Making connections creates community

The needs of nonprofits are large and broad ranging. And even if they attract people interested in helping out, the form of that help can present the nonprofit with serious – and important – choices.

For more than three decades, McAuley Ministries in Providence has fed, clothed and housed the poor, relying on grants and donations to support its work.

A local wine store owner who helped charities raise money by donating stock for wine tastings and other events was interested in chatting with Providence Business News about philanthropy, until he learned that some of those events might have violated state law.

People usually think of entities such as the United Way of Rhode Island and the Rhode Island Foundation as munificent, tea-sipping organizations that accumulate money and pass it out for worthy purposes: low-income housing, health clinics, child care for poor families. But more and more, these organizations also are branching out into “strategic philanthropy,” seeking changes in public policy to address the root causes of social ills.

A million dollars a day, every day for four years. That’s what Brown University’s current fundraising goal boils down to. In surveys conducted by the Chronicle of Higher Education, college and university presidents consistently rate fundraising and budget management among their top challenges, and in recent years, fundraising in higher education has taken on increased importance.

The CVS Caremark All Kids Can program – a five-year, $25 million commitment of the CVS Caremark Charitable Trust and CVS Caremark Corp. to supporting children with disabilities – is about inclusion, acceptance and letting kids be kids.

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the Indian Ocean tsunami brought such a surge in corporate philanthropy that a sharp decline seemed likely to follow. In fact, however, the world’s largest corporations raised their charitable giving by 4.8 percent last year, according to a report by the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy.