Chronicle of Philanthropy

Their investment portfolios may be slumping and their jobs less secure, but a majority of Americans who give to charity still plan to donate as much this year as they have in the past, according to a new survey.

The Council on Foundations has decided to oppose President Obama’s proposal to limit the tax break wealthy Americans get for charitable deductions, fearing that it would dampen giving, Steve Gunderson, the group’s president, said today.

Among nonprofit organizations in the Washington and New York metropolitan areas, staff members who run programs are most likely to be laid off this year, while fund raisers at those charities are most likely to see their ranks increase, according to a pair of new surveys on nonprofit salaries.

Robert L. Gallucci, a former American diplomat and weapons inspector, has been chosen to be the next president of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, one of the nation’s largest foundations.

Today, the Phoenix-based Lodestar Foundation and Arizona-Indiana-Michigan (AIM) Alliance presented a $250,000 national award as the first-ever Collaboration Prize to two groups — the Museum of Nature & Science in Dallas, Texas and the YMCA & JCC of Greater Toledo — at a luncheon ceremony in Scottsdale, AZ. Originally intended as a $250,000 award to one winner, the contest resulted in a tie, with each winner taking home $125,000.

Amid the debates over President Obama’s proposal to reduce tax breaks for affluent donors, a study released today shows that half of wealthy Americans say their charitable giving would be unaffected by the elimination of federal tax provisions designed, in part, to spur philanthropy.

President Obama today proposed to cap the rate that high-income taxpayers can use to claim charitable deductions as part of a plan to finance changes to the country’s health-care system.

On Monday, Robert L. Corcoran, president of the GE Foundation, stood cheerily alongside three other corporate-philanthropy leaders on the balcony above the floor of the New York Stock Exchange to ring the opening bell.

In a speech to a joint session of Congress, President Obama called on lawmakers to pass a bill that would greatly increase participation in national-service programs.

Charitable gifts of $1-million or more from individual donors fell by 33 percent in the last half of 2008 compared with the same period in 2007, according to a new analysis of big gifts by researchers at the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy.