When one of Oregon’s major public universities received a request from a lawyer to outline smart ways the institution could promote nutrition and wellness if it got money from a new benefactor, it was not much of a mystery where the money might be coming from. Officials at the Oregon Health & Science University Foundation easily guessed the donors were Bob and Charlee Moore. After all, not many people who live in and around Portland, Ore., have made a fortune from natural foods.

http://philanthropy.com/article/Ore-University-s-Honest/130628/

The super rich grew more charitable last year, as public opinion of them became less so. The 50 donors on The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s annual list of the most generous Americans gave a median of $61-million in 2011, compared with $39.6-million the previous year. Collectively, the philanthropists in The Chronicle’s rankings lavished $10.4-billion on charitable organizations last year, although a single bequest from the agribusiness heiress Margaret A. Cargill accounted for $6-billion of that total.

http://philanthropy.com/article/As-Tensions-Over-Wealth-Gap/130623/

As the stock market resurged last year, so did the charitable giving of the super wealthy. America’s top 50 donors gave a total of $10.4-billion in 2011, up from $3.3-billion the previous year, according to a Chronicle study. One big bequest boosted the total significantly; excluding that gift, the philanthropists on The Chronicle’s list of the most generous Americans contributed $4.4-billion.

http://philanthropy.com/section/Philanthropy-50/370/

Under a big headline on the front page of The Washington Post last week came the news that a local billionaire had provided $7.5-million to restore the Washington Monument, which has been closed to the public since it suffered serious damage in this summer’s East Coast earthquake.

http://philanthropy.com/article/Misplaced-Giving-Priorities-of/130436/

High net worth individuals (HNWI) take, on average, 36 days to decide whether to make a major charitable donation and when they do, the gift averages around $14,000. This finding is contained in the latest Futurewealth report, a global survey of 3,300 high net worth individuals (HNWIs).

http://www.civilsociety.co.uk/fundraising/news/content/11472/wealthy_take_36_days_to_decide_on_major_donations_research_finds

......."evaluation is fundamentally about finding the best ways to help nonprofits do their jobs better. And to do that well, evaluators need to listen carefully to the people working on the ground, understand their ambitions and values, and provide data to answer their most pressing questions."

http://philanthropy.com/article/Data-Can-Help-Nonprofits-Save/130301/?sid=pt&utm_source=pt&utm_medium=en

What will a new generation of Facebook millionaires do with their wealth? It’s a good bet that many will splurge on a fancy new car, purchase a new home or perhaps even plan a trip to space. But it's also likely that they’ll be giving some of it away to charity. Experts expect charitable causes and nonprofits to be among the side beneficiaries of the minting of 1,000 or more new millionaires from Facebook’s impending initial stock offering.

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/01/10281431-the-facebook-effect-will-charities-reap-some-of-the-ipo-dough

Saying there are a lot of rich people in attendance at the World Economic Forum is like noting that there is a lot of water in the ocean. So where there are millionaires and billionaires, there is also talk of philanthropy. Technology was the central theme during a philanthropic roundtable, aptly called “e-philanthropy,” that was hosted by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation here on Friday.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/27/technology-and-philanthropy-merge-at-davos/

S&P/Case-Shiller home-price data moved lower in November on both a monthly and annual basis. The composite 20-city home price index, a key gauge of U.S. home prices, dropped 1.3% from October and fell 3.7% from a year earlier. Nineteen cities posted monthly declines, with just Phoenix showing an increase. Atlanta, Las Vegas, Seattle and Tampa posted new index level lows.

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2012/01/31/a-look-at-case-shiller-by-metro-area-8/

Several major charities ended 2011 on a high, with some nonprofits conducting record-breaking holiday-season campaigns.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204573704577187081146600366.html