Brooklyn Community Foundation goes hyper-local | Crain's New York Business

Brooklyn Community Foundation goes hyper-local | Crain's New York Business: "After six months of borough-wide discussions with residents and local leaders, The Brooklyn Community Foundation on Thursday announced a new plan to refocus and refine its grant-making activity in Brooklyn.
The five-year-old foundation with a $60 million endowment will launch a few initiatives in 2015. The largest one—Invest in Youth—will focus on making grants to organizations that increase opportunities for young people through programs targeting juvenile justice, immigrant families and leadership and development. The Focus on Neighborhood initiative will work with local leaders to decide what a community needs to strengthen itself. The Foundation will create an awards program to recognize excellence at local organizations. And it will start an accelerator program to connect nonprofits with donors and help startups.
Currently, the foundation makes grants to a wide variety"



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Nonprofits Worth $887.3 Billion To U.S. Economy - The NonProfit TimesThe NonProfit Times

Nonprofits Worth $887.3 Billion To U.S. Economy - The NonProfit TimesThe NonProfit Times: "The tax-exempt sector in the United States represented 5.4 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) during 2012, contributing $887.3 billion to the economy. And of those tax-exempt entities, 501(c)(3) public charities accounted for slightly more than three-quarters of the sector’s revenue ($1.65 trillion) and expenses ($1.56 trillion) and more than three-fifths of nonprofit assets ($2.99 trillion) during 2012.

Comprised of approximately 1.44 million nonprofits registered with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in 2012, the sector has grown approximately 8.6 percent since 2002.

Those are among the statistics in the biannual Nonprofit Sector in Brief report by the Urban Institute’s Center On Nonprofits and Philanthropy. It’s a compilation of statistics from various sources throughout the sector.

According to the authors, total private gi"



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New Study: Americans Misinformed Before Donating to Charities : Page 1 of 1 : FundRaising Success

New Study: Americans Misinformed Before Donating to Charities : Page 1 of 1 : FundRaising Success: "Press release, Oct. 28, 2014) — New data on how Americans donate to charities pinpoints a lack of donor understanding and the need for simple tools to help donors give wisely. The study reveals that Americans consider finances to be the most important indicator of trust, which is a misguided review of a nonprofit organization according to the BBB Wise Giving Alliance."



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Reality Check: US Charity Upturn Builds, Driven by Wealthy | MNI

Reality Check: US Charity Upturn Builds, Driven by Wealthy | MNI: "Andrew Watt, chief executive of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, which represents about 30,000 U.S. fundraisers.

Watt said overall giving during the first three quarters of 2014 increased by 1.5% to 2% compared with a year earlier, indicating a return to a sustainable level of growth after a double-digit decline during the recession, and annual gains of 8% to 10% in the early 2000s."



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Foundations, Companies Gave $380 Million for Sandy Relief, Study Finds | News | PND

Foundations, Companies Gave $380 Million for Sandy Relief, Study Finds | News | PND: "Two years after Superstorm Sandy pounded coastal communities from southern New Jersey to Connecticut, nearly six hundred foundations, corporations, and other institutional donors have contributed more than $380 million in cash and in-kind gifts for relief, recovery, and rebuilding efforts, a report from Foundation Center finds."



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Year-End Fundraising: The Not-So-Magnificent Obsession - NPQ - Nonprofit Quarterly

Year-End Fundraising: The Not-So-Magnificent Obsession - NPQ - Nonprofit Quarterly: "That’s the sense of hysteria I get with all this talk of year-end fundraising.

I don’t mean to be contrarian. Wait. Yes, I do. If you know my work at all, I can be quite contrarian.

Here’s my perspective: I’m not much interested in talking about year-end fundraising.

I’m more interested in talking about all-year-long fundraising. Because if you’re focused on year-end fundraising (and not so focused on year-round), you’re in trouble."



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Q&A: Chris Hughes on Tech Entrepreneurs and Philanthropy - News - The Chronicle of Philanthropy- Connecting the nonprofit world with news, jobs, and ideas

Q&A: Chris Hughes on Tech Entrepreneurs and Philanthropy - News - The Chronicle of Philanthropy- Connecting the nonprofit world with news, jobs, and ideas: "Chris Hughes is a co-founder of Facebook and the publisher of The New Republic. He is also one of the standard-bearers for a new generation of data-centric, innovative philanthropists. 

