International Fundraising

Today marks the arrival of the 101Fundraising Crowdblog "for fundraisers who don’t have time to run their own blog, but want to blog once in a while."

Today marks the arrival of the 101Fundraising Crowdblog "for fundraisers who don’t have time to run their own blog, but want to blog once in a while."

Many charities, sadly, seem to have a slow and reactive culture very similar to the slow-moving corporate one. Take the Organizational Olfactory Approach to fundraising.

The Jewish Federations of North America is launching a $5.5 million fundraising campaign for Ethiopian immigration to Israel. The campaign comes at the behest of the Israeli government, which agreed last November to bring up to 7,846 additional Ethiopians to Israel. Like Israel’s commitment, the federation’s campaign comes with an eye toward concluding mass Ethiopian aliyah; it’s called “Completing the Journey.”

The last federation fundraising drive for Ethiopian aliyah, launched in 2005 with a target of $100 million over five years, fell short of its goal.

Give2Asia, a U.S.-based public charity promoting transformative philanthropy for Asia, announced a new partnership with Afghan Connection to improve access to education and health for nearly 100,000 children, youth, and young adults throughout Afghanistan.

U.S. donors can make tax-deductible donations online to Give2Asia in support of Afghan Connection at http://www.give2asia.org/afghanconnection, or by sending donations to “Give2Asia” by check, wire, or securities transfer.

Despite the down economy, the amount American foundations distributed for international purposes dipped by far less than giving to other causes last year, according to a new report from the Foundation Center and the Council on Foundations.

Foundations in the United States gave $6.7-billion last year for international purposes, a drop of 4 percent from 2008 totals. Over all last year, foundation giving declined by an estimated 8.4 percent after grant makers nationwide lost a total of 17 percent of their assets due to the recession.

Forty-one percent of American millionaires consider charity one of their top three spending priorities, a far bigger share than wealthy people in 19 other countries, according to a new survey.

The survey of 2,000 millionaires by Barclays Wealth, in London, found substantial differences among the wealthy depending on where they live.  For example, only 20 percent of Australian millionaires considered charity one of the top three spending priorities.

American charities that provide health care to poor people overseas have been hit hard by the recession, according to a study released Tuesday.

Cash gifts from private donors for nonprofits’ global health work dropped by 33 percent from 2008 to 2010, according to the study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, in Seattle. Corporate donations of medicines and equipment dropped by 59 percent in that time, although the decrease was due in part to a new method the researchers used to measure the value of products.

The Global Alliance for Vaccine Immunization, co-founded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will create an advocacy group to raise $3.7 billion amid reduced donor contributions following the global financial crisis.

The group is expected to start operating in the first quarter of 2011 and will include human-rights activists who will lobby government leaders for money. The funding is needed to introduce new vaccines and roll out existing ones, she said.

According to the recently released 2010 Global State of the Nonprofit Industry survey by Blackbaud, four global fundraising trends emerged from the data. Here are those four trends shared in the press release.