iCare®


		Today's Philanthropic Sector is made up of more than 1.8 million public charities, private foundations and religious congregations that collectively employ 11.7 million paid staff or about 9 percent of the total American workforce. The aggregate of all 501(c)3, 501(c)4 and religious organizations receive about $250 billion a year in total giving by individuals, foundations and corporations, or about 2 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP). In total they receive $1 trillion in total annual revenue (only six foreign nations have a GDP larger than the U.S. nonprofit economy), yet millions suffer and die daily. Adult children whose parents give currently are much more likely to be donors themselves than are children whose parents do not give currently; they are also far more likely to give more money than children of non-donors. Parents' religious giving emerges as an engine for religious generosity, affecting the religious giving of their adult children, but having no effect on children's "secular" giving (e.g. to United Way, DATA, Mercy Corps, Lance Armstrong Foundation, education, etc.) As Dr. Eugene Tempel has stated, it is not the absence of self that motivates charitable giving, but the presence of self-identification with others. This is what St. Thomas Aquinas teaches as the convergence of love of neighbor, love of self, and love of God. In its civic expression, it is what Tocqueville meant by "self-interest properly understood." It is not by coincidence that schools, health and arts organizations, and especially churches attract so much giving. For it is here that donors, because they are also recipients, most identify with the individuals—namely themselves, their families, and people much like them—whose needs are being met by the contributions. According to The Modern Medici by Paul Schervish the determinants of charitable giving are:
		1. communities of participation	Groups and organizations in which one participates.
		2. frameworks of consciousness	Frameworks of consciousness - beliefs, goals and orientations that shape the values and priorities that determine people's activities.
		3. direct requests	Invitations by persons or organizations to directly participate in philanthropy.
		4. discretionary resources	The quantitative and psychological wherewithal of time and money that can be mobilized for philanthropic purposes.
		5. models and experiences from one's youth	The people or experiences from one's youth which serve as positive exemplars for one's adult engagements.
		6. urgency and effectiveness	A desire to make a difference; a sense of how necessary and/or useful charitable assistance will be in the face of people's needs.
		7. demographic characteristics	The geographic, organizational, and individual circumstances of one's self, family, and community that affect one's philanthropic commitment.
		8. intrinsic and extrinsic rewards	The array of positive experiences and outcomes (including taxation) of one's current engagement that draws one deeper into a philanthropic identity.

iCare® would allow donors to fulfill each of these requirements in various ways.