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The Charity Governance blog points out that in fiscal year 2007, the IRS received 85,771 applications for 501(c)(3) status: Do we need 85,000 new charities? Somebody thinks so. (Only 68,000 of those made it through the process to become IRS-recognized nonprofit organizations. Glad the gatekeepers are so rigorous!) It’s not hard to throw up your hands and cry Enough already! We have too many nonprofits! The down-side of there being so many nonprofits is easy to understand. It means: Inefficiency. Duplication of effort. Lower level of professionalism. Marketplace confusion. On the other hand some of these new nonprofits are tiny, serving extremely narrow or localized niche issues that no one else is dealing with. Others are smart, fast innovation factories that are unfettered by bureaucracy and limited thinking. These are the organization that will quickly be competing for donor dollars with established nonprofits — the organizations that will force us all to be smarter. What do you think? Are there too many nonprofits already?

I just read this very interesting article on MSN Health & Fitness and by the looks at it, I think I’m on the right track. Are you? Giving for Your Own GoodThis may come as a surprise to the “Me Generation,” but happiness doesn’t come from living in a big house, buying the latest techno-gadget, and getting stamps from exotic locales in your passport. In fact, a 2005 poll by Time Magazine found that helping others was a major source of happiness for 75 percent of Americans. “Volunteering is an opportunity to be socially engaged and contribute to the lives of others,” says Stephen Post, a professor at Case Western Reserve University who co-authored the book Why Good Things Happen to Good Peoplewith Jill Neimark. “It’s not material goods that make us happy—it’s having purpose and meaning in our lives.” In fact, some recent research suggests that we’re actually hard-wired for helping. Even thinking about helping others is enough to stimulate the part of our brain associated with feel-good chemicals like oxytocin. Helping others doesn’t just make us happier, there’s also evidence it makes us healthier too. “Recent research out of England shows that cities with higher rates of volunteerism had the lower rates of depression and heart disease,” says Post. Don’t have a lot of free time? No worries. People who volunteer just two hours per week (100 hours per year) enjoy lower rates of depression and better physical health. How does your city compare? The Corporation for National […]

The winner of the 2008 March Giving Madness raffle was Karen Peoples. Here she is with Bill Cryer (Executive Counsel for Public Affairs, Samsung) and David Balch (President, UWCA) in front of her new 50″ Samsung HDTV. Thanks to everyone who purchased tickets in the raffle. And thanks again to Samsung for their generous donation. “We like to see our donations encourage others to give, and there is no better group than United Way to accomplish this. When we join with United Way so often one plus one equals a lot more than just two.” – Bill Cryer (Executive Counsel for Public Affairs, Samsung)

In a recent study published in the journal Science, and reported at Forbes.com, people are actually happier after giving money away than when they choose to spend it on themselves. The results of the study may seem surprising and counterintuitive. After all, don’t most of us, when asked what we would do with our lotto winnings, speak first about spending the money on ourselves and our immediate family, rather than how we will give it away? Working with graduate student Lara B. Aknin and Harvard Business School assistant professor Michael I. Norton, Dunn began by asking 632 Americans from across the U.S. to rate their general level of happiness, as well as to report their income, how much they spent on themselves and how much they donated to charity. As researchers sifted through the numbers, they found that happiness didn’t correlate with personal spending but, rather, with how much they gave away. Click here to read the rest of the article.

A recent article in the NY Times reports that differences in life expectancy for richer and poorer Americans have grown in the last two decades, paralleling the growth of income inequality in the last two decades. This illustrates the importance of closing the opportunity gaps for both Financial Stability and Health, as the two are clearly interrelated. One of the top goals of “Healthy People 2010,” an official statement of national health objectives issued in 2000, is to “eliminate health disparities among different segments of the population,” including higher- and lower-income groups and people of different racial and ethnic background. United Way Capital Area seeks similar goals within its Health Focus Area, addressing gaps in care, including access to services for older adults, primary care and behavioral health supports. Don’t forget to save the date for Hands on Central Texas’ Echoes of Color Film Series in April, as these issues will be the focus of that month’s presentation of Unnatural Causes, a film that sounds the alarm about America’s glaring socio-economic and racial inequities in health – and search for root causes.. Click here to read the rest of the article.

