A coalition of 23 large nonprofit organizations has written a letter to Congress expressing concern that reducing or capping the value of itemized deductions for charitable contributions will hurt charities and those who need their services.

Among the organizations involved in the coalition are the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, the American Red Cross, and the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

In late May, Jennifer Roccanti wrote a message on a friend’s Facebook post: “So cool! I think I might steal this for Miriam’s Kitchen!”

What Ms. Roccanti, an assistant director for development at Miriam’s Kitchen, a soup kitchen in Washington, saw on Facebook was the solution to a problem she had been facing for months: how to make it easy for people to donate goods online.

Her friend had helped Lucky Dog Animal Rescue by buying $25 worth of flea medicine on an Amazon Wish List the animal-welfare organization had created.

By Annie Gowen, Monday, June 20, 12:11 AM

An annual report released Monday shows that charitable giving in the United States grew nearly 4 percent last year after two years of steep declines, which some experts say is a sign the economy is slowly rebounding.

Individuals and corporations donated an estimated $290 billion last year, an increase of $10 billion from the previous year, according to the Giving USA Foundation, which has tracked charitable giving in the country since 1956.

It is now obvious to most Americans that the nation faces unprecedented economic challenges as the gap continues to grow between the amount federal and state governments spend and the amount they collect in taxes.

With growing political consensus on the need to reduce the deficit, it is no longer a question of “if” the country will overhaul how it approaches taxing and spending; it is only a question of when and how we decide to put our nation’s fiscal house in order.

These days, it is almost impossible for a nonprofit (or any company, for that matter) to get away without a Facebook page. The social networking site is not only an invaluable resource to update followers on the latest news, but it can also be a good fundraising tool as well. And with the latest application from Facebook Causes, that just got a little easier for nonprofits.

Read more of this story at the NonProfit Times website.
 

Social impact investing -- a concept frequently raised but not clearly defined or understood -- presents a compelling opportunity for foundations and philanthropists to maximize the leverage and impact of their work. Innovative philanthropists with higher risk tolerances such as Pierre Omidyar, Jeff Skoll, and Bob Pattillo, along with leading foundations and social impact funds like the W.K.

What if corporate leaders thought more like Bill Gates, a leading philanthropist and founder of Microsoft, who once said, “As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.” Ideally, innovative corporations would increasingly function beyond the short-term profit motive and pay greater attention to their impact on the social economy.

Foundations expect to increase their giving in 2011 by sums that could allow them to surpass the amount they distributed before the recession caused a sharp decline in grant making, according to a new report.

Grant makers gave an estimated $45.7-billion in 2010, according to figures released on Thursday by the Foundation Center, a nonprofit research organization in New York. That is about the same as last year and just 2.4 percent below the $46.8-billion given in 2008, which was a record high.

Bill Gates, one of the world’s richest men and one of its best known philanthropists, said on Monday he hopes his passion for giving will soon start to take hold among the super-rich of China and India.

Speaking to Reuters in a telephone interview, the multi-billionaire Microsoft founder said he, his wife Melinda, and investor Warren Buffett plan to go to India this year to hold a meeting of the country’s richest people to encourage them into philanthropy.

This is a guest post by Bob Ottenhoff, CEO of GuideStar. GuideStar recently announced they have acquired innovative startups Social Actions and Philanthropedia. We asked Bob to share the strategic rationale behind these deals.

By: Bob Ottenhoff

Over the years, GuideStar has taken on the monumental task of providing transparency into the nonprofit sector, with care to maintain a sense of neutrality, providing tools and data users can access to guide their decisions.