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National Study on Donor Advised Funds

February 28, 2024

The Donor Advised Fund Research Collaborative (DAFRC) is a consortium of academic and nonprofit researchers. Working across institutions, the collaborative is leading a 30-month, comprehensive research initiative to provide empirical data and insights on the characteristics and activities of donor advised funds (DAFs) in the United States. One of the initiative's main goals is to gather and analyze account-level DAF information that is not available from publicly accessible data sources, such as the IRS Form 990. The account-level data allows for a more nuanced and accurate understanding of DAFs, as well as comparisons across different types and sizes of DAFs and DAF sponsors.The present report is the first of three major nationwide projects: (1) compiling a large, anonymized dataset from DAF providers, (2) fielding a management survey to gather policies and procedures from DAF sponsors, and (3) fielding a donor survey to gain insights into how individuals and families think about and use DAFs as part of their household giving.The 2024 National Study on Donor Advised Funds includes information about DAFs from 2014 to 2022, covering aspects such as account size, age, type, succession plan, donor demographics, contributions, grants, payout rates, and grantmaking speed. The report represents the most extensive independent study on DAFs to date. Thanks to the collective efforts of 111 DAF programs that voluntarily provided anonymized data to the research team, the dataset covers nine years of activity from more than 50,000 accounts, with over 600,000 inbound contributions to DAFS and more than 2.25 million outbound grants from DAFs.

Listening to Each Other? – Opportunities and Challenges in Music Exchanges between the United States and the People’s Republic of China in the Late Twentieth Century

March 4, 2024

Cultural exchanges between the United States and the People's Republic of China were formalized in the 1970s. With the ever-increasing interest in understanding each other's culture, American and Chinese governments and cultural institutions organized exchange trips in different fields. Music was among the first professions that was used to establish rapport. This essay introduces some of the early efforts to facilitate the musical exchanges, including by the Asian Cultural Program of the JDR 3rd Fund and the Center for United-States Arts Exchange founded by Chou Wen-Chung. It highlights how the American non-profit sector shaped the cultural dialogue through grantmaking from the 1970s to the 1990s. Despite the legacy of fostering interests in learning the cultural differences between the two countries, archival materials show a Euro-American-centric sentiment by expecting Chinese visitors to bring American knowledge back to their home, and that Americans have the expertise and knowledge to assist Asians to better understand their own cultural heritage. With mostly white Americans in control of the visitors they could bring in, who tended to be talented performers and artists of ancient or traditional art forms, they avoided more politicized contemporary works and discourses. Chinese immigrants in America were also limited in terms of their ability to participate in these cultural exchanges. Such a narrow approach to cultural exchange also limited Americans' understanding of China (and Asia, at-large) in the contemporary context.

Filantropia que transforma - Transforming philanthropy

February 28, 2024

The publication Transforming Philanthropy: mapping of independent grantmaking organizations for civil society in the areas of socio-environmental justice and community development in Brazil presents an unprecedented survey of organizations that show that this way of doing philanthropy is strong and present in the country, and can be seen as a movement that attempts to change power relations by supporting human rights and socio-environmental justice alongside the grassroots organizations. It is also a study that is constantly under construction, since other existing organizations may not have been mentioned here, and new ones may have been created since this publication came out, which leaves room for future expansion and development of the topic.

Data Science, AI and Data Philanthropy in Foundations : On the Path to Maturity

February 14, 2024

This research explores the data-related initiatives currently undertaken by a pool of foundations from across Europe. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study that has investigated the level of data work within philanthropic foundations, even though the rise of data and its importance has increasingly been recognised in the non-profit sector. Given that this is an inaugural piece of research, the study takes an exploratory approach, prioritising a comprehensive survey of data practices foundations are currently implementing or exploring. The goal was to obtain a snapshot of the current level of maturity and commitment of foundations regarding data-related matters.

Defending Democracy: The Charles F. Kettering Foundation 2023 Annual Report

February 12, 2024

Throughout its history, the Charles F. Kettering Foundation's focus has always been on innovation. Our founder, Charles F. Kettering, believed that "our imagination is the only limit to what we can hope to have in the future."In summer 2023, Kettering announced its new strategic plan, In Defense of Democracy, the result of the foundation's staff flexing their imagination to better meet the needs of democracy. It introduced our new vision, mission, guiding beliefs and values, and outlined five new strategic focus areas that are designed to utilize our resources effectively in the defense and advancement of democracy.Defending Democracy: The Charles F. Kettering Foundation 2023 Annual Report chronicles this journey of transformation, highlighting a year of reflection, dialogue, and action. It is our answer to the question, "What can the Charles F. Kettering Foundation uniquely offer the democracy field at this moment of crisis?" In 2023, we took the first step in our commitment to strengthening existing partnerships, forging new collaborations, broadening our reach and influence through innovative communication strategies, and exploring new lines of research.