With half of all Americans living paycheck to paycheck and rising credit card and household debt, financial literacy is more important than ever. A coalition of Austin organizations and officials are teaming up to create Financial Fitness Greater Austin 2008, the week of April 21st, to highlight National Financial Literacy Month and promote financial education in our community. Organizing partners include the United Way Capital Area, the Alliance for Economic Inclusion, Senator Kirk Watson, and the Financial Literacy Coalition of Central Texas. Over 25 local banks, credit unions, professional organizations, and nonprofits have signed on to support and promote the initiative. We need your help to make this week a success! Volunteers are needed during Financial Fitness Greater Austin 2008 & throughout the year. Volunteer with Adults through the Financial Literacy Coalition of Central TexasThe Financial Literacy Coalition of Central Texas, FLCCT, is recruiting volunteers to teach basic financial literacy topics to adults in community settings. Training will be held from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. over three days — April 1, 3 and 8. Click here to volunteer. Volunteer with Children through Junior AchievementJunior Achievement is recruiting volunteers to teach over 60 classes to local students, K-12th grade, about business and the free enterprise system. Each grade has curriculum and materials related to the age group. The lessons are fun, short and hands-on. Click here to volunteer. Host a Financial Education EventAs part of the events of the week, our goal is to offer financial education classes at 10 […]

At United Way Capital Area, we’re focused on changing community conditions. A recent article from the New York Times illustrates the struggles that hard working families are facing all across the country and are similar to the struggles of many here in Central Texas. “You’re used to making $17 an hour with benefits, and now you have to take any job for $8 an hour,” Ms. Flennaugh says. On a recent afternoon, she sat in front of a computer terminal at an employment center in a gritty part of town, scrolling dejectedly through online job listings while sending another batch of applications into the ether. “I’ve literally sat and cried, but my friends with double degrees are doing worse,” she says. “It’s the economy. It’s really bad.” Now, it’s getting tougher — particularly for those at the lower rungs of the economic ladder, and especially for African-Americans like Ms. Flennaugh. As the economy slows and perhaps slides deeper into a recession that may already be under way, communities like this — cities that have long struggled with a shortage of jobs — see work becoming scarcer still. In order to address the needs of these hard-working families and individuals, the United Way Capital Area Financial Stability focus area is helping Central Texans gain the knowledge and tools they need to become financially stable through employment, housing, and financial management initiatives. Capital IDEA, a UWCA funded agency, exemplifies the type of employment initiatives needed to address these issues. Capital IDEA provides […]

Obed Franco of State Farm has organized and started dozens of volunteer projects since his Project Leader Training a little over a year ago. One of his favorite projects, Reading Is Fundamental (RIF), took place last September. On February 28th, State Farm employees completed a community service project with RIF of Austin. Six volunteers (unboxed, sorted, and labeled 3,479 books to be distributed to school children in the greater Austin area within eight hours. Some of the State Farm volunteers are pictured here with Obed. In this video clip, Obed shares with us a little bit of the Project Leader training and what being a Project Leader means to him. Upcoming Volunteer Project Certification Dates:Saturday, March 159:00am-12:00pmConnection with Special Event(Earth Day & Spring Day of Caring)United Way Capital Area Tuesday, April 81:00pm-4:00pmGeorge Washington Carver Museum Wednesday, May 149:00am-12:00pmAustin Groups for the Elderly (AGE) Building Click here for details

I was perusing through my philanthropy blogs and ran into this story: The Poor Give More – Surprising findings show that low-wage earners step up to the charity plate big-time. Here’s one of the most interesting points in the story… “Americans at the bottom of the income-distribution pyramid are the country’s biggest givers per capita. The 2000 Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey shows that households with incomes below $20,000 gave a higher percentage of their earnings to charity than did any other income group: 4.6 percent, on average.” Read full article here MandoDirector, Hands On Central Texas

Here is a sampling of some of the great projects the Project Leaders of 2007 are leading. We had the chance to hear from a few folks at the Appreciation Happy Hour and we’d love to hear more! The creativity to carry out a great project seems endless. Please feel free to let us know about what you’re doing out there too! Pam Johnson’s Project Aaron von Flatern’s ProjectI have been working with the United Way’s Hands On Central Texas group (HOCT, you may want to google them) to create a new volunteer project here in Austin. I don’t have a name for it yet. I will just call it the Auto Repair Project. The issue is low income families and cars. My concern is that there are a lot of cars that do not run, cannot pass inspection, cannot be properly registered, cannot be insured, and/or cannot be sold. Least concerning is that these cars rust and become eyesores within already blighted neighborhoods. More worrisome are the single mothers struggling to get to work, get to the grocery store, get to their kids’ schools, etc.. I learned to repair my own vehicles growing up and as a young adult. I was 19 when I paid Firestone $800 (which turned into $1500 by the time I paid the credit card off) to complete a brake job that I later learned was well within my capabilities, and cost only $200 in parts. After that I did everything myself. Which is not […]