Some philanthropy details
Morlie Levin, the former president of Hadassah read off some general findings on the impact of the economy on Jewish philanthropy, according to the JPPI study, which has not been released yet: The vast majority of Jews, now 90 percent live, in economically affluent and politically stable environments.
Israel ranks 27 out of 179 countries on the UN's Human development Index, which looks at a country's citizens' life expectancy, individual GDP and education.
Germany ranks 29, the U.K. Ranks 22 , and the U.S ranks 13.
There are longstanding trends in philanthropy, it is becoming decentralized, there is a proliferation of nonprofits and an increase in competition for dollars – and donors have become more focused and specific in their giving. There has also been an increase in giving.
The age of the average donor is becoming older.
There has been a proliferation of foundations.
Staffs at foundations have become more professional.
Because of the recession, endowments are down significantly.
Madoff had an impact, not only in dollars loss but in the way institutions now work.
There have been reductions in staff.
But, the general sentiment of the report, according to Levin, is that the economic crisis will not have a multilateral effect on longstanding trends in philanthropy. That is not to say that organizations are not being effected, they are struggling to adapt in the short term, but we believe it is a short term situation.
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Robert Evans
11/09/09 05:57 PM
The results that are cited are reflective of all US giving trends—with Jewish giving not being much different from approaches in the broader American giving community. Giving USA issued an important “white paper” in late October that cited how donors are responding to a somewhat better/improving economy and how historically donors have given following other economic downturns. We can expect a decrease in giving generally by most foundations and corporate/business donors in 2009, 2010, and 2011 because research shows that recovery takes 3 years to return to previous high levels. Therefore, more emphasis by non-profits needs to be directed to individuals . . . reprpesenitng at least 82% of all giving now. If you would like a copy of the GUSA report, contact me directly. It’s excellent reading!