Commonfund Press Release, August 4, 2010: "The average FY2009 total return on investable assets for 85 nonprofit healthcare organizations participating in the 2010 Commonfund Benchmarks Study of Healthcare Organizations was 18.8 percent (net of fees), a dramatic improvement over the -21.2 percent return reported for FY2008. The FY2009 return was the highest in the eight years the Study has been conducted and came in the year following the poorest return of the eight Studies." Read more

From the New York Times, August 4, 2010: "More than three dozen billionaires, including well-known philanthropists like David Rockefeller and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York and less familiar big donors like Lorry I. Lokey, founder of Business Wire, have promised at least half of their fortunes to charity, joining a program that Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett started in June to encourage other wealthy people to give." Read more

From the Chronicle of Philanthropy, July 1, 2010: "America’s wealthiest donors are making far bigger gifts to charitable organizations in 2010 than they did a year ago—but far fewer of them are giving $1-million or more to charitable causes, a Chronicle of Philanthropy analysis has found. The continued effects of the turbulent economy can be seen in the decrease in the number of gifts of $1-million or more announced in the first six months of this year. At least 181 gifts of that size have been awarded this year, compared with 250 such donations in the first six months of 2009." Read more

December 2009

Dan Allenby joined Grenzebach Glier and Associates (GG+A) in 2009 as Vice President for Annual Giving. Dan provides a wide range of annual giving expertise and plays a large role in expanding the firm's annual giving practice across a wide variety of educational, medical, cultural, and other nonprofit sector organizations. He also provides advice and services to GG+A clients with respect to online engagement including social media, email, and website development. Read more

July 2009

D. Lance King joined Grenzebach Glier and Associates (GG+A) in 2009 as Executive Vice President and Managing Director. Lance provides strategic leadership and management to GG+A's consulting staff, as well as to consulting services, client services, and GG+A Analytics. He also assists in developing and improving products and services that foster sustainable cultures of philanthropy in GG+A client institutions. Read more

August 2009

GG+A Vice President Dr. Mary Blair received the Distinguished Service Award from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) Europe Board on August 25 in Liverpool. The committee cited Dr. Blair’s impact upon the professionalization of philanthropic fundraising for education in the UK as its reason for approving the action. This is only the second time the CASE Europe Board has made such an award.

"We noted above all your effective contribution to the Thomas Report on Voluntary Giving; your service on the CASE Europe Board; your indefatigable championship of the Ross-CASE survey; and the example you set through your leadership of the Development and Alumni Relations office at the London School of Economics (LSE)…" Joanna Motion, CASE Europe Vice President for Institutional Operations, said.

Prior to joining GG+A, Dr. Blair served as Director of Development and Alumni Relations for LSE. During her nine year tenure, she headed a campaign for £100 million, the first campaign in the UK to set and achieve a target of that magnitude. Earlier in her career, she spent 15 years with The Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Blair holds a Ph.D. from Indiana University in English and American Studies.

Grenzebach Glier and Associates would like to congratulate the winners of the 2009 John Grenzebach Awards:

Richard Trollinger, vice president for college relations, Centre College. Trollinger is the recipient of the John Grenzebach Award for Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation for “Philanthropy and Transformation in American Higher Education,” completed at the University of Kentucky. Trollinger’s research documents how notable mega gifts caused dramatic but different changes in three recipient colleges and universities.

Andrea Walton, associate professor, education, Indiana University, and Marybeth Gasman, associate professor, higher education, University of Pennsylvania. Walton and Gasman received the John Grenzebach Research Award for Outstanding Published Scholarship for Philanthropy, Volunteerism & Fundraising in Higher Education, published by the Association for the Study of Higher Education. The book provides historical and contemporary information on philanthropy, fundraising and volunteerism and serves as a tool for those teaching and studying these topics.

The John Grenzebach Awards for Outstanding Research in Philanthropy for Educational Advancement recognize the work of established researchers and encourage young scholars to continue their work in advancement. The awards program is cosponsored by CASE and the Giving USA Foundation. Click here to read more.

Kathleen A. Kavanagh, Senior Executive Vice President and Managing Director was quoted in this article

Strategy Key as Arts Groups Launch Simultaneous Campaigns

From Indianapolis Business Journal, August 21, 2010: "Last year was not the first time the arts landed a smaller piece of the pie, said Kathleen Kavanagh, senior executive vice president at Grenzebach Glier and Associates in Chicago, which is consulting with the Indianapolis Museum of Art on its strategy. The arts’ share of total giving fell from 5 percent to 4.6 percent in 2005 through 2009, Kavanagh said. As a result, she said, 'You’ll see most cultural organizations having felt the real sting of membership revenue dropping, as well as a drop in the very largest gifts. 'Kavanagh said her firm’s cultural clients aren’t scaling back their goals, but they recognize it may take longer to achieve them. 'It’s been a time of very careful planning,' she said." Read more [subscription required]

John J. Glier, GG+A President and Chief Executive Officer is quoted in this article

