Material Interest
CURRENTS Article What are the essential characteristics of a culture of philanthropy? Can an institution claim to have a philanthropic culture if staff giving is low? Does an institution have to demonstrate need? Does athletic success promote generosity among constituents? In a survey, advancement leaders say they struggle to identify and develop the characteristics of a philanthropic campus.

The Common Thread
CURRENTS Article Creating a culture of philanthropy can help an institution recruit a cross-section of constituents to the cause of advancing the institution and improve fundraising success. Here's how.

Speaking of Philanthropy
CURRENTS Article A global survey of high-wealth individuals provides some insight into their giving patterns.

Odds and Ends: Woman of the World
CURRENTS Article In this Q-and-A interview, Jane Wales—co-founder and CEO of the Global Philanthropy Forum, president and CEO of the World Affairs Council, and vice president of philanthropy and society for the Aspen Institute—discusses the changing landscape of philanthropy and the need to educate and engage the new generation of philanthropists.

New Wealth Centers
CURRENTS Article India’s potential donors are growing quickly

Passing the Hat 2.0
CURRENTS Article "Crowdfunding," which allows startups and charitable projects to obtain small-scale financing through web-based campaigns, holds promise for college and university development offices.

Giving in India
CURRENTS Article Individual and corporate donations account for only 10 percent of charitable giving in India.

Checking In on Giving
CURRENTS Article Data on donation channels (e.g., phone, check by mail, checkout donation) overall and by generation are presented in a chart. The data come from a survey carried out by marketing, advocacy, and fundraising software firm Convio.

Annual Checkup
CURRENTS Article The Ross-CASE Survey of Gifts and Costs of Voluntary Giving evaluates the philanthropic health of universities in the U.K.

Odds and Ends: Where the President Knows Your Name
CURRENTS Article In this interview, Walter Kimbrough, president of Philander Smith College, talks to CURRENTS about his use of social media, as well as the impact philanthropy can have on historically black colleges and universities.

Actions Speak Louder Than Words
CURRENTS Article As Hong Kong’s education institutions begin to solicit private funding, people there are learning to adapt Western advancement techniques to their singular philanthropic culture. Wong, a Hong Kong advancement professional, explains some of the differences between the two cultures’ approaches to major giving and notes trends that may soon make fund raising there both more important and more difficult.

Research that U.K. Fundraisers Would Like to See Conducted
CURRENTS Article This chart shows the results of a recent survey in which U.K. fundraisers were asked which topics they'd like to see more research performed. The No. 1 topic was "identification of new segments of society that would be likely to give."

Onward and Upward
CURRENTS Article The vice president of development of the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts reports on new efforts at his institution and others to cultivate more gifts from midlevel donors as leadership gifts have become more scarce during the recession.

Treasure Chase
CURRENTS Article Advancement leaders from around the country and the world acknowledge the downturn in mega gifts to education during the Great Recession and discuss the best strategies for dealing with the new economy.

Outlook: Climbing the Ladder of Generosity
CURRENTS Article In the end we are not measured by what we have, but by what we give to one another.

Advance Work: Dipping Donations
CURRENTS Article Charitable giving in the U.K. was down in fiscal year 2009 by 11 percent.

Preparando el Terreno
CURRENTS Article Existen menos de veinte escuelas y universidades en Estados Unidos en las que al menos la mitad de sus ex alumnos contribuya financieramente con su alma máter en un año determinado. Y la tendencia va a la baja, no al alza. ¿Por qué sucede esto? ¿Se pueden permitir las instituciones que esta situación continúe?

Odds & Ends: Natural Leader
CURRENTS Article In a short interview, Burt's Bees CEO John Replogle discusses sustainability and philanthropy.

Advance Work: The Habit of Giving
CURRENTS Article Researchers find that alumni who gave regularly in their first five years out gave on average eight times more in the long run than those who donated the same amount in the first five years but did not make a steady habit of it.

Advance Work: 'Altruism is Sexy'
CURRENTS Article A study by evolutionary psychologists at the University of Kent found that men give more in the presence of attractive women. Another study by the same researchers found that women rate generous men as more attractive.

Advance Work: Donation Dollars and Sense
CURRENTS Article Has philanthropy really changed because of the economy?

Reaching for the Top
CURRENTS Article Author Elizabeth Harvey, a major gift officer at Mills College, surveys eight small and medium-sized colleges and universities to discover how the institutions are scaling the very top of their giving pyramids.

Crunching the Numbers
CURRENTS Article In this story, CASE Senior Director of Research Chris Thompson demonstrates how to analyze the data in the annual Voluntary Support of Education survey in order to compare your institution's alumni fundraising with national averages for peer institutions.

