Bank of America

To promote its charitable work, JPMorgan Chase financed and sponsored the “American Giving Awards,” which were televised by NBC on Saturday night. The two-hour show, with Bob Costas as host, profiled recipients of Chase donations.

The producers and the network said Friday that the awards show was a feel-good holiday season special.

In nearly 90 percent of high net worth households, women are either the sole decision maker or an equal partner in decisions about charitable giving, according to the Bank of America Merrill Lynch 2011 Study of High Net Worth Women’s Philanthropy.

While Wall Street has slowly returned from the depths of the financial crisis, nonprofit groups that have come to depend on the industry’s donations are still struggling. With the global market turmoil and the threat of a double-dip recession, many big banks are clutching their cash or rethinking their giving strategy to maximize their dollars.

The changing nature of Wall Street giving has touched many corners of the nonprofit world. Financial firms accounted for the largest amount of corporate cash donations in 2010, according to the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy.

Ten years ago, you would have been hard-pressed to find philanthropy specialists in most private banking and investment firms. But today, philanthropic services are a major division of most wealth management operations, offering clients a myriad of investment vehicles and services to do good.

“… Philanthropy has become a central part of relationship management because it’s so much a part of a high-net-worth individual’s life,” says Eileen Heisman, CEO and President, National Philanthropic Trust.

U.S. Bank has announced it will commit more than $16 million to help with the revitalization of Milwaukee neighborhoods hard-hit by the foreclosure crisis.

In doing so, U.S. Bank becomes the fourth bank to pledge resources to improve and stabilize housing and homeownership efforts in the city.

The other three banks — Bank of America, Deutsche Bank and Wells Fargo — have agreed to pledge a total of $15.2 million to the Milwaukee Rising initiative started by the community organization Common Ground.

As the national teen unemployment rate hovers at 24 percent, Bank of America is partnering with 95 nonprofit organizations to put 230 civic-minded high schoolers to work across the country this summer as part of its Student Leaders program. Funded by the Bank of America Charitable Foundation, the program matches local nonprofits with Student Leaders for a paid, eight-week internship.

WikiLeaks announced via Twitter that it will now be accepting donations of Bitcoins, a wholly digital and theoretically untraceable currency. Bitcoins are created with cryptographic functions and then stored and exchanged without the help of banks. So in theory the currency prevents any institution from tracking the flow of money, and prevents any bank from either blocking transfers to a certain party or freezing anyone’s account.

Challenges are many for North Texas nonprofits just as they are for nonprofit organizations across the U.S.

Aging volunteers and board members are ready to hand the reins off to replacements who are proving elusive. Longtime supporters are reluctant to embrace tools like social media. Donors are demanding more than a good cause to give to.

A hope for constructive solutions drew numerous nonprofit leaders to a recent summit sponsored by the Nonprofit Center of Wichita Falls. The morning session included an opportunity to identify problems, then begin a study of new approaches to success.

The Arts & Science Council knew it wouldn’t be easy to pull off its 25-year cultural master plan to build new museums and a performing arts center. That wasn’t even counting the worst thing that eventually did go wrong: the recession and banking crisis that struck just two years into the council’s $83-million fundraising campaign, imploding its biggest corporate supporter and freezing philanthropists’ checkbooks.

Yet today Charlotte’s business district boasts three new art museums, a performing-arts theater and a remodeled children’s science museum.

America's nonprofits are expecting 2011 to be another tough year for their organizations, and for the people they serve, according to a survey released today by Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF), with support from the Bank of America Charitable Foundation. The survey of more than 1,900 nonprofit leaders in markets nationwide found that while there are some signs of hope, many nonprofits are straining under year-after-year increases in the demand for services.