More philanthropy can help meet crucial needs in communities - The Daily Breeze

More philanthropy can help meet crucial needs in communities - The Daily Breeze: "More philanthropy can help meet crucial needs in communities
Posted: 04/28/2009 04:09:11 PM PDT

When most of us are thinking about scaling down our spending and other ways to cope with the latest bad financial news, it is a stretch to think about giving away money. But people are doing it.

Not just the ultra-rich, but more or less ordinary people who happen to have made a little more than most of us. There are 64,000 charitable foundations in this country, and 37,500 of them are family foundations. About 60 percent of those are small, according to the New York Community Trust, a community foundation."