Good reads from the philanthropy world

Lots of good reads about philanthropy and non-profits this week online and on paper.  Most of my interesting morsels are found from the iPad app called Zite.  Love it. I can choose which type of things interest me and Zite pulls all the relevant articles for me to read. 

You may know (and be sick of reading) how I write a lot about how it is important to talk to a prospective walker, donor and sponsor.  Here’s an article from Boston Magazine about the art of the ‘ask’.  Notice how many baby steps and hand holding is involved before a building is named after someone. 

Did you know studies have repeatedly shown the people who can least afford to donate are the most generous? Here’s an article from the Non Profit Quarterly that shows the favorite areas of support for those who have, and have not.  The most interesting takeaway for me from this article was that of the top 50 charitable gifts from the wealthy last year, not one went to a charity that primarily serves the poor.  Hmmm.

Here’s another great article from the NPQ that shows trends in online giving.   Photos posts online had the most likes, shares and comments.  No surprise that online giving is up, but you may have seen my previous post noting that another article shows that only 7% of total gifts are made online.

That means 93% are not online gifts.  Please see the first item noted above – The Art of the Ask. 

93% of gifts were given because they were personally asked!