7% of Web Users Donate to Charity

7% of Web Users Donate to Charity:Everday more than 109 million Americans go online. The Pew Internet and American Life Project summarized its findings of what they actually spend their time doing online. Not surprisingly, email tops the list (93%). While "make a donation to charity" was done only 7% of the time (equal to taking a class online for college credit, but less than "making a phone call over the Internet" and "Buying groceries online" -- both at 8%), it was surpirisingly close to those who "buy or sell stocks, bonds ot mutual funds" (12%). In fact, if you view the other activities that people do online, the Internet is the place where people "use a search engine to find information" (85%), "look for a hobby or interest" (77%), "look for health/medical information" (66%) and "look for religious/spiritual information" (28%) -- activities that can be part of the philanthropic and voluntary engagement. The other silver lining in all this is that it topped "gambling" which was at the bottom (5%).

Irvine Gives Ex-CEO a Gold Mine: The talk of California's nonprofit sector is the compensation package the Irvine Foundation's board of trustees gave to its Dennis Collins retiring CEO. The compensation package reached $717,000 one year to lavish retirement fetes, a trip around the world for he and his wife and other gifts. This came all in the midst of the foundation losing a quarter of its $1.6 billion in assets, laying off 20 percent of its staff, and cutting its grants by $20 million. We all like to think that charitable organizations and the foundations that fund them are immune from irrational exuberance and greed that afflicted so many enterprises during the dot com boom. Unfortunately, our sector has its own conflicts of interests and Mr. Collins may well become philanthropy's version of former GE CEO Jack Welch. The real question is whether this will have the staying power of William Aramony and United Way? My opinion is that the impact will be far less severe, but could result in increased scrutiny from Washington, DC, and Sacramento.

According to several legal experts, Collins' compensation warrants an audit by the Internal Revenue Service and an investigation by the state attorney general. Unfortunately, both institutions are severely understaffed and lack the financial resources to prove a charge of excessive compensation.

Email your thoughts and opinions pro and con -- I will post the most interesting comments.

Ever hear of the Generosity Index? Compiled every year by the Catalogue for Philanthropy, the index ranks charitable giving, state by state, by U.S. citizens and companies. The index accounts for the amount of wealth that citizens and corporations in all 50 states can give, and how much they actually do give, to charities on an annual basis. The good news is that, overall, the Catalogue for Philanthropy reports that charitable giving held up fairly well during the economic woes of 2002, especially among individual charitable givers. The bad news is that affluent states like Massachusetts (44), New Jersey (48) and Virginia (37) rank at the bottom of the index, outpaced by less well-off states like Mississippi, Arkansas and South Dakota, which top the index. See where your state ranks.

Taxes or a Tax Deduction: There are times when you read about an idea that is so brilliant and yet so simple you say to yourself "why didn't I think of that?" In Sunday's New York Times in an article entitled "Charity Begins at Schedule A" Ian Ayres and Barry Nalebuff propose two small changes in tax law could encourage people to be more generous. First, extend the deadline for deducting donations to April 15 of the following year, the same as the deadline for contributions to an Individual Retirement Account. Second, provide a new line on the tax form for people to total their donations as a percentage of their income. For those taxpayers looking at writing a check to the IRS, this could provide incentive enough to make a contribution to their favorite charitable causes and reduce their tax burden. For those receiving a refund, they may share some of that windfall. Simply brilliant.

Philanthropy as an Export: The annual Transatlantic Community Foundation Network plenary meeting took place in Newcastle (England) March 28 - April 2, 2003, despite the Iraq-war. Community Foundation experts from the USA, Canada, Mexico and 10 European Countries came together, hosted by the Community Foundation serving Tyne & Wear and Northumberland, Europe's most successful Community Foundation (33 Mio. Euro in assets). The TCFN-conference gives strong evidence for the consistency and reliability of the Transatlantic relations on the level of Community Foundations. These feelings were emphasized by Sir John Weston, former British ambassador to the UN and NATO, in his Dinner Speech. Sir John is now chairman of the Community Foundation Network UK. Currently 46 Community Foundations from 14 different countries are members of TCFN. During the past decade the Community Foundation concept has spread rapidly around the globe. Although first invented in the US, its no longer a uniquely American concept. Much of the growth in continental Europe has taken place in Germany, thanks in part to the Bertelsmann Foundation which established Germany's first Community Foundation in its hometown of Gutersloh -- since then 46 Community Foundations have been established. The results of the network are published on TCFN's website .