Major Gift summary Nov. 16 to 20, 2009

Major Gifts in the USA - $ 574 million
Week of November 16 to 20, 2009

The following list came from newswire announcements over the last week.

New York, NY	Michael Bloomberg, the current mayor of New York city made his pledge to the World Health Organization to reduce the number of deaths and injuries from car accidents. Funds to be directed to six organizations over five years in 10 countries that account for 48% of deaths. This follows Bloomberg’s gift of $9 million for the pilot project back in 2007	$125 million
Seattle, WA	The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant to Hillsborough County Public Schools in Florida, one of the key recipients of the Intensive Partnership grants	$100,000,000
Seattle, WA	The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant to Memphis City Schools in Tennessee, one of the key recipients of the Intensive Partnership grants	$90,000,000
Seattle, WA	The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant to the College Ready Promise, one of the key recipients of the Intensive Partnership grants	$60,000,000
Glen Jean, WV	The Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve established with a gift from Stephen Bechtel Jr., chairman of the S.D. Bechtel Jr. Foundation, the largest in scouting history	$50 million
Seattle, WA	The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant to Measures of Effective Teaching project	$45 million
Seattle, WA	The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant to the Pittsburgh Public Schools, one of the key recipients of the Intensive Partnership grants	$40 million
Dallas, TX	Gift to St. Mark’s School campaign from these donors: Sarah and Ross Perot Jr. Harlan and Kathy Crow family gift Ken Hersh, his wife, Julie, and the Hersh Foundation Bob Roberts and his wife, Eveline, and graduate Casey McManemin, his wife, Megan, the Communities Foundation of Texas and the McManemin Family Fund	$10 million $10 million $5 million $5 million
Madison, WI	University of Wisconsin-Madison received this grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop research on pandemic influenza viruses	$9,500,000
Chattanooga, TN	An estate gift from Lowell Andreas to Covenant College that will support a new residence hall. Also, an anonymous gift of $1 million to the institution	$4 million + $1 million
Des Moines, IA	Drake University to establish the William M. and Jean M. Buchanan Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership from their endowment gift	$3 million
Coral Gables, FL	University of Miami gift from gift comes from The Goizueta Foundation to enhance its prestigious Cuban Heritage Collection housed inside the Otto G. Richter Library at its Coral Gables campus	$2,400,000
Portland, ME	A gift from Alston D. "Pete" Correll and his wife Ad Lee Correll, he is the former president and CEO of Georgia-Pacific Corp. and alum to his alma mater of the University of Maine	$2 million
New York, NY	TD Charitable Foundation announced the 56 winners of its annual “Housing for Everyone” grant competition, a total of $2 million in grants to support affordable housing initiatives	$2 million
Princeton, NJ	A Princeton Day School family made an anonymous gift to support professional development opportunities for teachers at the school	$1.75 million
Eugene, OR	An estate gift from Frederick Rankin, who was a local physician to the Eugene Public Library	$1.1 million
North Platte, NB	North Platte Community College received an estate gift from Oliver Durbin to support students wanting to attend college	$1 million
Kansas City, MO	Gift to the Johnson County Community College Foundation, to establish the Barton P. and Mary D. Cohen Art Acquisition Endowment	$1 million
Davis, CA	Trinchero Family Estates, a family-owned wine company in the Napa valley, made a gift to the grapevine program at the University of California, Davis	$1 million
Little Rock, AR	The  Arkansas Children’s Hospital Foundation named the Stella Boyle Smith wing in honor of her estate gift just received	$1 million
Cleveland, OH	The GAR Foundation of Akron grants of $906,000  including: Kent State University - $120,000 Invent Now - $84,000 Habitat of Humanity of Summit County - $75,000 Cuyahoga Valley National Park Association - $60,000 Access Inc. - $50,00	$120,000 $84,000 $75,000 $60,000 $50,000
Fort Smith, AR	A corporate gift from First Bank Corp to the U. S. Marshals Museum in downtown Fort Smith	$500,000
Columbus, OH	The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation grant to the Jazz Arts Group of Columbus	$200,000
New York, NY	The New York Life Foundation grant to the YMCA of Greater New York’s new curriculum driven by the Salvadori Method, to support after school staff with “hands-on / minds-on” activities in to explore math, science, arts and humanities	$200,000
Nampa, ID	A grant from the John H. & Orah I. Brandt Foundation to the School of Nursing at Northwest Nazarene University to buy equipment for a new nursing lab named for the foundation	$87,000
Seattle, WA	The Microsoft Alumni Foundation awarded its first "Integral Fellows" awards to three nonprofits started by company alumni, each received a $25,000 grant: recipients included Trish Millines Dziko, founder of the Technology Access Foundation in Seattle and John Wood, founder of San Francisco-based Room to Read and Patrick Awuah, founder of Ashesi University in Ghana	$75,000 ( 3 gifts of $25,000)
Sacramento, CA	Verizon Foundation grant to My Sister’s House to fund job-skills training and financial education for domestic violence survivors	$40,000
Los Angeles, CA	Grant from the Academy Foundation of The Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences to Film Independent for the 2010 LA Film Festival	$30,000
Visalia, CA	Tulare Public Library grant from AT&T Foundation for computer in the Learning Center	$25,000
Tampa, FL	Legacy gift named the David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts named for his private gift to the former Tampa Center for PA	Private Gift
	International
Geneva, Switzerland	Grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative, a fatal disease that threatens 60 million people in Africa	$15 million
Jerusalem, Israel	Grant from the Shpilman Art and Culture Foundation to the Israel Museum where the Shpilman International Prize for Excellence in Photography was established	$1 million
Toronto, Ontario, Canada	Mike and Nicole Tevlin have renewed their commitment to Canadian tennis with a second $500,000 pledge to Tennis Canada, has renamed the popular players lounge used primarily during the world-class Rogers Cup to the Tevlin Players Lounge	$500,000
Trail, British Columbia, Canada	Teck Minerals gift to o create an endowment fund ensuring future management of the 964-hectare Fort Shepherd Conservancy area	$400,000
Toronto, Ontario, Canada	Historian and writer Stephen Otto’s gift to the restoration campaign at Fort York in downtown Toronto	$250,000
Port Elgin, Ontario, Canada	At the Bruce Power’s annual Spirit of Giving dinner the company announced the gift to Easter Seals Ontario	$200,000

