In early November, I had the pleasure to be part of a panel conversation on Achieving High Impact Philanthropy as part of the ASU Lodestar Center's PhilanthropyMatters Speaker Series. These events are designed to share leading-edge thinking and to stimulate new ideas for philanthropy in Arizona.

Social Venture Partners Arizona Founder Jerry Hirsch introduced Kat Rosqueta, Founding Executive Director of the Center for High Impact Philanthropy at the University of Pennsylvania, to 80 attendees. She shared research and examples of high impact philanthropy from her 10 years of work. Following, Dr. Robert Ashcraft, ASU Lodestar Center's Executive Director, facilitated a conversation with Kat, Partner Jacky Alling from the Arizona Community Foundation and me, where we discussed the high impact philanthropy ecosystem in Arizona. 

Connecting with Kat was like meeting a fellow tribe partner! Just like her center at the University of Pennsylvania, SVP focuses on being a resource to help people achieve high social impact in their philanthropic giving. Kat outlined four characteristics of high impact giving.

posted by Pat Lewis, Senior Professional in Residence ASU Lodestar Center

Welcome to Research Friday! As part of a continuing weekly series, each Friday we invite a nonprofit expert from our academic faculty to highlight a research report or study and discuss how it can inform and improve day-to-day nonprofit practice. We welcome your comments and feedback.

Much like Robert Ashcraft's previous blog post, this is a glass "half full" or "half empty" question – for research provides evidence on both sides. Giving USA began tracking U.S. giving in 1955. Since that time, as a share of total giving, religious giving has decreased from approximately one-half of total giving to just under one-third today. However, in real dollars, religious giving is growing… slowly … by about 2 percent a year over the past 40 years. These data are provided by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University (hereafter referred to simply as "the Center") in Giving USA.

In the Center's publication, Philanthropy Matters, Executive Director Dr. Patrick Rooney tested eight myths about religious giving.^[1] Some myths are upheld and some are dispelled.