not surprisingly: Social Security is going bankrupt. According to AARP, that scary claim is untrue no matter how you divvy up the dollars. “Even in the unlikely event that nothing changes and the program’s entire surplus runs out in 2036, as projected, checks would keep coming. Payroll taxes at current rates would cover 77 percent of all the future benefits promised. That’s true for young and old alike, and includes inflation adjustments.”
Read the other four myths and the facts that refute them at AARP’s site. Then you can make an informed decision about how to vote in 2012, and how to plan for your retirement after that.
| Category Aging, Banking & Finance, Boomers, Civics, Community, eNewsletter, Healthcare, Independent Living, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Nonprofit, Politics, Resource, Retirement Living, Seniors Life | | 1 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#ProAging: Social Security Recipients Enjoy COLA For First Time In Two Years
Social Security has built into its law and budgets a ‘Cost of Living Adjustment‘ (COLA) tied to inflation and/or rising prices. Those prices have, if anything, fallen during The Great Recession, so recipients have not seen a COLA since 2009. But the Social Security Administration published its formula this week to account for a 3.6% increase for most people who receive their checks, beginning in January 2012.
The adjustment can not come soon enough for many seniors. As reported in The Associated Press, though inflation did not move over the last two or three years, incomes that retirees depended upon to supplement their Social Security benefits collapsed over those same years. What does the equation come out to for seniors?
| Category Aging, Banking & Finance, Boomers, Civics, Community, Healthcare, Healthcare, Independent Living, News and Current Affairs, Newspaper Article, Report, Retirement Living, Seniors Life | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#SocialMedia: Going To An #OWS Rally? Grab Your Android Phone!
Social networking has been the pivotal influence that has allowed the Occupy Wall Street movement (search #OWS on Twitter) to gain momentum and go global. Social-media platforms helped the first organizers get the word out, and these platforms have allowed millions around the world both to watch developments in New York City and to organize their own protests in their own cities in support of the founding occupation.
In the month since the movement began, we have seen a single, lonely, Twitter hashtag become the spark of worldwide protest, and we have endured media indifference that has become a media circus. We have also seen numerous arrests and efforts to drive away protestors – some of them posted on videos showing police using pepper spray.
Social media, protestors’ ambitions, and police intervention have all been drawn together in a new app for Android phones: ‘I’m Being Arrested.’
| Category Banking & Finance, Civics, Communications, Community, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Politics, Reviews, Social Media, Software Review, Technology | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#SocialMedia: Turns Out, Twitter Can Start Revolutions Mr. Gladwell
What a difference a year can make – not always for the better, mind you. But in today’s post we see grounds for optimism when it comes to the development of social networks and of social movements through those networks as they force political and economic change.
Last fall we wrote about the incisive and incendiary thesis of Malcom Gladwell, who wrote in The New Yorker magazine that social media gives us an inflated sense of social and political engagement when, in fact, little changes. His argument was that though social networks are critical for social change those networks must be personal, not virtual, and the ‘friends’ must be willing to put themselves in a high-risk situation – something that a retweet does not require. He contrasted the revolutions of Moldova and Iran in 2009 (and largely unsuccessful) with the civil-rights movement that began at a Woolworths lunch counter in Greensboro, NC in 1960.
But what about now that dictators have fallen in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and perhaps Syria – and the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ movement has gone global this past weekend?
| Category Banking & Finance, Blogs, Civics, Communications, Community, Facebook, Facebook, Geo-Location, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Newspaper Article, Politics, Social Media, Twitter | | 1 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#Philanthropy: President’s Jobs Bill & Tax Proposal Not Warmly Welcomed By Charities
As arguments over what to do with and about the US economy and the federal deficit continue to shed more heat than light, President Obama sought to take the fight back to the Republicans with the ‘American Jobs Act’ announced last week. The act contains a mix of tax realignments likely to gain some Republican votes and stimulus spending pretty much guaranteed to lose those same votes.
Perhaps the most talked-about realignment pertains to the ‘Buffett Rule‘, a popularly-coined term reflecting Warren Buffett’s dismay at paying less income tax than does his secretary. It would rearrange the tax code to shrink loopholes for wealthy individuals and corporations, while rearranging the tax base for those with low-paying jobs.