Mr. Hughes and I spoke by phone about the evolution of philanthropy and how technology is changing the way wealthy donors give.  The following is an edited and condensed transcript of our conversation."



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Chuck McLeester: Don’t Get Lost in a Maze of Metrics : Target Marketing

Chuck McLeester: Don’t Get Lost in a Maze of Metrics : Target Marketing: "he new frontier in using big data in multichannel marketing is learning what data you need. And that starts with clearly defined marketing objectives.
The proliferation of data has caused many marketers to get caught up in minutiae that are not relevant to their objectives. With all the data that's available, it takes discipline to focus only on the metrics that are relevant. Too often the most important metrics, like cost per acquisition and customer lifetime value, are overlooked while we're looking at things like email bounce rates and time on site. Those are metrics which certainly have their place, but should be viewed in the context of how they can be leveraged to improve lifetime value."



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Smithsonian aims to raise $1.5B to improve museums | WJLA.com

Smithsonian aims to raise $1.5B to improve museums | WJLA.com: "The Smithsonian Institution has embarked on a major campaign to raise $1.5 billion and increase private support for the world's largest museum and research complex to fund programs in history, science, art and culture.
Continue reading
The Smithsonian's Board of Regents announced the goal this week and revealed more than $1 billion already has been raised in a quiet phase since October 2011. This is the first institution-wide fundraising effort and the largest campaign in history for any cultural institution, Smithsonian Secretary Wayne Clough said. The campaign will continue through 2017."



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Smithsonian aims to raise $1.5B to improve museums | WJLA.com

Smithsonian aims to raise $1.5B to improve museums | WJLA.com: "The Smithsonian Institution has embarked on a major campaign to raise $1.5 billion and increase private support for the world's largest museum and research complex to fund programs in history, science, art and culture.
Continue reading
The Smithsonian's Board of Regents announced the goal this week and revealed more than $1 billion already has been raised in a quiet phase since October 2011. This is the first institution-wide fundraising effort and the largest campaign in history for any cultural institution, Smithsonian Secretary Wayne Clough said. The campaign will continue through 2017."



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New funds help athletes score in philanthropy | Crain's Detroit Business

New funds help athletes score in philanthropy | Crain's Detroit Business: "Verlander had made veteran mental health his cause of choice during his career, and in 2013 he committed $1 million to specific initiatives in Detroit and his native Virginia.

Rather than the traditional (and expensive) method of creating a foundation, he opted for an increasingly common choice for major giving: a donor-advised fund, something that charity industry watchers say is a leading best practice. "



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Technology Evolves Fundraising, But Charleston Principles Remain Unchanged - The NonProfit TimesThe NonProfit Times

Technology Evolves Fundraising, But Charleston Principles Remain Unchanged - The NonProfit TimesThe NonProfit Times: "magine that the attorney general in California declares that the ad constitutes a targeted solicitation, and notes that the charity mentioned in the ad has not registered with the state. The attorney general cites the charity for being in violation of The Charleston Principles, a set of guidelines issued in 2001 by the National Association of State Charity Officials (NASCO), which 39 states and the District of Columbia rely on, to varying degrees, when governing online charitable solicitations.

Millions of consumers recently lined-up for the latest iPhone that will be out of date within six months, yet the Charleston Principles, which target technology, have not been updated since being drafted in 1999 and issued in 2001."



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OPINION: Charitable giving as a route to ‘immortality’ | Critical Fundraising

OPINION: Charitable giving as a route to ‘immortality’ | Critical Fundraising: "As fundraisers, money is at the very heart of what we do. Rogare’s manager Ian MacQuillin summed up the situation very well at a talk for the Institute of Fundraising earlier this year: however much we like to tell ourselves that what we do is about building relationships, growing awareness or changing opinions, unless those actions lead to more money for our causes, they are essentially a waste of a fundraiser’s time."



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Women are more philanthropic than men

Women are more philanthropic than men: "In recent years, studies have dispelled myths about women and charitable giving. Debra Mesch, the director of the Women’s Philanthropy Institute (WPI) at Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis, says misconceptions—like that women don’t give big donations and that women have to ask a man, such as their husbands, before they can give money—still abound. But WPI has found that in almost every income bracket, women give more than men."



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