Cultivating Your Crop
CURRENTS Article There are fewer than 20 colleges and universities in the United States in which at least half of the alumni contribute financially to their alma mater in any given year. And this trend is headed downward, not up. Why is this the case, and can institutions afford to let it continue?

Advance Work: Pound Hound
CURRENTS Article A report chronicles for the first time the million-pound donations made in the United Kingdom from January 1, 2006, through December 31, 2007.

着意耕耘，自有收获
CURRENTS Article 美国有不超过20所大学每年能获得半数以上的校友通过捐赠回馈母校。这个数字有待持续下滑，毫无上升的迹象。为什么会有这种趋势？大学能坐视这种情况持续恶化吗？

Cultiver Vos Terres
CURRENTS Article Moins de 20 établissements d’enseignement supérieur aux Etats-Unis bénéficient d’une contribution financière annuelle d’au moins 50% des anciens.Et cette tendance est à la baisse. Pourquoi ? Nos institutions peuvent-elles se permettre de laisser ce phénomène continuer?

Year of the Rat
CURRENTS Article Fundraising the Asian-Pacific region can be challenging. But navigating those challenges can reap huge rewards.

Building Blocks
CURRENTS Article Although European nations may seem similar, their approach to philanthropy is varied. Read how about a receding welfare state is forcing many countries to build their own philanthropic culture.

Advance Work: Millennial Motivations
CURRENTS Article Study shows that the Millennial generation are as philanthropically inclined as older generations.

A Match Made in Heaven
CURRENTS Article Many prospects acquire their wealth through their entrepreneurial ventures. Development officers can tap into this potential through the concept of angel investing--the opportunity for donors to start a new business, champion a cause, and be directly involved.

Advance Work: A Will to Give
CURRENTS Article If older alumni and donors are your bequest prospects, you might want to lower your age range, according to a recent report on the topic.

Closing Remarks: He Gave, She Gave
CURRENTS Article There have always been women philanthropists. Nowadays there are more of them, with more wealth. The author challenges the assumptions and sheds light on what the real differences are between female donors and male donors, and among women philanthropists.

Venture Philanthropy Nation
CURRENTS Article Venture philanthropy burst on the scene 10 years ago, went into hiberation after the dot-com bust, and is now reemerging--a little older, a lot wiser. This approach enables development officers to appeal to donors with wealth, a cause to champion, a desire to be involved, and an entrepreneurial bent.

The Baby Bloomers
CURRENTS Article As one branch of donors reaches maturity and falls away, another begins to grow. Development has never been more challenging as advancement officers try to cultivate Gen X and Gen Y donors--who have very different values, attitudes, and motivations toward philanthropy than their predecessors, the Baby Boomers, and from each other. This article tells what some campus advancement offices are doing to communicate, connect with, and engage these emerging generations.

Advance Work: Mind Served
CURRENTS Article The Minnesota Correctional Education Foundation raises money so that inmates in Minnesota prisons can take college courses. Fundraising for this foundation is not an easy task.

Cultivating Young Sprouts
CURRENTS Article Millennials are arriving on campuses with a strong sense of engagement and looking for ways to serve the community. They want to connect to something larger than themselves, but they either aren't receptive to fund-raising efforts or they feel their money can do more good at the grassroots level. Development professionals need to capitalize on their desire and get them involved in giving to their institutions while they're still undergraduates. One way is to foster communication and working relationships among development, alumni relations, and student affairs. The article describes several successful and creative cultivation and education programs at various institutions that take a collaborative approach.

Motive Operandi
CURRENTS Article Author Cindy Sterling conducted research concerning gender differences in planned giving at small liberal arts colleges in the Northeast. Among other things, Sterling quantifies the amounts and types of planned gifts women and men make, explains why women made their giving choices, and suggests strategies planned giving officers can use to strengthen their solicitation efforts. A sidebar identifies key planned giving terms with which all development officers should be familiar.

AdvanceWork: Rich in Spirit
CURRENTS Article According to the Catalogue for Philanthropy’s 2004 “Generosity Index,” Mississippi is the nation’s most generous state and New Hampshire is the least generous. The rankings are based on the Catalogue’s review of 2002 Internal Revenue Service personal income tax returns and subsequent ranking of each state’s average adjusted gross income and average itemized charitable contributions.

