Chronicle of Philanthropy

With congressional and state elections heating up, grant makers are focusing on new ways to help connect the people they serve to the political process — and ultimately lead more of them to the ballot box. Those efforts were in the spotlight at a conference held by the Council on Foundations, which drew more than 200 grant makers from across the country.

[Commentary] Here’s a not-so-modest proposal for the 400 richest Americans (together worth over $2-trillion, or more than the entire bottom half of our population).

Work toward a national digital library endowment to modernize Andrew Carnegie’s vision of giving the brightest the tools to rise to the top.

Carnegie asked cities and towns to pay for the upkeep and other continuing needs of the libraries he financed, but today’s America is different. Local governments have cut back. A permanent revenue stream from a national endowment could at least help libraries cope with continuing costs ranging from e-books to salaries.

Civic-minded billionaires could get the endowment rolling with a goal of $10-billion to $20-billion for the first five years. The endowment could also help local libraries start Kickstarter-style campaigns through which local donors could send money to their favorite local library projects. The money raised would be crucial to improving school and public libraries -- and the reading and math skills of America’s students. Much of the money could go to hire and train librarians, family literacy workers, and others, especially in the very poorest areas. The endowment could also help pay to narrow the digital divide.

Imagine the chance to upgrade Wi-Fi in libraries and other places where the poor and middle class -- and, yes, library lovers among the well-to-do -- want to read and maybe even connect in person. The extra money for content to feed wireless devices made available for use would be a godsend for libraries, affording them more bargaining power with publishers, who would also win through an expanded library market.

[Rothman runs LibraryCity, a site that advocates spreading digital libraries]

Online giving is still growing, but triple-digit annual increases are a thing of the past. Internet fundraising grew by roughly 13 percent in 2013, according to a survey of 100 of the largest nonprofits conducted by The Chronicle.

The Chronicle surveyed all the organizations in its Philanthropy 400 rankings of the largest nonprofits measured by annual fundraising. Of the 100 that responded, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society topped the list, with more than $98-million in Internet gifts in 2013.

While online giving continues to gain steam, it still accounts for a very small portion of the money charities rely on. Among the 76 nonprofits that provided both their online and overall giving totals for 2013, the median share of online gifts is just 2 percent of all donations from private sources.