One loophole the president wants to reduce concerns the deductions of taxes made by the wealthy to charitable organizations – a reduction many charities and nonprofits do not want to see.
| Category Banking & Finance, Communications, Community, Development, Donor Acquisition, Fundraising, Grants, Grants and Funding, Low-Income, Major Gifts, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Newspaper Article, Nonprofit, Opinion, Politics | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#Tech: Near-Field Communication (NFC) Could Turn Smartphones Into Donation Engines
Near-Field Technology (NFC) allows short-range communications between an NFC antenna or engineered SIM card and a receiver. The communication is good only up to a couple of feet, which might help make it a secure connection because eavesdroppers need to be next to the users. It is a technology that first appeared in Taiwan in 2007, and is expected to have a major impact in the US by the middle of next year.
From a hardware point of view, the user needs a smartphone with the necessary antenna or SIM card. For most of us, that would mean a phone upgrade, though a few NFC-ready phones are already on the market (click here for a running list of available phones). With the NFC-ready phone, a user could connect his or her bank through the phone to make purchases with a swipe of that phone. And there is where the debate has started.
| Category Advertising, Banking & Finance, Civics, Communications, Geo-Location, Hardware Review, iDevice, Marketing, Public Relations, Reviews, Software Review, Technology, Tools | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#Philanthropy: Could Text Messages Circumvent Apple’s Restrictions On Donation Apps?
Apple Inc. has been unwilling to allow fundraising/donation-soliciting software for the iPhone to be developed and sold through The App Store because Apple’s contract expects a cut of the profit and expects some control of the money flow. Apple claims (not without cause) that its iTunes/iPhone success is built on consistent user experience and unified expectations among developers and consumers. Thus, to adjust those dynamics after-the-fact for the sake of charities and their expectations will prove detrimental to everyone.
Workarounds exist, like sending mobile users to websites via Safari where they can donate directly to their charities, though some complain of the relatively cumbersome process that will ward off potential givers.
In the UK (for now), the development of ‘Reverse-Billing SMS’ (Simple Messaging System – text messages) might be another, convenient and quick, way to use the iPhone to give to the charity of choice.
| Category Apple, Banking & Finance, Campaigns, Case Study, Communications, Crowdfunding, Development, Donor Acquisition, Fundraising, Grants and Funding, iDevice, iPhone Apps, Marketing, Nonprofit, Technology | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#Economy: The Loss Of A Functional Middle Class
The oft-discussed possibility of a double-dip recession still looms darkly on the near horizon. Sure, the Stock Market is more often up than down, but those numbers represent only about 40% of the economy. Unfortunately, some 1% of the people in the economy control and profit from the 40% takings from that particular casino.
For the rest of the economy, and the people who built it, the shocks of ‘The Great Recession’ are still coming. And the working middle class are feeling it the worst.
| Category Banking & Finance, Civics, Communications, Community, Low-Income, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Newspaper Article, Opinion, Politics, Web and Print | | 1 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#Philanthropy: How to Find and Solicit the Biggest Corporate Donors
In the midst of the present economic crisis, the debate about whether corporations should have social responsibility to give to philanthropic causes has grown heated. Some argue that CR (Corporate Responsibility) departments actually diffuse problems rather than solve them and corporations should put their resources to better, profit-driven, uses for the betterment of all. Others counter that without a role for institutionalized CR, innovation and economic dynamism are often replaced with market suppression and cronyism.
But the present fact is a number of corporations give a good deal of financial and/or goods-in-kind support for social causes (broadly defined). A list of the top 50 (as of July 2011) can be found at The Foundation Center‘s website. What are some of the ways they give? And how might your organization benefit from their philanthropic programs? Over the next few weeks, we’ll present some of the research pursued to see what can be learned about a number of these 50 programs.
We begin with the top 5.
| Category Affordable Housing, Banking & Finance, Community, Environment, Fundraising, Grants, Grants and Funding, Greening, Health, Healthcare, Low-Income, Marketing, Nonprofit, Public Relations, Resource, Revitalization | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#Aging: Likely Further Medicare Cuts Hurt Stocks Of Numerous Care Companies
While the ‘compromise’ over the debt ceiling was being shouted over, many analysts noted that the world’s stock markets were, at most, simply unnerved. They were not panicked because investors were confident that some kind of deal would be found and default was not really going to happen. What kind of deal drawn up to avoid the default was less important to them than that a deal would be done.