 

Major Gift editorial Nov. 23, 2009

How important is a brand name in fundraising?

To APRA members who focus on background research about major gift prospects, this may not seem significant. Senior development staff and the donor community appear to be taking notice.

I think there is an invisible link, a synergy of sorts, between the perceived value added of a nonprofit organization and the amount of financial support the donor community is willing to give to that entity.

A part of that perception is translated in the form of brand name presence, the visibility of brand name and the frequency of how often the brand name appears.

Over the last week we have been witness to a remarkable week of public announcements of funding support. Be sure to check out the full Major Gift Summary for Nov. 16 to 20^th. Over $574 million in gifts and pledges to nonprofits in the USA and another $17 million of support to the international community.

This is the second largest dollar amount in 2009, topped only by the week last summer when Warren Buffet made his billion dollar pledge to the Gates Foundation.

As we head towards year end the pace of major gifts has accelerated, the dollar amounts have increased and the breadth of the nonprofits receiving these gifts has expanded. If no one else in the printed media is going to applaud these donors perhaps we should say thank you

again and then maybe once or twice more.

Major gift donors want to embrace their beneficiaries not just with their check books but with their heart and soul. They want to make a difference.

As you review this week’s list take note of the diversity of the donors, it is an interesting mix of individuals and foundations.

I think that when a donor makes a major gift it impacts the brand name of the nonprofit in more ways than one. For nonprofits the major gift announcement helps to validate the brand name in the community, be that local, regional, national or international.

For the person or entity making the gift, the public announcement is one more way they can put their stamp on the future success of the recipient. In the ultra competitive world of nonprofit fundraising doing good is not enough, it must be perceived that the nonprofit is doing so in an efficient and effective manner.

