If you think that the closure of Lehman Brothers only affects the business world, guess again. Lehman Brothers also does it share of social work and donating to charity is certainly among their long list of past accomplishments. Actually, you may even call it a regular habit that they do and with the bankruptcy filing that they had done, even charitable institutions are bound to be affected by it.

A big question was whether commitments would be honored. “If it’s a commitment out of the Lehman Foundation, a separate charitable entity, it legally needs to be honored,” says Melissa Berman, president of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. “At the same time, if the foundation has made more commitments than assets, it’s not clear what could be done.”

According to tax forms filed by Lehman Brothers Foundation, it had $23.7 million in total assets at the end of its 2007 fiscal year ending in November. At that time, it had $11.3 million in grants payable.

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On whether this was a commitment or not is really highly technical at this point. With no organization up to constantly disburse those funds for a worthy cause, that is one less donor to the world of charitable work. It is something that cannot be avoided but the only good thing that can perhaps be seen from all of it is the fact that at least you can see troubled companies doing their fair share for society regardless of the situation they are in.

Categories: Campaigns, Charities, Organizations | Tags: business, charity, crisis, finance, lehman

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Charities are pegged to be having difficulties these days and if you think of it, you have to wonder what the real reason is behind these hard times? Is it because of successive natural climate disasters or because of the economic downturn which has made most people become more conservative as far as executing charitable acts for the needy?

Indeed, hard times means two different ways. We have seen the hurricanes and storms plaguing each country through the past months and if you had a choice, you would be wondering how organizations such as the Red Cross is able to sustain their funds in aiding the displaced people in the world today.

Actually, the Red Cross has already asked for help. At the rate that natural disasters are hitting, it is only a matter of time before they can admit that they cannot assist all. Add to the fact that the credit crunch has made people shy away from donating large sums of money, you have to wonder where the help will come from.

With that, it would be wise to note that we all have to help out. It is not restricted to the big companies. One small token of help can really go a long way.

In a new report, the Government Accountability Office looked at the capabilities of the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, the Southern Baptist Convention and other charities and concluded ” A worst-case large-scale disaster would overwhelm voluntary organizations current sheltering and feeding capabilities.”

Cindy Fagnon of the GAO says, “For a really catastrophic kind of indicent no one entity alone could handle this and that reinforces the need to have really good collaboration across all sectors… public, private government.”

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Categories: Charities, Disaster Relief, Fundraising | Tags: Charities, hurricanes, ike, red-cross

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