The recent devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana has been heart-renching.  In addition to the horrific loss of life, home and basic life necessities, victims have endured a less than spectacular rescue operation.  FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) has come under fire for mismanagement of the relief efforts.  Congress had initially approved $10.5 billion dollars in relief funding and has subsequently approved $52 billion in additional funds.  The bulk of these funds will go to FEMA. 

With the number of unpredictable and large scale disasters we have faced in recent years, many fundraisers may be discouraged.  Not only is there are large scale loss of life and extraordinary pain for thousands, but there can also be a negative impact on our organization's annual fundraising efforts.

Ethics is an emerging issue that is being dealt with quite poorly by fundraisers as a profession.  If we do not police this better ourselves, the U.S. Senate Finance Committee may end up doing it for us in coming months.

Although professional associations such as Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) have adopted a code of ethical principles, it is evident that more needs to be done in this area.

Bequest gifts to nonprofit organizations have grown significantly in recent years, perhaps partly reflecting the start of the much talked about intergenerational wealth transfer.  If nonprofit organizations proactively develop and enhance relationships with donors, this growth trend will continue.

During the five-year period of 2000-04, the amount of money donated through bequest gifts to charities increased by 27.1 percent over the previous five-year period of 1995-99, according to inflation-adjusted figures in Giving USA 2005.  From the five-year period of 1990-94 to 1995-99, bequest dollars rose by 37.5 percent.  In 2004, bequest gifts totalled $19.8 billion representing eight percent of all charitable giving in the United States.  This represents a 241.9% increase over the 1964 inflation-adjusted total of $5.79 billion.

Reprinted with the permission of the Wealth and Commonwealth Newsletter.

Retired households, on average, own 58% more wealth but earn 35% less income than non-retired households. On average, they also contribute substantially more (69%) to charitable causes than do non-retired households.

These are the initial results of a work in progress at the Center on Wealth and Philanthropy (CWP) at Boston College. The work is based on data from the 2001 Survey of Consumer Finances, sponsored by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve.

Findings Regarding Retired Households