April 2008 No. 14Table of Contents |
|
Giving and Happiness. “It’s an intriguing result you won’t find in Economy 101 textbooks,” said an English economist about research done by a social psychologist in Canada, described in the journal Science. The finding? “Happiness didn’t correlate with personal spending but, rather, with how much they gave away,” Forbes reported. This was based on comparing people’s income, spending, donating, and “general level of happiness.” Giving tended to “nudge many people up the happiness scale, increasing the number of people who said that they were happy ‘most of the time’ rather than just ‘some of the time.’” An intriguing idea. Do happier people tend to give more, or does giving make people happier? How about testing it out in your United Way.
Confidence. Two-thirds of Americans have a “great deal” or “fair amount” of confidence in charities, a new poll reports; but today’s 64% is down from 69% in mid-2006. Revelations about donations for 9/11 victims’ families, Katrina, and veterans services may be causes for the slide, says Prof. Paul Light. Just 10% say charities are “very good” at spending their money and 24% think charities waste resources “a great deal.” Three-fourths believe charities make “fair” decisions and run programs and services well.
On-line giving is up. 80% of people annually giving $10,000+ say they’ve made a charitable gift via the Internet, and half prefer this method of giving. Almost half (46%) expect their on-line giving to be a bigger share of their donations in the next 5 years. But 56% think they get too many e-mail “asks” and are reading them less often. Most (74%) don’t want charities to get their e-mail addresses from commercial databases, and more (83%) want to get electronic updates. But they (81%) don’t like “urgent” asks for “repeat” gifts. The studies can be reviewed in the April 3rd Chronicle of Philanthropy.
Charity business. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will give closer scrutiny to nonprofits that raise money through business activities…and don’t pay appropriate taxes. More than half of charities reporting unrelated-business activities are paying zero taxes or are reporting losses. Nonprofits must pay UBIT (unrelated-business income tax) on retail sales, magazine publishing, and other commercial ventures.
Lax internal controls. An analysis of 58 charity fraud cases in 2004 concluded that the organizations lacked proper policies and management to deter theft and often didn’t take action to recover financial loses. Some $30 Million was stolen from this group, mostly in cash, yet financial misreporting usually cost the nonprofit 30 times as much as the asset loss. In fact, researchers estimate that as much as $40 Billion is swindled by employees from the charities where they work, each year. While lower-paid females commit most of the fraud, higher-paid males create bigger losses. See www.501cfiles.com.
Youth philanthropists. A new Central Indiana nonprofit aimed at getting youth to help their communities through giving and volunteering launched last week—Giving Sum (www.givingsum.org). It wants to mobilize the next generation’s passion, talents, and resources in innovative community initiatives. It requires $500/year to join and will involve all in directing at least $50,000 in gifts and will marshal 5,000 volunteer hours. It’s an idea worth copying.
Only 1% of Americans rated the U.S. economy “excellent,” and 56% called it “poor,” the Pew Research Center reports. That compares to 75+% high marks in 2000. Partisan identification varied responses, but not much: 19% of Democrats said the country is in a depression, compared to 13% of Independents and 9% of Republicans, averaging 15% of us all.
While 78% of Americans said “the recent crisis in the financial markets around the world” had a major, moderate, or minor impact on them, 90% in Italy said so, along with 77% in Spain and 69% in France, according to an early March Financial Times/Harris poll. But 47% of Brits said “no impact” along with 44% in Germany.
Were Europeans worried about their own financial situation 6 months from now? Again, Brits (32%) and Germans (26%) said “not at all,” while Spaniards (89%), French (91%), and Italians (94%) were more worried than Americans (83%).
At least half of Italians (75%), Americans (60%), French (58%), and British (52%) said their governments were doing a “bad” or “terrible” job of handling their economy, while half or more of Germans (60%) and Spaniards (53%) thought their governments were doing a “fair” to “excellent” job.
The State of Disability in America describes the challenges some 19% of Americans have with their civil rights, health care, education, employment, and housing. The Life Without Limits Project teamed with United Cerebral Palsy to outline the lives of some 54 million Americans. Here are highlights:
Public perceptions, tight budgets, laws, and employer policies hamper improvements in the lives of Americans with disabilities. To learn more about the history, legislation, and promising proposals for America, see www.ucp.org.
Ask about 211. If you attend a presidential candidate rally or visit their Web site or join their campaign, don’t forget that IaUW’s #1 federal legislative issue this year is…passage of the “Calling for 2-1-1 Act.” This applies to Congressional candidates as well. Thus far, both Senator Bayh and Senator Lugar are co-sponsors, as well as Representative Donnelly and Representative Souder.
And public funding for 211 is also the top priority for IaUW in the 2009 Indiana General Assembly. IN211 now provides limited 2-1-1 access to 85% of Hoosiers with the majority of support from private donations. Make sure your candidates know about this summer’s General Assembly study of information and referral (I&R) funding and 211.
Paucity of challengers. Once again, incumbents will likely reign in the Indiana General Assembly next year. Of those up for re-election, 66% of Senate Democrats, 64% of Senate Republicans, 75% of House Republicans, and 84% of House Democrats have no opposition now that the filing deadline has passed to be on the May primary ballots.
Print
