Gates Foundation’s $750,000 Matching Grant Will Support National Study Aimed At Increasing Nonprofits’ Effectiveness And Sustainability

INDIANAPOLIS – The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University a $750,000 matching grant to help fund data collection in 2007 and 2009 for its signature research project, the Center on Philanthropy Panel Study (COPPS).

COPPS is the largest and most accurate study of charitable giving by U.S. households over time ever conducted. A nationally representative panel study, it looks at giving and volunteering by the same households over time and across generations as families mature, face differing economic circumstances, are affected by public policy shifts and encounter changes in their family size and health, among many other factors. Scholars and nonprofit professionals can access COPPS data and findings free of charge online in downloadable formats.

“We are grateful to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for this visionary grant,” said Gene Tempel, executive director of the Center on Philanthropy, part of the School of Liberal Arts on the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis campus. “COPPS is a catalytic project with enormous potential to enhance nonprofits’ effectiveness and sustainability throughout the nonprofit sector.

“Our researchers are focused on understanding the core beliefs and influences that drive charitable giving over time here in the United States. We believe that understanding why people give and what they hope to achieve with their charitable contributions benefits both funders and nonprofits,” Tempel said. “We’re hopeful that the Gates Foundation’s support will encourage other funders and donors to step forward and allow this important research to continue.”

COPPS helps nonprofit professionals understand how people in a variety of circumstances give and volunteer, and examine how and why changes in personal, political, social, economic, and other circumstances influence those decisions. It also shows how household-level changes impact amounts given, causes supported, time volunteered, and types of volunteer work done.

COPPS makes it possible to see correlations between giving and each societal crisis, policy initiative, tax law revision, demographic shift or national economic change. It will allow policy makers to ground public policy debates in solid research. COPPS also will give nonprofits critical information to fulfill their missions, allow donor advisors and wealth managers to assess giving patterns of their clients’ peers and advance scientific knowledge of giving and volunteering behavior.

"The COPPS data are a unique resource in our sector," said Lowell Weiss, senior policy and advocacy officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “We feel COPPS has great potential for informing public policy—and encouraging policies that promote effective and generous giving in America."

For additional information, go to http://www.philanthropy.iupui.edu/nr-Gates_grant.html.