Hats off to Mayor Bloomberg of New York and the staff officers of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation who have chosen to make big gifts to nonprofits that can effect change in the long run. These choices raise the bar of accountability for everyone.

Boosting brand name is an end goal in the private sector. Consumers are bombarded with marketing messages in a continual multimedia barrage of sound bytes, jingles, iconic images and more. They buy stuff and their votes are recorded in the financial statements as corporate earnings, dividends and stock prices.

Nonprofits get to talk about how they add to the greater good of society and bolster the culture of the community.

Brand name has a different meaning in the nonprofit sector. When it comes to making a major gift of charitable support, the implication reaches deeper than the Price Earnings ratio of a blue chip stock or the potential of capital gains from the acquisition of a new listing.

I think that there is a residual benefit to the brand name of the nonprofit from today’s major gifts. The ripple effect through the donor community and particularly amongst their peers, is more dramatic than a Tiger Woods putt to win another championship.

At a time of fiscal distress these people have stepped into the whirlwind of financial chaos and shared a portion of their wealth. And your organization’s brand name is a secondary beneficiary.

Help them to tell their stories. You can. In your own stewardship.


Contributing author, Terry Burton, is President of Dig In Research, a market research and consulting firm where the focus is on major gifts to nonprofit organizations. For more information please visit my web site at http://diginresearch.biz or call 248-881-2323.

Major Gift Report summary Nov. 9 to 13, 2009

Major Gifts in the USA - $ 111.75 million
Week of November 9 to 13, 2009

The following list came from newswire announcements over the last week.

Atlanta, GA	An anonymous gift announced to Georgia Tech University Includes a gift of $5 million plus a challenge grant of $20 million	$25 million
Townsend, ME	Albert Stone’s gif to the city of Townsend, 17,000 square-foot library with a barrel-vaulted ceiling, 56 computers, and white oak ribbing, a cedar-shingled senior center with a fieldstone fireplace and physical check-up room, and a town meeting hall with Romanesque pillars and a catering kitchen. Previous gift, a new highway equipment garage, along with the 44 acres it sits on	$20 million
New York, NY	John Paulson’s gift will endow two faculty chairs,  the Alan Greenspan Chair in Economics and the John A. Paulson Professor of Finance and Alternative Investments plus other financial support to the Stern School of Business	$20 million
South Bend, IN	The Purcell Pavilion was dedicated at the University of Notre Dame this past week for a gift from Philip J. Purcell II back in 2007	$12.5  million
Tempe, AZ	Jeff and Sharon Stevens of El Paso, Texas made the gift to the University of Arizona football program., they are both alum of University of  Arizona	$10 million
Bloomington, IN	The Vera Bradley Foundation for Breast Cancer made a second major gift to its namesake property at the Indiana University	$10 million
New York, NY	John Templeton Foundation grant to Columbia University to study the economy of India	$3.5 million
New York, NY	The Edwards Lifesciences Fund is granting to 107 nonprofit organizations as part of its fifth annual grant cycle	$1.8 million
Elon, NC	Elon University announced the following gifts. The Hendrickson Football Center named for the $1 million gift from Jay '71 and Amy '69 Hendrickson of Raleigh; the Walker VIP Room and Terrace and the Zac Walker Place entrance road named for $500,000 gift from Zac and Dot Walker of Raleigh; A gift of $250,000 from trustee emeritus W. E. “Dub” Love, Jr. ’48 and his wife, Ann, will name the football locker room; The Ward family, mother Cynthia, son Hunt ‘82 and his wife Julia, gave $100,000 in memory of C. Max Ward ’49; A $100,000 gift from Rear Admiral Edward “Ted” Walker, a member of the Board of Visitors	$1 million + $500,000+ $250,000+ $100,000+ $100,000
New York, NY	Darlene Luccio Jordan’s gift to Fordham University’s basketball program, Jordan is a member of the Fordham University Board of Trustees’ athletics committee	$1,500,000
Los Angeles, CA	A gift from the Tracy and Gene T. Sykes established the first endowed faculty chair within the USC Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy plus a matching pledge of $250,000	$1 million+ $250,000
Webster, MA	Richard A. Nowak and his wife Marie made a gift to St. Joseph’s School last April, it was just announced this past week. Nowak is chief operating officer of GAF Materials in Texas	$1 million
Fort Chadbourne, TX	Roberta Cole Johnson Visitor Center named at Fort Chadbourne for an estate gift	$1 million
Phoenix, AZ	The Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust  announced  a one-time $1 million grant to be split among 37 arts groups and cultural organizations in the area	$1 million
Erie, NY	Estate gift from Dominick J. Colelli to the Dr. Gertrude A. Barber National Institute	$800,000
Angola, IN	Dr. Ralph Ketner, a Tri-State College accounting graduate, has donated to the Ketner School of Business at Indiana State University. Namesake 2nd generation major gift	$500,000
Ames, IA	Ed and Cathy Gallagher of Waterloo made a gift to their namesake property at the University of Iowa, the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center to help celebrate its’ 10th birthday	$500,000
Kansas City, KS	Luther Fry, a 1967 gradate of KU School of Medicine, established an endowed fund through the Kansas University Endowment Association for the Luther and Ardis Fry Professorship in Ophthalmology	$250,000
Philadelphia, PA	Edward H. Rosen Hillel Center naming ceremony at Temple University	Private Gift
Trenton, NJ	Sun National to replace Sovereign Bank as arena naming rights sponsor	Private Sponsorship
Minneapolis St. Paul, MN	University of Minnesota had second-best year on record for philanthropy with 83,000 donors gave $267 million in gifts and pledges in fiscal year 2009	Annual Campaign success
	International
Calgary, Alberta, Canada	Calgary Flames co-owner and philanthropist Harley Hotchkiss pledged to support neurological research at the Hotchkiss Brain Institute. Another example of stewardship and 2nd generation major gifts from the namesake donor	$39 million
Edinburgh, Scotland + New York	Mona Webster, who died in August aged 96, divided the bulk of her fortune between an opera house in New York and a charity which looks after ducks and other wetland creatures.	£10 million ($16.7 million)
London, Ontario, Canada	Gift from the Lawson Foundation to establish a new endowed chair at the at the Lawson Health Research Institute, the research arm of St. Joseph's Health Care. Another example of stewardship and 2nd generation major gifts from the namesake donor	$2.5 million
Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada	Red Ball Internet, a mobile broadband provider, has signed a 20-year sponsorship deal to have the former Tim Horton's 4 Ice Centre re-named the Red Ball Centre	Private Sponsorship

