Alumnus Donates $1.5M In Grants To Two Penn Schools

(previously published here at www.thebulletin.us)

By: Heather J. Chin, The Bulletin

07/18/2008

University of Pennsylvania alumnus Arthur Bilger and his wife, Dahlia, made two monetary gifts this week to his alma mater to be used to support research into interactive media business models and therapeutic drugs to treat Alzheimer's disease.

The Wharton School received a $1 million gift to create and support the Wharton Interactive Media Initiative (WIMI), a research program focusing on interactive media, its effect on global business and its influence on traditional media business models. This data-driven research will hopefully be applied to helping media companies do profitable business.

Of his family's donation to Wharton, Mr. Bilger said "Through the WIMI, Wharton will continue its tradition of cutting-edge scholarship with practical applications... to the world of business."

The Bilger Foundation's $500,000 donation to the School of Medicine will establish the Nathan Bilger Alzheimer Drug Discovery Initiative in memory and honor of Mr. Bilger's father. The monetary gift will be used by the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research (CNDR) to identify new methods and drug targets for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease that can hopefully be translated by their Marian S. Ware Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Center into new therapeutic drugs.

"The Bilger family gift will enable us to determine if an off-label drug used to treat organ rejection in transplant patients can be used to treat Alzheimer's disease," Dr. Virginia M.Y. Lee, CNDR director, said to the Almanac, a Penn-run publication.

Dr. John Q. Trojanowski, director of PennMed's Institute on Aging, explained that this is significant because early studies that are promising need a lot of money to evaluate them further as potential Alzheimer's therapies, and, "if successful, could put more drugs in the pipeline aimed at helping... patients by blocking... the disease process."

Mr. Bilger manages a private investment firm in California, is a member of Wharton's Board of Overseers, and along with his wife has supported the School of Arts and Sciences, Penn Medicine, and a scholarship for undergraduates.

Heather J. Chin can be reached at hchin@thebulletin.us

©The Evening Bulletin 2008

Philadelphia Foundation Awards $2.75M To Regional Nonprofits

(first published here at thebulletin.us)

By: Heather Chin, The Bulletin

06/25/2008

Philadelphia - The Philadelphia Foundation announced last Thursday that it has awarded $2.75 million in grants to community noprofits in the Greater Philadelphia area, nearly $1.6 million of which went to organizations in the city of Philadelphia.

A total of 196 grants were given to 161 organizations throughout Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties. Grant amounts ranged from less than $100 to over $300,000.

Receiving some of the largest grants were Philadelphia nonprofits: the Children's Hospital Foundation receivied $334,000; the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania were awarded $224,000; the Regional Performing Arts Center received $180,000; the School District of Philadelphia received $67,000 for charitable medical and dental care.

Other beneficiaries this year include the Jamestown Historical Society (nearly $6,000 for windmill preservation and upkeep) and the Settlement Music School (around $3,500 for general operations and scholarships).

The grants were distributed from the Philadelphia Foundation's designated funds, which are established by donors to fund specific charities and which are awarded annually in June. Out of the 775 funds managed by the foundation, 99 of these are designated funds.

The Philadelphia Foundation was established as a public charity community foundation in 1918 with a stated mission of improving the quality of life in Southeastern Pennsylvania through permanent charitable trust funds. Over the last 10 years, the Foundation has awarded $171 million in funds to area organizations.

Heather J. Chin can be reached at heather.jean.chin@gmail.com

©The Evening Bulletin 2008

Charities Have A Big Year

(previously published here at the bulletin.us)

By: Heather J. Chin, The Bulletin

06/24/2008

Americans gave over $300 billion to charities and nonprofits in the year 2007, according to a study released yesterday, breaking the previous year's total while maintaining the basic overall rate despite economic concerns that included a fallen housing market, struggling credit, high oil and food prices and the ongoing cost of war.

The estimated donation total of $306.39 billion for 2007 included contributions from individuals (at 74.8 percent of the total), foundations (at 12.6 percent), bequests (at 7.6 percent) and corporations (at 5.1 percent), all represented in the annual survey by the Giving USA Foundation, a nonprofit educational organization that researches and publishes data and trends about charitable giving. The rate of charitable giving is reported to have had a strong start at the beginning of the year, before falling back as stock market struggles and housing and credit crisis hit. Data was culled from government sources such as the Internal Revenue Service, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, and the Katrina Emergency Task Relief Act, as well as from panel surveys by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University of over 7,800 households about their charitable giving practices.

The study shows that although a record breaker, this year's amount remained at 2.2 percent of the nation's gross domestic product (GDP) - the same level as in 2006, as well as from 2002 to 2004 - and after adjusting for inflation, was only a 1-percent increase over 2006's $294.91 billion.

Still, this made for about an 88 -percent increase from a decade earlier, before individual giving, religious and foundation charitable donations and corporate profits all increased. The many natural disasters around the world that occurred in the last several years also made for a boost in contributions towards relief aid funds.

The high level of individual household giving has primarily been shown through itemized charitable deductions on tax returns for a range of income levels. About 51 percent of this individual giving was from the 10 percent of U.S. households in the highest income groups, while 49 percent came from "ordinary-income donors."

In Giving USA's initial study report, the 2007 pool of charitable contributions were made to a variety of sectors, including religious congregations, which received $102.32 billion (about a third of all donations), educational organizations ($43.32 billion; a 6.4 percent increase), human-services charities ($29.64 billion, an 8.4 percent increase), and health organizations ($23.15 billion, a 5.4 percent increase).

Arts, culture and humanities organizations, as well as international affairs organizations, received an increase in charitable contributions.

The only contribution pool to have received lower levels of giving were private foundations, which fell 9.4 percent to $27.73 billion since 2006.

Heather Chin can be reached at heather.jean.chin@gmail.com

©The Evening Bulletin 2008