The new year has been highlighted by working on a benchmark gift for the Alamo Colleges -- $1.05 million from Kerrville philanthropist Neil Griffin. His gift funds both annual and endowed scholarships for students beginning their college education at the new Greater Kerrville Center.

Mr. Griffin is another inspiring profile in philanthropy. One of 10 children growing up on an Arkansas farm, the GI Bill changed his life by enabling him to earn a college degree after World War II. A self-made success in banking, he has lived and practiced that good fortune is for sharing. Now a robust 83, he loves to golf and to touch and change lives through the power of philanthropy. His example can and should remind the rest of us that one person can indeed make a genuine difference.

The Crystal Ball           
The economy's sluggish growth suggests that American households will give 3.9% less to charity in 2010 -- a projection by researchers at Boston College's Center on Wealth and Philanthropy. But if the economy heats up, donations this year could return to pre-recession levels.

Projections are based on a new way devised to give up-to-the-minute estimates of how much donations are likely to grow or fall, rather than waiting months and years for researchers to estimate how much Americans contributed to good causes. This includes both "low-growth" and "high-growth" scenarios for household giving in 2009 and 2010, using a formula based on federal data on household income and wealth, as well as other financial measures.

Projections are for the sums given by households only. Unlike Giving USA, the researchers don't include estimates for bequests or for donations by corporations or foundations.

Where's the Money?    
Does the name Willie Sutton ring a bell? He was a prolific bank robber during the 1930s and 1940s. When a reporter asked why he robbed banks, he responded, "Because that's where the money is."
 
More than 75% of American philanthropy comes from individuals, and the rest from foundations and corporations. So fundraising programs, especially major gifts initiatives, need to focus on individuals, because that's where the money is.
 
With foundations and corporations expected to retrench even further in 2010 (Foundation Center predicts a 10% decline in institutional giving), smart fundraisers will increasingly be looking to individual donors to fill in the gaps.

Focus on Social Problems
A growing number of major donors are funneling money into ambitious projects designed to address global and societal challenges instead of simply choosing to support nonprofit entities such as hospitals, museums, and colleges, the Chronicle of Philanthropy and Slate magazine report.

Despite the economic downturn, Slate and Chronicle editors argue that many mega-donors are becoming more creative in their giving, with fewer of them content to give large sums for traditional brick-and-mortar projects and a growing number using their philanthropic investments to address major social problems or encourage charities to collaborate in new ways.

Doing Good = Doing Well       
The Small Business CEO website stresses the chief benefits of giving back to the community -- the good will generated can convert potential customers into actual customers, and boost business from past customers. Other benefits include:

*Greater, more positive exposure in your community -- think sponsorships of high school sports teams.
*Recruit like-minded employees who fit the workplace culture.
*Extend employee tenure/reduce turnover. 
*If the relationship is managed well, increased website traffic.

Biggest Donors Aren't The Wealthiest
Few of America's richest families are among the country's biggest donors, as presented in The Chronicle of Philanthropy's annual list of top givers.

Of the 400 wealthiest Americans, as listed by Forbes, only 17 appear on the Chronicle's Philanthropy 50, which ranks donors by the amount they gave in 2009.

The biggest donors last year were the hedge-fund billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller, who ranks at No. 56 on the Forbes roster, and his wife, Fiona, who together gave $705 million to their foundation.

Making Do      
When it comes to small things people can do each day to save money, consumers are still acting cautiously. For example, almost two-thirds of adults (63%) say they have purchased more generic brands in the past six months to save money while an additional 12% say they have considered doing so.

Almost half (45%) tell the Harris Poll they are brown-bagging lunch instead of purchasing it, with 8% having considered doing so; 34% say this isn't applicable to them.

To qualify as a creative philanthropist, you must simply give genuinely and joyfully. To be in this Secret Society, you must be gifted $100 by a Creative Philanthropy Agent, give that money away in the best and most creative way you see fit, and convene at the top secret annual meeting to tell your story of philanthropic adventure. Known chapters are in New York, San Francisco and Athens, Georgia.

Content In North Dakota         
On a state-by-state basis, U.S. adults' average satisfaction in 2009 with their own standard of living -- that is, "all the things you can buy and do" -- fell in a fairly narrow range, from 82% in North Dakota at the high end to 69% in Nevada at the low end, Gallup reports.
 
Geographically, the states that were home to residents with the highest levels of satisfaction with their standard of living (77% or greater) are concentrated in the Midwest and Rocky Mountain regions, plus Alaska, Hawaii and Virginia. Of the four least satisfied (all with satisfaction scores below 71%), two are in the ailing Rust Belt (Ohio and Michigan); the others are economically troubled Nevada and Rhode Island.

Tough Year For Higher Ed
Gifts to colleges and universities declined almost 12% in the 2009 fiscal year (that ended on June 30), to $27.85 billion, according to the Council for Aid to Education's annual survey of voluntary support of education. It was the steepest decline in the survey's 53-year history.

The Council for Aid to Education is estimating that in the 2010 fiscal year, higher-education giving would be up 2.5%.

Alumni participation declined to 10% from 11%, the lowest ever recorded in the survey, and the amount alumni contributed dropped 18%. Corporate support, in contrast, declined by less than 6%.

Business Knows Best
Most Americans continue to have more confidence in the economic decisions of the business community than in those of government.

Rasmussen Reports finds that 51% of American adults believe decisions made by business leaders to help their own businesses grow will do more for the economy than decisions made by the government. Thirty-three percent say decisions made by the government will do more to help the economy grow. Another 17% aren't sure whose decisions are best.

Calculating Philanthropic Return
Charity Navigator, the biggest of the online philanthropy rating agencies, is rethinking its star rating system. It has been rating charities largely on financial benchmarks and given them high marks for low overhead, a metric that academic research now shows is not that helpful in evaluating a nonprofit's work.
 
The new star system, which will still go from zero to four stars, will include measures of financial strength, accountability, and effectiveness. The organization hopes to roll out the new ratings in the spring of 2011, with additional information appearing between now and then.

Party Poopers
The number of Americans identifying themselves as Democrats is now at the lowest level recorded in more than seven years of monthly tracking by Rasmussen Reports.

However, this year, the number of Republicans in the country dropped by nearly two percentage points. Currently, 35.4% of American adults view themselves as Democrats. The number of Republicans is now down to 32.3%. The number of adults not affiliated with either major party is now up to 32.3%. That's the highest number of unaffiliateds since the summer of 2007.

Quiz: Biggest Donors   
The Chronicle of Philanthropy's list of top 50 philanthropists now shows that total giving by the group plunged almost 75%, to $4.1 billion from $15.5 billion. The median gift fell to $41.4 million from $69.3 million in 2008. 

a. $150 million