Top News Stories of  the Week

• The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is looking for unorthodox, unproven ideas for fighting diseases like AIDS, malaria and pneumonia. The second round of the foundation's Grand Challenges Explorations grants will give $100,000 each to projects with potential. The ideas are welcomed from all kinds of scientists, not just those who already work in global health. The last round of unorthodox grant requests generated nearly 4,000 applications from around the world. Proposals for this round of grants will be accepted online until November 2, 2008. (Seattle Times, September 9, 2008)

• A sizable percentage of high-net-worth givers do not see themselves as philanthropists even though each gives away about a million dollars or more annually. That is among the findings of a study by the University of Pennsylvania's Center for High Impact Philanthropy. The CHIP study involved structured interviews with 33 anonymous high-net-worth individuals, each capable of giving $1 million annually. "I'm Not Rockefeller: 33 High Net Worth Philanthropists Discuss Their Approach to Giving" examines how these people approach their charitable giving. Researchers found a set of diverse and evolving practices, a strong reliance on peers for information, a narrow and negative view of evaluation and difficulty exiting established relationships with non-profits, even when the philanthropist felt it was the right thing to do. And about a third of the study participants did not view themselves as "philanthropists," despite their considerable generosity. "Several participants said things like, 'I'm a really nice guy who gives money to charities. I don't think that makes me a philanthropist,'" Katherina Rosqueta, CHIP executive director, said. "Or, 'the word "philanthropist" still cracks me up because it sounds so hoity-toity. I'm not Rockefeller.' This, despite the fact that their giving is much greater than the average charitable contribution of the top U.S. income group," Rosqueta said. The study's findings, key themes and implications for the field are available from the Center's Web site. (Upenn.edu, September 12, 2008)

• Washington D.C. region nonprofits say they fear cutbacks in charitable giving after a federal takeover of two mortgage companies. Mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac or their foundations gave roughly $47 million to area nonprofit organizations last year. If those efforts were to end, area nonprofit leaders say the impact would be devastating. The federal government is evaluating the mortgage companies' charitable efforts, and hasn't determined whether the takeover would cause them to end. So far, charitable activities have continued. For instance, Freddie Mac held its annual Hoops for the Homeless fundraiser Saturday at the Verizon Center. (Examiner.com, September 14, 2008)

• Women recently surpassed men as the more prolific givers, according to a review of the latest IRS data by the Grant Thornton LLP National Tax Office. Gifts from women topped those from men by almost $5 billion in 2005, the last year for which the IRS includes gender information in its publicly available gift tax return data. That's a reversal from the ratio in the IRS's last study of gender in 1997, when men gave $17.6 billion in gifts and women gave only $14.7 billion. The IRS's most recent quarterly statistics of income bulletin shows that in 2005 female donors reported giving $21.7 billion in gifts, while male donors gave just $16.8 billion. All the IRS data comes from gift tax returns (Form 709), which taxpayers generally must file if they've given any individual more than the yearly gift tax exemption ($11,000 in 2005). Gifts reported on Form 709 are most often made to heirs and are rarely charitable deductions, which the IRS tracks in other ways.  (Marketwatch.com, September 15, 2008)

• As the stock market plummets to new lows, charities are feeling the brunt, as both corporations and the wealthy are curtailing their luxury spending and their charitable donations as never before. "This is the worst fund-raising environment I have worked in my 25-plus-year career in fund raising for nonprofit organizations," said Jeff Towers, the chief fund raiser at the American Red Cross. U.S. corporations donated an average of 1.5 percent of their pretax profits to charity in 2004, but that portion has since declined to 0.7 percent, said Mark Shamley, of the Association of Corporate Contribution Professionals, in Mt. Pleasant, S.C. With the recent implosions by finance giants like Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch, the gloomy outlook for fund raising is likely to get worse as charitable donations from corporations have continued to decrease or remain flat. (Chronicle of Philanthropy, September 16, 2008)