Private Funders and Private Wildlife Conservancies in Neoliberal Kenya (1980-2010)

February 7, 2024

This report examines the rise of nongovernmental organizations and private game reserves in Kenya's conservation and tourist sector in the last two decades of the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-first century. Because these institutions are private and not required to be transparent, it can be difficult to study their histories. The archival holdings of funders, such as the Ford Foundation, or individual philanthropists, such as Laurance S. Rockefeller, can thus provide insights into the histories of these organizations. These records provide particular information on two private conservancies started in the 1980s in Laikipia, Kenya: the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy and Ol Ari Nyiro (at times referred to as Laikipia Ranching). Attention to these conservancies demonstrates a shift in the practice of conservation during the late twentieth century, as the Kenyan state saw its role diminished, and private funders, NGOs, and private conservancies became more central to the project of protecting Kenya's wildlife, while also benefitting from the tourists which followed.

The Growing Momentum Behind Philanthropic Collaboratives in India : Collaborating to accelerate social impact

February 7, 2024

Philanthropic collaboratives gained significant momentum in India during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, when diverse NGOs and funders came together to reach vulnerable communities. These collaboratives pursue a shared vision and strategy for achieving social impact, using common resources and agreed-upon governance mechanisms.Building on research conducted in 2020, this new study finds that the number of collaboratives in the country has grown over threefold, with invested capital having grown at least sixfold. This research, which includes a Net Promoter Score survey, indicates that this asset class is likely to grow significantly, however, there are critical areas to keep in mind to succeed. To develop a deeper understanding of factors driving collaborative action, how collaboratives can create disproportionate impact, and the challenges they face, Bridgespan interviewed leadership teams, funders, and key operating partners of major collaboratives and CSR organisations that have invested in collaboratives. The result of this research is encouraging insight into the growing potential of co-operatives and domestic philanthropy as a whole, leading researchers to question how these areas can be better developed and supported.

Climate Change: A series of Case Studies on South African Funder's Climate Journeys (Volume 2)

February 5, 2024

Climate change is an increasingly pressing global issue that requires an immediate and concerted response to limit its most catastrophic consequences. Funders can play a key role in responding to climate change, however, funder responses to climate change have historically been relatively limited.That said, more funders are beginning to acknowledge the urgency with which climate change needs to be addressed and are increasingly seeing the impacts that climate change has on the often vulnerable communities that they serve. These climate change impacts have further implications for funders' work on other socio-economic challenges, with the communities that they serve facing additional challenges relating to food security, water scarcity, environmental damage, and heat waves.

The GivingTuesday Resource Exchange

February 1, 2024

The GivingTuesday Resource Exchange (formerly known as GivingLab) provides a single centralized location to access the latest global content on generosity, movement building, and giving trends. Browse an array of resources gathered from around the world including reports, articles, research, stories, videos, and much more. 

Trust-Based Philanthropy Explained

February 1, 2024

Trust-Based Philanthropy (TBP): What is it and how can collective giving groups bestpractice it?At its roots TBP is about advancing equity, shifting power, and building mutually accountable relationships. It seeks to demonstrate humility and collaboration in all aspects of the giving process.TBP is most often associated with grantmaking practices; however, committing meaningfully to TBP means going deeper than how we give. This resource will equip giving circle leaders with tools to go beyond grantmaking and infuse trust and the values of trust-based philanthropy into your culture, structures, practices, and leadership. 

The Push and Pull: Declining Interest in Nonprofit Leadership

January 26, 2024

This report presents findings from BMP's 2022 survey of more than 3,000 nonprofit staff on the factors related to their aspiration to top leadership roles, as well as the experiences of current nonprofit leaders. The 2022 survey included many of the same questions asked in both the 2019 and 2016 Race to Lead surveys, tracking patterns on aspiration, experiences, and challenges in the sector over time. BMP also looked at trends over the three iterations of the survey in two additional pieces on key race to lead findings and demographics.The report highlights a new trend since 2019: a decreased interest in top leadership roles and a simultaneous increase in respondents who said they were not interested in these roles. The report also shows that, contrary to our hypotheses, respondents who had received more supports were less interested in the executive director role while respondents who faced more challenges in their careers were more likely to pursue top leadership positions. BIPOC respondents more commonly faced these challenges overall, though the trend in aspiration was true for both BIPOC and white survey takers. These trends suggest a "push" into leadership roles to ameliorate the issues nonprofit staff have experienced, rather than a "pull" into these roles on their merit. Finally, to explain why BIPOC staff were particularly less interested in the executive director position, this report looks at the obstacles BIPOC leaders face in their roles.

DECODED: Donor-Advised Funds in the Asia-Pacific

January 25, 2024

Our DECODED series unpacks, explains and crystallizes issues critical for social investment in Asia. It draws upon our expertise in research and access to an extensive network of sector experts and philanthropists in 18 Asian economies enabling us to identify emerging trends in the region. Through DECODED, we translate these concepts into digestible insights.This edition of DECODED looks at the emergence of donor-advised funds (DAFs) in the Asia-Pacific and identifies the different models and motivations for setting up this type of fund in the region. While yet to become mainstream in most Asia-Pacific economies, donors, sponsoring organizations and social innovators have a strong and growing interest in the potential of DAFs to facilitate strategic philanthropic giving in the region.