 

Major Gift Editorial November 16, 2009

Weekly Major Gift Editorial
November 16th, 2009
by Terry Burton

Trends can be revealing, insightful and sometimes perplexing. In this week’s editorial follow along with me as we examine a powerful emerging trend. Second Round Namesake Major Gifts.

Highlights from last week feature another collection of second round namesake major gifts. This trend has been building in number and in frequency throughout 2009.

The most recent announcements validate the trend and its’ upward momentum.

Second Round Namesake
Major Gifts, Nov. 9 to 13

>> $10 million - the Vera Bradley Foundation for Breast Cancer made a second major gift to its namesake property at the Indiana University

>> $500,000 - Dr. Ralph Ketner, a Tri-State College accounting graduate, has donated to the Ketner School of Business at Indiana State University

>>  $500,000 - Ed and Cathy Gallagher of Waterloo made a gift to their namesake property at the University of Iowa, the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center to help celebrate its’ 10^th birthday

Last week

>>  $100,000,000 million gift to the Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital came from the namesake foundation

Philanthropy such as this needs to be credited to the ongoing work of donor relations staff who have worked hard to deepen the relationships with existing donors. The year of 2009 will go down as the year stewardship became a top of pile priority.

How did they manage it? What’s the secret?

Turn back the pages of fundraising history to the creation of the Association of Donor Relations Professionals (ADRP) http://www.adrp.net/  in the spring of 2005, a bell-weather event. It was an interesting day at Babson College, MA, I was fortunate to be there.