Talking Points: British Advancement Comes of Age
CURRENTS Article In May 2004, the UK government's Task Force on Voluntary Giving released "Increasing Voluntary Giving to Education," commonly referred to as the "Thomas Report." The report, which offers a road map for advancement in the UK for the next 10 years, is based on the premise that voluntary giving helps institutions achieve excellence and is not a substitute for public funding. The report examines, among other things, the giving culture in the UK and the United States. It also looks at how to create an asking institution and a giving culture and outlines 11 specific recommendations.

AdvanceWork: Less Is More
CURRENTS Article The NewTithing Group has reported that wealthier donors tend to give a smaller percentage of their total wealth to charitable interests. Its study of U.S. Internal Revenue Service tax filings for 2001 found that the "middle rich" and "upper middle class"--those making between $200,000 and $10 million annually--gave away less than 0.5 percent of their total wealth in 2001. Those making less than $200,000, meanwhile, gave an average 1 percent of their total wealth to charity.

AdvanceWork: Stars in Their Eyes
CURRENTS Article Alumni of historically black colleges and universities are giving to alma mater in increasing numbers; the average size of their gifts also is on the rise. In May, the Kresge Foundation’s HBCU Initiative held an event to celebrate this unprecedented growth in major gift philanthropy by noncelebrity HBCU alumni and to raise alumni awareness of giving.

The Lay of the Land
CURRENTS Article Education faces an increasingly complex philanthropic environment in which everything from record fuel prices to headline-grabbing accounts of malfeasance can affect what donors think and do. This article examines the political, economic, and social factors affecting giving today and education’s place in donors' priorities list. Trends include more competition for fewer donors; activist giving; new relationships with foundations; and more demands for accountability.

AdvanceWork: An EKG on Education Giving
CURRENTS Article Over the past 25 years, total voluntary support to higher education in the United States has increased more than 700 percent, from $3.04 billion in 1978 to $23.9 billion in 2003. A closer look at the Council for Aid to Education’s “Voluntary Support of Education Survey” reveals significant long-term gains in both alumni and foundation giving, despite the 14 percent drop in alumni giving that occurred in 2002.

AdvanceWork: The Other Campaign
CURRENTS Article New data allow the public to track giving to U.S. national political campaigns in greater detail than ever. As of February 2004, people who work in education had given more than $3.8 million to major party presidential candidates, with Republican President George W. Bush and Democrat Gov. Howard Dean neck-and-neck in fund raising from this sector.

AdvanceWork: Holding Steady
CURRENTS Article A spring 2003 survey of U.S. consumers revealed that the percentage who say they give to education remained constant at 27 percent from 2002 to 2003, a reassuring finding.

Creating a New Comfort Zone
CURRENTS Article University of Pennsylvania assistant professor Marybeth Gasman has devoted her professional life to researching issues pertaining to African-American philanthropy. This article explores the big-picture issues that all fund raisers need to understand to build mutually beneficial relationships with their black constituents.

Beyond Borders
CURRENTS Article Have fund raisers begun tailoring their appeals to minority major gift prospects, and to what effect? This piece shares the insights of consultants and development officers from predominantly white institutions who have enjoyed some success in cultivating black, Hispanic, and Asian donors.

AdvanceWork: Sitting Pretty
CURRENTS Article Affluent individuals require a minimum of $1 million to $10 million in assets to feel financially secure, according to the "Wealth & Values Survey 2003" conducted by Community Foundations of America and HNW. Major gifts officers must therefore work even harder to convince these prospects that they can afford to support charitable causes.

AdvanceWork: Charity Begins at Work
CURRENTS Article In an effort to encourage more private sector philanthropy, in January 2003 the Australian Tax Office agreed to let workers make charitable donations through pretax payroll deductions. The program lets donors realize the benefits of giving immediately rather than after they file their taxes. This Advancework item is of interest to development and advancement services officers who want to develop giving incentives.

Closing Remarks: Crisis of Confidence
CURRENTS Article Three research reports--from the Brookings Institution’s Center for Public Service, the Chronicle of Philanthropy, and Independent Sector--indicate that public trust in the charitable sector is declining in the United States. The sector’s complacent reaction suggests a lack of willingness to deal with the problem or even conduct more rigorous research. To fortify public trust, the author suggests three basic strategies. This Closing Remarks column is of interest to advancement managers in all disciplines.

Closing Remarks: Awakening the Philanthropic Spirit
CURRENTS Article Beney suggests that because higher education in the United Kingdom has been nearly free to students for many years, the population has grown to expect that the government will cover all costs. As that funding landscape changes, Beney encourages institutions to explain that philanthropy for education is not a new phenomenon in the UK, but rather an old and noble one that has become dormant and is in need of waking.

In Advance: What's Up? Giving to Education
CURRENTS Article Two reports show strong increases in education-related philanthropy