The Daily Tell

In an effort to combat the number of Americans who experience food insecurity nationwide, Bank of America has extended a $1.5 million endowment to to the Boys and Girls Clubs of America and Feeding America via the bank's "Gift for Opportunity" fund. Consumers and associates made charitable contributions to the fund for six weeks, beginning December 2010, to aid more than 40 million children, individuals and families throughout the nation.

The fund is a new program that nationally aims to encourage charitable giving among the bank's customers and associates, which it will then double with a corporate match. Gift for Opportunity will be activated periodically throughout the year to support a variety of community needs that are important to the bank and its customers.

One of the most important components of the program is volunteerism. More than 1 million volunteer hours were donated by Bank of America associates in an effort to support community and civic organizations and causes, including food insecurity. They supported more than 50 events focused on alleviating hunger in December 2010.

"The issue of food insecurity really motivated our customers and associates to give generously of their money and time," said Kerry Sullivan, president of the Bank of America Charitable Foundation.

"The money we give in terms of charitable grants is extremely important, but it's also our associates who give their time and their talents to provide opportunities for the families and children in the communities we serve."

In the first use of its funding, the Bank of America Charitable Foundation supported Feeding America with $1 million.

Despite the fact that religion ranks fourth in terms of what causes Americans believed needed the most financial help at present – behind education, health and civic organizations – more than half of the funds given to charity go to religious causes and organizations, according to a national survey conducted by The Nonprofit Times and infogroup/Nonprofit. Although Americans claim that education is the most deserving of financial support, they fail to back it with the necessary funding.

In 1992, the same question was asked and religion ranked third behind education and health groups. Between 1992 and 2009, however, one-third of the total amount of charitable donations made went to religious groups. In 2009, that figure was $100.95 billion, and in 1992, it was $77.9 billion.

The complete list for last year placed education at the top, with 35 percent of Americans believing it is most deserving of support, followed by health at 24 percent, civic or community organizations at 12 percent, and religion at 9 percent, among others.

"Asking about which organizations are in need of financial support, is not the same as asking,"Which one do you most want to support' or even 'Which one do you think does the most important work in the world,'" said Melissa Brown, former editor of Giving USA and now a philanthropic consultant.

"It is really asking,'Which one is in such bad financial shape that you notice?' I could argue that people perceive that congregations are not in need of financial support because something like 45 percent of the population gives to a religious charity," she added.

Atlanta-based Emory University has seen a boost in financial aid funding to students through Emory Advantage, thanks to a $14.4 million endowment from the estate of James E. Varner, Jr., an alumnus of the college who died March 6, 2010. The aid will benefit qualifying students within the college of arts and sciences. Varner graduated from Emory in 1943 with a degree in economics and left the majority of his estate to Emory in support of its students.

"Emory Advantage grows out of the core belief that we simply cannot succeed unless we retain the ability to recruit to Emory the sort of vibrant, talented, diverse, exciting student body that enhances the Emory experience for everyone, and strengthens every aspect of the institution," said Robin Forman, dean of Emory College.

"This requires that we remain a destination university for all students that we would like to see join us, independent of their financial means. This gift is, in every way, a significant investment in the future of these students, the college and the university," he added.

In 2007, Emory Advantage was established in order to benefit qualifying undergraduate students whose families had a total annual income of less than $100,000. The grants reduce the amount of educational debt for students at Emory's Oxford College, College of Arts and Sciences, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing and Goizueta Business School. Thus far, 1,300 students have benefited from Emory Advantage.

Throughout the current the academic year, the program has extended more than $6.3 million in financial aid awards to students at Emory University. Approximately $4.2 million of that funding went to support those undergraduates attending the Emory College of Arts and Sciences.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has teamed up with the UK's Department for International Development, announcing a $102 million, five-year initiative to combat hunger and poverty within developing countries. The partnership will support agricultural research projects, aiming to help boost the profit and yield of small farms within regions that receive funding. It will address the threats that are most serious to the areas, such as food production, crop disease, pests, poor soil quality and extreme weather.

"For many of the poorest people in Africa and Southern Asia, the crops they grow not only provide most of their food but also an important source of income. It’s these people who are hit hardest by food price spikes," said Andrew Mitchell, the UK’s International Development Minister.

"Working with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, we can drive new ways to make direct improvements in people’s lives, whether by making disease-resistant crops more widely available so that small-scale farmers can grow and sell more, or by developing crops with added nutritional benefits that will give their families a better diet," she said.

In its first round of funding, a $40 million award will go to the Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat project at Cornell University, which is working to create varieties of wheat that are resistant to strains of stem rust disease. This disease has been running rampant throughout East Africa, threatening the world's wheat supply. In addition, $3 million will be awarded to Diagnostics for All to develop inexpensive testing for small farmers to use to improve milk quality and quantity produced by their cows. It will also benefit the safety of cereal grains.