Those attending the New England Stewardship Annual Conference had just wrapped up its’ sessions. We stayed in our chairs and rolled right into the inaugural meeting of ADRP. A discussion of the broadening the mandate of donor relations staff, election of officers and directors and
voila, there it was. Volunteer driven with grassroots support.

Philanthropy in the new millennium includes advanced stewardship at a growing number of charitable causes. It’s more than a single thank you letter or just sending along a copy of the annual report.

While the mainstream economy of the USA has struggled to regain the robust plateau of prosperity, a large number of American nonprofits have tallied record years in annual giving, worked hard to deepen the relationships with past donors and now reaping the benefits of their efforts.

My own research suggests that major gift donors see their actions of writing the big check as a financial investment and not just a philanthropic gesture. They see the act of sharing a portion of their wealth as an opportunity to get involved with a nonprofit organization. And as with their other investments they follow the progress, the good and the bad and tend to stay involved long after the signing of the gift agreement.

These people have an emotional attachment to your organization, just not the purely philanthropic one that was taught in fundraising classes a decade ago.

What does this suggest?

Keep your focus on the retention of existing donors.

Allow me to wrap up this week’s edition by sharing some more good news. This comes from the upper regions of the mid-west.

The University of Minnesota announced it had the second-best year on record for philanthropy with 83,000 donors gave $267 million in gifts and pledges in fiscal year 2009.

Congrats to you in Minneapolis ~ St. Paul, a marvelous example for others.

Contributing author, Terry Burton, is the President of Dig In Research, a market research and consulting firm where the focus is on named gifts in the nonprofit sector.

Major Gift Report summary, Nov. 2 to 6, 2009

Major Gifts Highlights in the USA - $173 million
Week of November 2 to 6, 2009

Amherst, MA	Two graduates of Amherst College pledged separate gifts of and both wished to remain anonymous	$100 million + $25 million
Las Vegas, NV	Mel Wolzinge, a local businessman’s gift to UNLV to support the capital campaign	$15 million
Fort Leavenworth, KS	H. Ross Perot gift to support two new initiatives at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College,  to fund the Col. Arthur D. Simons Center for the Study of Interagency Cooperation and the Gen. Hugh Shelton Chair in Ethics	$6.1 million
Indianapolis, IN	The Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation pledge to the Wishart Hospital Foundation towards the new hospital	$6 million
Fort Myers, FL	The Tom Golisano Field House named for his gift to Ave Maria University athletics campaign	$4 million
Gainesville, FL	Harris Gateway to Learning and Innovation named at the University of Florida for the corporate gift, the company’s head office is located in Melbourne, Australia	$3 million
Flint MI	Richard and Rose Marie Schick Dental Clinic named at Mott Community College	$3 million
Baltimore, MD	Madieu Williams Center for Global Health Initiatives named for the gift made to the University of Maryland from Madieu Williams, a graduate and current pro football player with the Minnesota Vikings	$2 million
Davis, CA	The bequest from the estate of Charles J. Soderquist to University of California, Davis to support entrepreneurship studies in the school of business	$2 million
Kalamazoo, MI	Anonymous gift to Western Michigan University to cover the costs of starting the process to have a school of medicine	$1.8 million
Columbia, SC	Long time basketball supporter Dodie Anderson made his gift to the combined men’s & women’s basketball programs at the University of South Carolina	$1.3 million
Las Vegas, NV	Bill Paulos and Bill Wortman, co-principals of Cannery Casino Resorts each made a gift to UNLV to support the capital campaign	$1 million (2 gifts)
Las Vegas, NV	Jon Cobain, a California businessman, gift to UNLV. He was a student body president and now works in mergers and acquisitions	$1 million
University Park, PA	The Hershey Co. gift to  Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center towards building a new children’s hospital	$1 million
Valley Center, CA	The Rincon Band of Mission Indians has donated $386,000 so far this year to local nonprofit organizations	$386,000
	International
Toronto, Ontario, Canada	Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre received a gift from Seymour Schulich to support the current campaign	$10 million
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada	Gift from Peter and Doris Kule of Edmonton to the University of Alberta to establish the Kule Interdisciplinary Institute	$4 million