Philanthropy

Despite the first quarter being a slower time for charitable giving, Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund announced on Thursday that it had its strongest first quarter in its 20-year history.

TIAA-CREF has committed $1 billion in seed capital to Covariance Capital Management, which will start investing in the third quarter.

Commonwealth Cares currently has a little under $1 million to support its initiatives.

While endowments for the last fiscal year were able to post an 11.9% investment return, Commonfund President and CEO Verne Sedlacek said yesterday that most funds are “probably still 25% below where they were in 2007.”

On Wednesday The Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund and the Association of Small Foundations announced a new white paper titled “The Best of Both Worlds: Using Private Foundations and Donor-Advised Funds” to inform donors and advisors about how these two giving vehicles complement each other.

Donors gave to Fidelity’s donor-advised fund in record numbers in 2010 - a sign of the critical role donor-advised funds are playing in charitable giving.

Health organizations take the biggest hit, with a 63.7% decrease, according to a BofA Merrill survey.

Uncertainty around the estate tax and other tax rates is causing many wealthy Americans to have second thoughts about how much to donate to charities.

While 90% of wealthy business owners give to charity, only one-fourth of entrepreneurs say their financial advisor helps them plan for it.

What will it take for Americans to think of the words “women” and philanthropy” in the same sentence?

The economic downturn took a toll on how much money wealthy families donated to charity in 2009, with average gift amounts tumbling by 35% from 2007, according to a Bank of America study released on Tuesday.

More than half of investors are maintaining their level of charitable giving in the fourth quarter—whether their advisors choose to help them or not.

The Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund reported on Wednesday that its donors made more than 152,000 grants totaling $531 million during the first six months of 2010, the strongest first half for outgoing grants in the Gift Fund’s 19-year history.

One in four financial advisors expect clients to increase charitable giving to offset anticipated tax hikes, but only 52% of advisors proactively offer charitable planning advice to their clients, according to a survey released Wednesday by the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund.

Fewer of the wealthiest are giving more and small family foundations are giving more than required.

Schwab Charitable reported Thursday it received record annual contributions to its donor-advised fund in fiscal year 2010, driven by the surge in the stock market last year and the conversion of private foundations to donor-advised funds that were less costly and time consuming.

Despite feeling the pain of the economic slowdown in 2008, Americans continued to give generously to charities, though few as generously as Warren Buffett who has promised to donate 99% of his riches.

As the rich get richer across the globe, high net worth clients in North America have tightened their grip on their wallets.

Sarah Libbey, president of the Fidelity Gift Fund, discusses Roth Conversions and the comeback of giving.

With the tax deadline approaching, investors are deciding whether to convert from a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA. But before they do, advisors have one more conversion strategy: the “charitable offset” strategy.