GuideStar

GuideStar announced that nonprofit organization Office of Letters and Light is the winner of the prestigious GuideStar-Kimbia Nonprofit Giveaway Contest.

In a recent article for GuideStar, nonprofit branding expert Howard Adam Levy, principal of Red Rooster Group, shares three components of a successful brand.

Investors demand a good return from their assets. Now donors are increasingly seeking the same for their charitable dollars.

Finding the worthiest, most-efficient organizations to maximize the impact of your donations couldn't be more pressing.

Donors are rethinking their giving strategies, says Patrick Rooney, executive director of the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. "They want to make sure now more than ever that they're using their money wisely."

Fundraisers are noticing slight increases in donations, but not enough to keep pace with higher demand for charitable services in today's economic environment.

U.S. nonprofit organizations are seeing a slight increase in donations — a sign they hope is the beginning of economic recovery — but the turnaround hasn’t been strong enough to keep up with higher demand for charitable services, a national report released Monday said. About a third of America’s charities reported an increase in donations during the first nine months of 2010, and they said they expect more good news in the fourth quarter, according to data collected by a coalition called the Nonprofit Research Collaborative.

How does Generation Y choose to give, and in what ways? One example of a Generation Y stereotype-busting, charitably conscious individual is Carlo Garcia, an actor and producing director for Chicago’s Mary-Arrchie Theatre Co.

America’s biggest charities are on a slow-moving path to recovery from fund-raising losses in 2009, according to a new Chronicle survey of giving in April, May, and June.

Cash giving to big charities in the second three months of 2010 grew by a median of 3.1 percent compared with 2009.

That means that half the charities in the survey achieved a bigger increase than 3.1 percent and half a smaller gain or a decline compared with 2009. Giving in the second quarter of 2009 fell by a median of nearly 18 percent.

Battles between charities and the watchdog groups that help donors decide where to give escalated last week when a major trade association released drafts of two reports by scholars who say the watchdogs may do more harm than good.

The studies, paid for and released by the Direct Marketing Association’s Nonprofit Federation at a meeting here, charge that the watchdog groups use evaluation systems that are confusing and simplistic.

According to a GuideStar report, 40 percent of respondents saw further declines in contributions in the first five months of 2010, while 63 percent saw an increase in demand for their services, putting even more pressure on fundraisers.

More than 80 percent of donors would recommend the organizations they support to another potential donor, yet many organizations rarely ask for existing donor referrals.