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Tough economic times have cultural institutions examining their inventories to decide which items should have ownership transferred to other institutions or individuals by sale, exchange or grant. This paper from Withers LLP notes the increased need for donors of charitable gifts to make their intentions and restrictions on the gifts clear in solidly drafted gift agreements and testaments.

Many donors are reassessing their charitable giving practices in the wake of the recession. It is in this context that Strategic Philanthropy Ltd. has compiled its annual guide for donors interested in thinking more concretely about how to be effective with their charitable donations at a time when the value of their philanthropic assets has likely decreased.

Research from Barclays Wealth finds that four factors keep individuals from donating more: a lack of financial security heightened by turbulent markets; a missing need to donate for familial, societal or religious reasons; concern about how charities are operated; and an unsupportive tax system.

Britain's new reduction of capital procedure provides a flexible and inexpensive way for family-owned businesses to restructure or return value to shareholders. This report from Withers provides practical examples of how the procedure can be used in paying dividends, demergers, share buy-backs as well as paying up unpaid amounts on shares and dissolving a company.

New Philanthropy Capital shares its system for analyzing charities to help funders identify individual charities' strengths and weaknesses and make thoughtful decisions about how to allocate their resources. The organization's approach examines six elements related to a charity: activities, results, leadership, people and resources, finances and ambition.

Analysis by Spring Mountain Capital shows that increased spending will profoundly jeopardize the long-term health of endowments. This paper proposes a framework for analyzing spending decisions that can be of use to endowments and other types of investors who need to balance long-term growth objectives with short-term spending needs.

A business-owning family can create a secure foundation for effective multi-generational ownership and control by transferring shares of a family business in trust during the controlling owner's lifetime, and through careful drafting of trust provisions, choice of governing law, selection of a capable trustee and implementation of effective family governance processes, Withers Bergman says.

Although wealthy philanthropists vary in their interests, backgrounds and styles of giving, some patterns emerge. Researchers for Barclays Wealth create profiles for six types of givers – privileged youth, eco givers, altruistic entrepreneurs, reactive donors, cultural inheritors and professional philanthropists – and identify each group's source of wealth, key causes, mode of giving, donation level and motivation.

In the latest issue of Global Giving Matters, the Synergos Institute explores the personal story of a philanthropist's inner journey and relationship with her giving, which has included support of initiatives with highly marginalized groups. This issue also collects brief news items from Argentina, Chile, China, Malaysia, Mexico, Pakistan, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Gifting may be the place to start in planning a long-term estate planning strategy, according to this paper from Wells Fargo. While gifting can be useful in transferring tax savings, it also can provide a real-time snapshot of the estate plan by allowing the giver to see how beneficiaries accept and respond to the gifts and then to change the estate plan in response.