Yet, rather more quietly behind the overall market indexes most of us pay attention to, stocks for nursing-home companies and their service providers have taken a real hit over the last week. What has spooked investors in elder-care services, if the default has been avoided and Medicare was not expressly cut by the deal?
| Category Aging, Assisted Living, Banking & Finance, Healthcare, National/International, Nursing Home, Politics, Retirement Living | | 1 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
Finance: Tales of New York & Baltimore Budget Shortfalls
Much news has been published concerning the debate over the federal budget for the rest of FY2011 (through October), but the city budgets are the ones that have the most impact for most citizens. While Congresspeople pretend to debate over whether or not Death Panels are in the health-care reform act, urban dwellers want to know if trash will be picked up or if the local public school will have teachers come September.
Baltimore and New York cities are two close to our hearts at MKCREATIVE, and both are working to cover budget shortfalls without gutting services needed to keep them running smoothly. The scales of problems between these cities are different, as are the politics that surround them. How are they faring?
| Category Banking & Finance, Civics, Community, Local/Maryland, News and Current Affairs, Nonprofit, Politics | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
Fundraising: Resources and Seminars
(Photo credit: Cubosh)
One of the services we periodically try to provide our readers is a timely compendium of resources about fundraising and the skills thereof. In this installment have some online resources to find and to apply for grants from the federal government and from private sources.
To start off your spring drive, get some tips and inspiration from a free webinar: this Wednesday, GrantSpace.org is sponsoring an online text/chat seminar entitled “Turning Your Volunteers Into Fundraisers.” It is free to register and the seminar runs 1:00pm to 2:00pm. The event is entirely text/chat based (no audio), so one could easily enjoy one’s lunch and participate as well!
| Category Banking & Finance, Communications, Conference/Congress, Development, Donor Acquisition, Events, Fundraising, Grants, Grants and Funding, Major Gifts, Resource, Seminar, Web and Print | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#Sustainability: Keeping Families In Homes Keeps Neighborhoods Alive
Bernell Grier, CEO of Neighborhood Housing Services of NYC
We welcome Bernell Grier, CEO of Neighborhood Housing Services of New York City, Inc. to the growing list of Contributors to the MKCREATIVEnonprofit Blog. Ms. Grier was appointed CEO in May of last year, having been COO of the housing organization since 2004. She is writing about proposed cuts in government funding to community-development programs.
Each day Neighborhood Housing Services of New York City and its affiliated Neighborhood Offices (NHSNYC) assist homeowners that are facing the potential loss of their homes through foreclosure. Government, at every level, has been the primary funder for many of the foreclosure prevention and intervention programs over the past three years.
Now, despite the fact that the foreclosure crisis continues, government funding that has been effective is threatened to be completely cut at the federal, state, and local level.
| Category Advocacy, Affordable Housing, Banking & Finance, Civics, Community, Low-Income, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Opinion, Politics | | Comments Off
Written by: Bernell Grier
Sustainability: Corporate Responsibility = Sustainability?
The MKCREATIVE blog welcomes Maria Lilly, principal of MJLilly Associates LLC, to our blog. She is a communications strategist who develops positioning programs that unite corporate, marketing and financial messages to create and support a company’s brand.
As I canvas the business marketplace, I am thrilled to see the ongoing emergence of corporate responsibility and sustainability as a critical piece of the business lexicon.
Ironically though, there appears to be some confusion about the connection between these two terms. Nomenclature issues and old definitions continue to confuse people – even some professionals working in the space. Let me connect these dots.
| Category Advocacy, Banking & Finance, Cross-Post, Environment, Greening, Public Relations, Sustainability, Volunteerism, Wellness | | Comments Off
Written by: Maria Lilly
#Aging: Will the Social Security Earnings Penalty Affect Me?
AARP published a useful Q&A as part of a series on tax-issue for those approaching retirement age. This particular article helps the reader identify which payments are classified as “Special Payments” under the current tax code and how they must be reported to the IRS.
Here’s a definition of “Special Payments” from AARP:
Special payments are payments you receive after you retire — for work you did while you were still employed. Usually, those payments will not affect your Social Security benefit. Such payments include severance pay, bonuses, accumulated sick pay, back pay or vacation pay, sales commissions, or other forms of compensation earned before you retired.
If you receive special payments, you should notify Social Security so that the agency will not count those payments as postretirement earnings. Otherwise, you may run into the earnings limit and temporarily lose some of your benefits. Or you may receive a letter from Social Security asking you to repay money you’ve received.
It is a good idea, when you retire, to ask your employer for a letter stating the various payments you are receiving for work previously done or benefits accumulated while you were employed. The letter should go to Social Security as proof of your special payments.
