Unveiling The Patterson Foundation’s Newest Fellows

Posted on March 10, 2023 by Gilbert Flores

Written by The Patterson Foundation

From left to right: Avery Crews Prado de Lima, Andrew Spector, and Alexa Carr.

The Patterson Foundation is excited to welcome Alexa Carr, Avery Crews Prado de Lima and Andrew Spector of the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at IUPUI as the newest members of its Fellows Program. The incoming fifth cohort of TPF Fellows will apply their learnings from the school’s Master of Arts in Philanthropic Studies degree program during a year-long engagement designed to connect aspiring philanthropic leaders with opportunities to gain experience and learn innovative philanthropic principles while contributing to initiatives strengthening people, organizations and communities.

The Patterson Foundation, a fully endowed charitable entity in Sarasota, Florida, created the Fellows Program in partnership with the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy — the world’s first school dedicated solely to the study and teaching of philanthropy. Through the Fellows Program, graduates of the school’s master’s degree program can apply to work with The Patterson Foundation across several diverse initiatives while gaining the knowledge and insights that will help mold the next generation of community, corporate and private foundation leaders. Previous Fellows have launched careers with charitable foundations and nonprofit networks nationwide in leadership roles following their time with The Patterson Foundation.

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India and China see growth in online giving

Posted on March 6, 2023 by Gilbert Flores

Findings from the Digital for Good: A Global Study on Emerging Ways of Giving research series

By Kinga Horvath

China and India account for more than a third of the global population and are still growing, accompanied by a strong digital climb and a dynamically growing middle class. Both China and India are among the top 10 countries that have seen the biggest overall increase in giving activity in the last five years, according to Charities Aid Foundation’s CAF World Giving Index 2021.

This giving trend and the fact that both countries have a long tradition of philanthropy strongly embedded in their cultures have generated several opportunities for future growth in their philanthropic sectors. The Digital for Good country reports – as well as the 2022 Global Philanthropy Environment Index – found that the use of online giving and crowdfunding are increasing in both countries; while informal philanthropy is flourishing, current regulations are likely to create a more cumbersome environment for formal philanthropy.

Findings from the 2022 Global Philanthropy Environment Index (GPEI) show that both China (with an overall score of 2.96)[1] and India (with an overall score of 3.28)[2] have a less favorable philanthropic environment due to restrictive regulations on philanthropy. The 2016 Charity Law and its amendments have made both local and cross-border philanthropic operations difficult in China[3]. Simultaneously, the moderate philanthropic environment in India is also threatened by strict regulations that affect both domestic and cross-border giving, such as the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) and its recent amendments[4].

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Digital for Good: A Global Study on Emerging Ways of Giving

Posted on November 16, 2022 by Gilbert Flores

Back of group of African volunteers holding their hands up.

Government and philanthropic organizations increased virtual support and coordination to provide pandemic relief, and diaspora and local communities continued to support the giving environment in South Africa and Kenya during the COVID-19 pandemic

Philanthropic organizations in Kenya and South Africa have similar philanthropic environments. In Kenya, a moderate philanthropic environment (at an overall score of 3.50),[1] is largely fueled by strong cultural heritage and informal philanthropic giving, with increased support in recent years from the government and philanthropic alliances to boost the country’s formal philanthropic environment. In South Africa, the modest philanthropic environment (at an overall score of 3.51),[2] is compounded of historic, social, and cultural public engagement, which has promoted philanthropic values, with growing support from the government through legislative measures to support philanthropic organizations and giving.

The global outbreak of COVID-19 has significantly affected the philanthropic landscape in both countries. Findings from the 2022 Global Philanthropy Environment Index (GPEI) show that in both Kenya and South Africa, donations from the public, increased collaboration among donors, and funding and resources leveraged by charitable organizations delivered services to vulnerable communities. At the same time, many philanthropic organizations lost funding support and even collapsed. The 2022 GPEI also found that philanthropic giving and funding support increased in both countries in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to provide emergency and essential services.

Now, the latest study: Digital for Good: A Global Study on Emerging Ways of Giving project explores some of the emerging vehicles of philanthropy that have become more prominent in recent years, such as crowdfunding, mobile giving, workplace giving, retail giving, and online volunteering.

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Did Philanthropy Kill Jane Stanford?

Posted on October 31, 2022 by Gilbert Flores

Written by Leslie Lenkowsky, Professor Emeritus, IU Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.

Jane Stanford in 1905. Courtesy of Stanford University Libraries.

In the second of the two 1889 essays known as “The Gospel of Wealth,” Andrew Carnegie tries to identify the “best uses” for philanthropic giving. At the top of his list, “standing apart by itself,” is founding a university, as exemplified by Leland Stanford’s recent commitment to establish “a complete university” in California. Stanford and the benefactors of other universities deserved “credit” and “admiration,” Carnegie wrote, “as much for the time and the attention given during their lives, as for their expenditure, upon their respective monuments.”

However, a recent book by Richard White, a retired Stanford history professor, casts considerable doubt on whether Leland Stanford deserves such accolades. His gift not only led to various legal and administrative problems but also may have contributed to the 1905 murder of his widow, Jane. White aims to solve the mystery of “Who Killed Jane Stanford?” by sorting through numerous suspects, including David Starr Jordan, who was recruited from Indiana University to serve as the university’s founding president. But in the process, he also shows how a seemingly generous gift went badly, perhaps fatally, awry. For today’s philanthropists, the story should serve as a reminder of the adage that no good deed goes unpunished.

The mystery begins in 1884, when the Stanfords’ only son, Leland Jr., died of typhoid fever in Florence, Italy. Supposedly inspired by a vision of their deceased son, they decided to devote their considerable fortune – derived principally (and, critics said, corruptly) from railroad investments – to founding a university in their memory. After faculty from other universities were recruited, the first class entered in the fall of 1891. Less than two years later, Leland Stanford passed away, and his widow assumed control of the fortune –until her death, the university.

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Uncharitable: Documentary Shows the High Price of Low Overhead

Posted on October 28, 2022 by Gilbert Flores

Written by Roxanna Ayers, CEO of Ethos Consulting Group.

An image showing Pallota giving a Ted talk with a wide screen in the background. — Dan Pallota in 2013 during his Ted Talk titled “The way we think about charity is dead wrong.”

On September 13th, I had the unique opportunity to partner with donor A.I. company Hatch to host a private screening of Dan Pallotta’s forthcoming documentary feature, Uncharitable. The documentary is based on Palotta’s infamous TED Talk and book of the same name, which most of us have encountered at some point, whether through our nonprofit career or studies at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. It ranks as one of the top-viewed TED Talks, with over five million views and counting, so it’s unsurprising that director Stephen Gyllenhaal decided to transform it into a film.

Every time I watch Pallotta’s TED Talk, and I’ve probably seen it 20 times, I’m inspired by the simple but groundbreaking idea he puts forth: overhead is actually good. This idea can feel like a seismic shift when we consider how society moralizes about how nonprofits spend their money. We’re all familiar with the argument that donors don’t want their dollars going to fund overhead expenses like marketing or salaries. In Uncharitable, Gyllenhaal provides a runway for Pallotta to bring home the full scope of repercussions nonprofits experience by the misguided idea that they should operate to keep overhead low.

The film confronts this in heartbreaking detail by revisiting the aftermath of some of the biggest scandals in the nonprofit sector, including the disastrous meltdown of the Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) from its “lavish spending” in 2016. These accusations–now debunked–ignored the ratio of spending to revenue. While the WWP spent nearly three times the percentage of revenue on overhead compared to their peers, they also gave over six times more to veterans’ programs.

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