The Community Foundation of Utah

Join the Utah Business Magazine and The Community Foundation of Utah for a Nonprofit Roundtable for a Nonprofit Roundtable on Tuesday, July 16 from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. at Holland & Hart, 222 S. Main Street, Suite 2200, SLC. More details to follow.

The Nonprofit Quarterly reports about tithers - the 10 million Americans who give, on average, 10% of their income to a faith. "The State of the Plate", a suurvey of more than 4,000 such donors. Among the findings:

• Christian tithers are more likely mortgage- and car loan-free, than Christian non-tithers.
• 77% of tithers actually give more than 10% of their income annually. Nine percent give one-fifth of their incomes.
• Almost one-fourth donated more money outside their churches than they gave as tithes. However, for tithers, the recipients of giving outside their churches were also largely religious, in rank order: “71% gave to missionaries/mission organizations; 52% donated to people they knew going on short-term missions trips; 31% helped an unemployed person they knew; 29% helped a homeless person; 29% gave to a rescue mission or ministry to the homeless; 29% gave to an evangelistic/evangelism ministry; 28% donated to crisis/natural disaster/relief ministry; 27% gave to a child/orphan/student sponsorship ministry; 25% donated to a pro-life or crisis pregnancy ministry; [and] 23% donated to Christian education (K-12, college, seminary)”
• 71% percent of tithers have a will or estate plan. Of those who plan bequests, “25 percent are leaving a bequest to their church; 11 percent to mission agencies; 10 percent to ministries; 9 percent to schools; 7 percent to charities/nonprofits; 5 percent to their denomination; [and] 0.5 percent to civic groups.”

It would be interesting to see how these data compare to Utah giving ...

The Foundation is serving as the fiscal sponsor of the World University Games US Snowboard Team, a group of collegiate snowboarders (10 men, 8 women, and support staff) who have been asked to represent the United States of America at the World University Games in Trentino, Italy in December of 2013. These snowboarders are full-time college students who will compete in the second biggest international competition in the world, second only to the Olympics. They have all won team and individual national awards in snowboarding and will now be representing the U.S.A. You can give to this cuase on our web site.

The Willy The Plumber, Home Education Leadership, Natural History Museum of Utah Youth Teaching Youth Funds and the Equality Leadership Fund announce secondary education Scholarship Recipients

17 high school students will be attending college this fall as recipients of educational scholarships through The Community Foundation of Utah. The Foundation administers a four scholarship programs that grant between $500 and $2,000 dollars per student.

All scholarships are awarded through a competitive application process. Eligibility requirements range from outstanding academics to community involvement to specific populations. A committee comprised of staff, donors and community experts screen, rate and select recipients.

Executive Director, Fraser Nelson, explains, “These programs have been established and funded by generous local individuals to assist students in continuing their education. These donors know there is no better investment in Utah’s future than the education of its residents.”

• The Willy the Plumber Scholarship offers education opportunities for the children of Utah inmates.
• The Equality Leadership Fund Scholarship was to further the education of students who have demonstrated leadership in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ) rights movement.
• The Home Education Leadership Scholarship was created to encourage and enable children who have been home-schooled to pursue a post-secondary education.
• The Natural History Museum of Utah Youth Teaching Youth Scholarship supports the higher education of participants and graduates of the Youth Teaching Youth program.

Scholarship recipients and the schools they will attend are:

• Katelyn Dixon-Weber State University
• George Zamantakis-University of Utah
• Cori Murphy-Utah Valley University
• Niayesh Jamshidi-Sarah Lawrence College
• Thania Arellano-University of Utah
• Candy Guadalupe De La Fuente-East Tennessee State University
• Isabel Perez-Vega-Salt Lake Community College
• Lucero Lopez-University of Utah
• Chance Bare-Salt Lake Community College
• Marisol Perez-Salt Lake Community College
• Whitney Curtis-Dixie State University
• Mariah Williamson-University of Utah
• Maycie Nielsen-Utah Valley University
• Danielle Cheek-University of California at San Diego
• Alyssa Bertelsen-University of Utah
• Michael Lentz-Weber State University
• Amanda Grant-Brigham Young University

About the Community Foundation of Utah

Community Foundation of Utah, an IRS 501 c (3) public charity was established in 2008. It is a catalyst for philanthropy that is visionary, sustainable and inclusive. On the web at www.utahcf.org

The funds are now worth more than a third more than they were before the recession started, propelled by a 46-percent increase in donations last year, a Chronicle study finds. read the full report here: Donor-Advised Funds Keep Up Rapid Growth

The Center for Effective Philanthropy just completed a study saying that nonprofit leaders want greater transparency from foundations about what grantmakers are learning and how they assess grantee performance and impact. Less than a third of the folks surveyed said they understood how foundations use the information they provide, 44 percent are unclear about how their efforts fit into the funders' overall work, 51 percent said they wanted "a lot more" transparency about what foundations are learning, and more than 75 percent wanted more transparency about the impact that foundations are having.

I wonder how well we are doing on this front. We have not done much grantmaking - the Social Enterprise Mini Grants and the grants available through Love UT Give UT. What can we do differently? Better?