University Fund Raisers in Europe Appear Less Shaken by Downturn

From the Chronicle of Philanthropy, August 28, 2009: “University fund raisers’ views on the global economic crisis appear to be split by the Atlantic Ocean.' There’s difficulty among my European colleagues in understanding the angst in the United States,' said John Lippincott, president of the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, speaking here at CASE Europe’s annual meeting....University fund raisers in the United States, including many at prominent institutions like Cornell and Stanford Universities and the University of Washington, are reeling from the effects of a bad year in which gifts and endowments were down and many of their colleagues were laid off. But British and continental fund raisers appear less shaken. John J. Glier, president of Grenzebach Glier and Associates, an international fund-raising consulting firm, said that among his British clients, fund-raising income was flat or slightly up from last year." Read more

Laying Off Charity's Rain Makers - Even Fund Raisers Face Dismissals as Recession's Grip Tightens

John J. Glier, GG+A President and Chief Executive Officer is quoted in this article

From the Chronicle of Philanthropy, July 23, 2009: “At colleges, hospitals, and other large nonprofit groups, chief development officers are increasingly looking to pare expenses through layoffs and other approaches, such as salary and hiring freezes, furloughs, and staff reorganizations.... Fund-raising consultants uniformly warn charities to avoid making cuts in the development office, even if other departments are asked to reduce the number of employees. ‘Across-the-board cuts are typically not very strategic,’ says John J. Glier, chief executive of Grenzebach Glier and Associates, a fund-raising consulting firm in Chicago. ‘You're pruning with an ax and not a scalpel.’ Instead, he says, groups should make a close examination of fund-raising programs and keep in mind that cuts that ‘look logical on the surface’ may have undesired consequences.” Read more [subscription required]

Fund-Raising Offices Make People a Priority as Budgets Are Cut

John J. Glier, GG+A President and Chief Executive Officer is quoted in this article

From the Chronicle of Higher Education, July 13, 2009: "In recent months, many fund-raising offices have cut programs and events that don't get big results, replaced more-costly direct-mail and print publications with online communication, taken money from different divisions to pay for fund raisers' travel, and kept back-office positions open or eliminated them altogether. These changes are not without risk. Cutting operations, whether programs or people, will have an effect on the amount of money raised, says John J. Glier, president of the consulting group Grenzebach Glier and Associates, who works with many of the largest college fund-raising campaigns. You cannot, after a certain point, raise more money by spending less,' Mr. Glier says. He expects universities will continue making investments in fund raising, including staffing, after the financial picture improves. And smart institutions are still hiring strategically for positions they believe will help them raise more money now." Read more [subscription required]

North American Fund Raisers find Plentiful Opportunities Overseas

Mary Blair, GG+A Vice President is quoted in this article [subscription required]

From the Chronicle of Philanthropy, June 4, 2009: "Colleges, hospitals, and other large institutions outside the United States, particularly in Australia, Great Britain, and Hong Kong, have been raising private money for many years. But now nonprofit groups around the globe are stepping up their fund raising and turning to North Americans for advice...'After being here a while, I did not want to hire any U.S. personnel who were interested in a European experience and then would go back home,' says Mary Blair, an American who spent seven years leading a successful campaign for the London School of Economics that ended in 2007. 'I want to focus on training more U.K. talent,' says Ms. Blair, now a fund-raising consultant working in London for Grenzebach Glier and Associates, a Chicago consulting firm." Read more [subscription required]

MD Anderson News Release, August 18, 2010: "Dallas businessman and philanthropist H. Ross Perot has donated $20 million to The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center for research to advance and design novel targeted therapies. The funds will be divided equally between two new initiatives at MD Anderson: an Institute for Personalized Cancer Therapy (IPCT) and a Center for Targeted Therapy (CTT)." Read more 

Press Release, August 16, 2010: "The University of Colorado Hospital Foundation (UCHF) has announced a campaign to raise $20 million for the expansion of University of Colorado Cancer Center (UCCC). Since the University of Colorado Hospital’s (UCH) clinical services for cancer relocated to the Anschutz Medical Campus in November 2000, demand has nearly doubled." Read more

Press Release, August 12, 2010: "Mayo Clinic announced today that the late Ms. Juanita Kious Waugh of Brookston, Ind., bequeathed to Mayo Clinic more than $43 million, the third largest estate gift in Mayo Clinic's history. As a not-for-profit organization, Mayo Clinic relies on benefactor support for innovations in patient care, pioneering research and the education of future generations of physicians and allied health care providers." Read more

From The State (South Carolina), August 11, 2010: "During the fiscal year that ended on June 30, South Carolina's unemployment rate averaged a painful 12 percent. Many of those who kept their jobs didn’t keep all of their pay. And those who kept their jobs and all of their pay saw their own cost of living – health care, food, gas – go up. But that didn’t matter to those the University of South Carolina reached out to for private donations. The university raked in $117.6 million during this past fiscal year, a record amount that topped last year’s total by 9.4 percent." Read more

From the UCLA Newsroom, August 4, 2010: "Advancing UCLA's efforts to generate endowed funds dedicated exclusively to aiding students, two longtime supporters have made pledges totaling $4 million to three separate campus units.The donations by Lynda R. and Stewart A. Resnick (through the Resnick Family Foundation) are part of the Bruin Scholars Initiative launched by Chancellor Gene Block in January 2009 to bolster predictable, ongoing funding earmarked for student support amid increasing fees and a diminished economy affecting family incomes. Since its launch in 2009, the initiative has generated $45.3 million in gifts and pledges." Read more