How the Wealthy Give
Chronicle of Philanthropy
February 20, 2006
How the Wealthy Give; List of generous donors in 2005 includes some little-known names
The Chronicle of Philanthropy recently published its annual report that ranks the 60 donors who give the most money to charitable causes. While America's most generous donors gave a total of $4.3 billion to charitable causes in 2005, that total was a sharp drop from the 2004 total of more than $10 billion. The report also says that very little of the 2005 amount went to disaster relief efforts. Why? According to Eugene R. Tempel, executive director of the Center on Philanthropy at IUPUI, it's not surprising that so few of the country's biggest donors made big gifts to disaster relief efforts. Tempel says, "When people make $5-, $10, $20-million gifts, they tend to want those gifts to be more permanent. Disaster relief is for taking care of pain and suffering right now, and the money gets spent. A donor's gift almost evaporates into thin air in front of them because sometimes the need is so large and it's hard to see where $20 million went."
To read the entire story, go to: http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/2964.html
To learn more about the Center on Philanthropy at IUPUI, go to: http://www.philanthropy.iupui.edu/