Click here to read article (and associated series).
| Category Adult Kids, Aging, Assisted Living, Banking & Finance, Independent Living, Nursing Home, Resource, Retirement Living, Seniors Life | | Comments Off
Written by: Marco Kathuria
Microdonation At Each Transaction?
Make A Purchase, And
A Micro-Donation?
Given the state of the world’s economy, charities have been struggling to keep up a steady flow of donations. Yet, much of the good work of those donations means the difference between survival or failure for millions of people caught in the economic fallout. The mega-donations in 2010 largely went to institutions that both were already viable and were largely designed to perpetuate the economic class that could afford the mega-donations. How might smaller charities keep up? One way is through micro-donations that, thus far, have been made via the millions of mobile devices that folks use every day. Another way might be to offer opportunities to donate pennies or pounds each time we engage in a transaction.
| Category Banking & Finance, Design, Education: General, Fundraising, Grants and Funding, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Nonprofit, Politics, Public Relations | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
End-Of-Year Giving And How It Might Change
Image via Wikipedia
Many of us give all through the year, which is to say, we are conscious of giving periodically to specific organizations or through special events. Nevertheless, the last week or two of December sees a great spike in giving. The motivation being a heady mix of holiday good will and thankfulness, as well as a realization that a few more donations might register a useful deduction on the tax form come next April 15th. How should one plan for that end-of-year outpouring, and how might charities and nonprofits marshal that planning?
| Category Banking & Finance, Donor Acquisition, Fundraising, Grants and Funding, Interview, Major Gifts, National/International, Nonprofit, Politics, Technology | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
HAMP, or ‘Extend and Pretend,’ Continues To Hurt Troubled Mortgage Holders
We drew up a report about the Obama Administration’s ‘Home Affordable Modifications Program‘ (HAMP) in early August this year, in which we looked at news stories and even the government’s own figures that demonstrated the slow start, and middle stretch, the program was having. The program was meant to offer those who were behind on payments, but with a history of good-faith compliance on their mortgage, a chance to have a three-month trial period of a notably reduced mortgage payment. If/when that period was successfully completed, the mortgage owner would receive a refinanced mortgage with lower monthly payments for up to five years.
An economic quarter later, and the news for homeowners is still not good. Economists are poking holes in the program, and – unlike in August – the knives of political opposition have been sharpened as well.
| Category Affordable Housing, Banking & Finance, Conference/Congress, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Opinion, Politics | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
Harsh Op-Ed On ‘Charitable Scrooges’
Debates about social media as catalyst, about political responses to economic crises, about open internets, about the care of our health… can help us sharpen our own positions and/or encourage us to take on ideas that we had avoided. This particular blog outlet tends to focus on the nexus of nonprofits, politics, and communications technologies, and we strive to show some of ‘the other side’ of a given issue. Yet when Pablo Eisenberg’s recent op-ed from the Chronicle of Philanthropy arrived through our tweet stream, we were admittedly hard pressed to stay on his side – though his passion is to be admired. You should read his ideas in their entirety first. Go ahead, we’ll be here when you get back. (more…)
| Category Advocacy, Banking & Finance, Community, Fundraising, Grants and Funding, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Nonprofit, Opinion, Politics, Thought for the Day | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
Baltimore/Washington Area Expanding Multi-Use and Green Housing
Mockup of East Baltimore Uplands Community
The housing market remains in the doldrums and the legal ramifications of the market’s bubble and collapse remain in the news. Nevertheless, the Baltimore-Washington metro region has seen an ongoing commitment from lenders, investors, and construction firms within both the private and public sectors to expand green multi-family housing. Multi-Housing News Online (MHN) has recently reported on a couple of projects that are moving toward completion, even as gloom hangs over the rest of the market.
| Category Affordable Housing, Banking & Finance, Community, Greening, Revitalization | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
Obama Administration Cuts Tax On Small-Business Property Investments
Even as the dust continues to settle over this week’s midterm elections, the IRS has been reminding small- and medium-business owners that changes in the tax code could mean appreciable tax savings over the next few years. These saving are not part of the soon-to-expire Bush Administration tax cuts, whose continuance and in what form fuel ongoing debates. These particular savings are tied to capital investments under $2 million during this calendar year. But to take advantage of the tax break, companies must purchase new equipment and put it to use by the end of this year.
| Category Banking & Finance, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Politics | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD