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Oprah Winfrey has been proclaimed the world's biggest giver -- again. For the seoncd year running, the day-time host topped a list of the 30 most generous celebrities for giving $50.2 million US last year through the Oprah Winfrey Foundation and Oprah's Angel Network, which fund education, health care and advocacy for women and children. The list, now in its second year, was compiled by The Giving Back Fund, a charity that aims to encourage philanthropy. Claiming the No. 2 spot was trumpeter Herb Alpert, who gave $13 million for education, including music lessons, through the Herb Alpert Foundation. Three...

During the festive holiday season, it’s become common to criticize the commercialization of Christmas. Cynics suggest that there’s something unseemly and shallow about so many Americans running around frantically and spending huge sums to purchase gifts that the recipients may not even welcome. From a deeper perspective, however, the surge of commercial activity in the Christmas season strengthens the connections of inter-dependence and mutual reward that make community possible. The seasonal spending not only connects those who give and receive gifts to one another, but ties together buyers and sellers in webs of service, prosperity and gain. If retailers enjoy...

Obama has shown me the errors of my ways. As a middle class family we always thanked God for having enough. And part of that thanks was giving to charity. We still thank God for what we have and know that charity may well have to start at home while Obama is in office. Am I Scrooge? Unfortunately I am. Who does it hurt? The very poor that Obama says he is helping.

December 6, 2009 Charities Rise, Costing U.S. Billions in Tax Breaks By STEPHANIE STROM The number of organizations that can offer their donors a tax break in the name of charity has grown more than 60 percent in the United States, to 1.1 million, in just a decade. Experts say nonprofits are skillfully exploiting the tax code’s broad and elastic definition of what constitutes such a charity, making it difficult for the Internal Revenue Service, which must bless them, to say no. The agency approved 99 percent of the applications for public charity status last year, according to a new...

As we enter the holiday season I would like to encourage you to consider starting a new tradition in your family. Seeing as how Christmas is all about the birth of Christ and not any of us I have been a little baffled as to why we get the gifts. Now I am not trying to take away from the childrens excitement. However, this could be the year to start a new tradition that teaches and encourages missions and giving...

Yousef Abdallah's annual Ramadan duties promise to be tougher than usual this year. The Islamic holy month is expected to start tonight, so the Northeast operations manager for Islamic Relief USA, one of the nation's largest Islamic charities, and his staff are preparing to travel from his office on Route 46 in Totowa to about 80 mosques across the region, seeking donations. But Abdallah knows the down economy means people have less money to give this year. He also knows that many Muslims already donated to Islamic Relief in 2009, during fundraising campaigns targeted to help people in the Gaza...

When government steps outside the bounds of its proper authority, the consequences can be devastating. Too often we’re told that increasing the size and scope of government programs is compassionate or beneficial to society. But in the end, there is nothing compassionate or beneficial about government meddling in the private affairs of a free people. The Cash for Clunkers fiasco is just the latest example—in an interminable list—of government’s “unintended consequences” and their destructive impact. To incentivize behavior that government deems good or constructive, programs such as Cash for Clunkers are established. The $4,500 voucher given to new car purchasers...

Chores of enchantment are as you do My will , For truly this is to subdue and fulfill , For I am the glory and the power , And it is My will you should be doing in the last hour , Not wanting , not needing for I will supply , For all things fall under my eye , So procede and procure , By asking and declaring , breakthrough and endure . . . 1 Peter 4:7-9 (King James Version) 7But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. 8And...

My 16 year old daughter made this video to a song she loves by Sarah Kelley, Living Hallelujah! Enjoy...

In one of the largest sums ever donated to charity by a U.S. public official, Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife Lynne gave away nearly $7 million last year to help the poor and to medical research. According to income tax information released by the White House on Friday, the Cheneys' adjusted gross income in 2005 was $8,819,006. The sum was largely the result of Mr. Cheney's stock options from Halliburton and royalties from three books written by Mrs. Cheney. The Cheneys gave more than three-quarters of their income - $6,869,655 - to several charities, including George Washington University's...

KENOVA, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- If you attend church, chances are you're asked to tithe -- or give 10 percent. But with these tough economic times, many churches are seeing fewer dollars in the collection plate. We took a look at how the economy is affecting some local churches' budgets -- even their outreach services. At Kenova United Methodist Church, members are committed to giving, but nowadays it's a little tough. "We have had a decline in giving, but our congregation gives everything in their power," said Sheila Mosley, a Kenova United Methodist Church member. The church is in the process...

Conservatives More Liberal Givers By George Will WASHINGTON -- Residents of Austin, Texas, home of the state's government and flagship university, have very refined social consciences, if they do say so themselves, and they do say so, speaking via bumper stickers. Don R. Willett, a justice of the state Supreme Court, has commuted behind bumpers proclaiming "Better a Bleeding Heart Than None at All," "Practice Random Acts of Kindness and Senseless Beauty," "The Moral High Ground Is Built on Compassion," "Arms Are For Hugging," "Will Work (When the Jobs Come Back From India)," "Jesus Is a Liberal," "God Wants Spiritual...

New Jerseyans can be generous, but not when it comes to blood.  For 15 years, the state has lagged behind the nation in the percentage of people giving blood.  New Jersey hospitals were forced to spend  $18 million to $24 million in 2007 to buy supplies from other states, according to health and business experts who are banding together today to announce a statewide blood donation campaign. "Nine out of 10 people need blood at some point in their lives. Yet at most times of the year, the state has less than a two-day supply of blood." Nearly 60 percent...

ScienceDaily (Dec. 28, 2008) — To whom would you rather give money: a needy person in your neighborhood or a needy person in a foreign country? According to new research by Texas A&M University marketing professor Karen Winterich and colleagues, if you’re a man, you’re more likely to give to the person closest to you  that is, the one in your neighborhood  if you give at all. If you’re a woman, you’re more likely to give  and to give equal amounts to both groups. Winterich, who teaches marketing at Texas A&M’s Mays Business School, says she can...

"Professor Brooks analyzed ten years of data adjusted for variables such as age, gender, race and income, carefully documenting his methodology so the results could withstand the scrutiny of other researchers. His conclusions?"

I recently recieved this email from a friend, and thought I would just pass it on. 'Some people!' snorted a man standing behind me in the long line at the grocery store. 'You would think the manager would pay attention and open another line, 'said a woman. I looked to the front of the line to see what the hold up was and saw a well dressed, young woman, trying to get the machine to accept her credit card. No matter how many times she swiped it, the machine kept rejecting it. 'It's one of them welfare card things. Damn...

They played the oddest game in high school football history last month down in Grapevine, Texas. It was Grapevine Faith vs. Gainesville State School and everything about it was upside down. For instance, when Gainesville came out to take the field, the Faith fans made a 40-yard spirit line for them to run through. Did you hear that? The other team's fans? They even made a banner for players to crash through at the end. It said, "Go Tornadoes!" Which is also weird, because Faith is the Lions. It was rivers running uphill and cats petting dogs. More than 200...

Liberals love to spend other people’s money to make themselves look, and feel, compassionate. But it is conservatives who actually donate more of their own funds than leftists to charitable causes. According to a study cited this weekend in The New York Times by uber-leftist hagiographer Nicholas Kristof, households headed by conservativs give 30 percent more to charity than households led by liberals. The study was by Arthur Brooks, called, “Who Really Cares?” Another study was even more astounding — Google found an even greater disparity: average annual contributions reported by conservatives were almost double those of liberals. What’s more,...

This holiday season is a time to examine who’s been naughty and who’s been nice, but I’m unhappy with my findings. The problem is this: We liberals are personally stingy. Liberals show tremendous compassion in pushing for generous government spending to help the neediest people at home and abroad. Yet when it comes to individual contributions to charitable causes, liberals are cheapskates. Arthur Brooks, the author of a book on donors to charity, “Who Really Cares,” cites data that households headed by conservatives give 30 percent more to charity than households headed by liberals. A study by Google found an...

Better bundle up - the goose bumps will freeze you!! I think I need to read this every year at Christmas. - - - - - - - Pa never had much compassion for the lazy or those who squandered their means and then never had enough for the necessities. But for those who were genuinely in need, his heart was as big as all outdoors. It was from him that I learned the greatest joy in life comes from giving, not from receiving. It was Christmas Eve 1881. I was fifteen years old and feeling like the world had...

Margie Snow spent Tuesday unpacking clothes and food sent by her son in the military. He's stationed in Iraq, and even that far away, he was thinking about the needy back home. "He said, I just want to give back, he said, because we got plenty over here. He said, I just want to give back because I feel blessed. So every day he calls about a different box on its way," Snow said. Army Staff Sergeant Jeremy Snow has been in Iraq since January, but he came home earlier this year and that's when he got the idea to...

MADISON, Wis. — Vanessa Rosales comes to the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry here rather than others for one reason: She can choose what food she brings home, rather than being handed a bag filled with random groceries. The pantry, which looks like a small grocery store, is indicative of broad changes going on at the nation’s food banks and food pantries. No longer simply the domain of canned corn and peanut butter, food banks are preparing ready-to-eat meals, opening their own farms and partnering with institutions as varied as local supermarkets and state prisons to help gather and...

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Americans spent nearly twice as much on first-day sales of the video game “Grand Theft Auto IV” as the Southern Baptist Convention and its International Mission Board would need to share the gospel with all the world’s unreached people groups by 2010, according to a new report on church giving. http://www.baptiststandard.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8691&Itemid=53

I just saw on Hannity and Colmes where Hannity states how little Joe Biden gave to cherity. Democrat Bob Beckel stated he didn't know Biden gave so little and that he gave that much in used underwear the last 3 years!

Folks, I'm planning something. Don't want to give away details, cause I want it to be a surprise. But I need some help, particularly, the info on Obama's charitable giving (I think it was 2001, 2002, something like that) which was only 1% of his income. Also, he came out soon thereafter and produced a more recent return (after he was running for national office) where he had somewhat higher charitable giving. If anyone has those links, I'd appreciate it. Finally, on the guy he said, "We need to spread the wealth around," does someone have a link on this?

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin made considerably less money than rival Sen. Joe Biden, but the Palin family gave more to charity in the last two years than Biden has in the last eight combined, according to Palin's tax records released Friday afternoon. Palin, the running mate of presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), and her husband Todd reported meager earnings from 2006 and 2007, at least by presidential-politics standards. In 2006, the Palins paid $11,944 in taxes on $127,869 in income. In 2007, they paid $24,738 on $166,080. But in 2006, they donated $4,880 to charity, and in 2007, they...

Believing in God makes people nicer, a major study has concluded. After analysing three decades of research, scientists say religion encourages individuals to be more helpful, honest and generous. But believers acting for the greater good may be doing so to enhance their own reputation among friends and acquaintances, according to the review published today in the journal Science. Dr Ara Norenzayan, a psychologist at the University of British Columbia, Canada, said the debate over whether religion improves behaviour has too often been driven by opinion and anecdote. 'We wanted to look at the hard scientific evidence,' he said. Published...

Rather stark for a US Senator who can afford a family compound, who has one son who has been enriched by having a Senator as a father, and by having the drop-dead gorgeous wife who happens to be a Doctor. This miserly amount is all he can give as charity? Despite income ranging from $210,432 - $321,379 over the ten-year period, the Bidens have given only $120 - $995 per year to charity, which amounts to 0.06% - 0.31% of their income. Don't so many on the left denigrate Americans as being cheap? Well, at least one Senator seems to...

Sen. Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, have given an average of $369 per year to charities during the past decade, according to tax returns posted today to Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign Web site. Senator Biden, the Democratic nominee for vice president, claimed $995 in charitable gifts in 2007 on the joint return with his wife. That figure is 0.3 percent of the couple’s claimed income of nearly $320,000. The 2007 contributions were significantly higher than the couple’s gifts in previous years, which ranged from $120 to $380. By comparison, Sen. John McCain, the Republican Presidential nominee, in 2007 reported...

Obama wants to be generous to poor people in Africa - with YOUR money, while his own half brother lives on $12 a YEAR. He is very stingy with his own. Despite making well over $1,000,000 in family income from 2000 to 2004, the Obamas listed less than $11,000 in charitable contributions for all five years combinedClick here for proof If you think the Obamas just didn't want to claim their legal deductions, they had no problem in 2005 and 2006. Also note that the year Obama became senator his income jumped 700% from $200,000 to over $1.6 MILLION. No...

Peter Schweizer, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, has a new book out that is sure to drive the loony left, well, even loonier. In the new book Makers and Takers, Schweizer tells us "why conservatives work harder, feel happier, have closer families, take fewer drugs, give more generously, value honesty more, are less materialistic" than lefties in America. This from his website: Seventy-one percent of conservatives say you have an obligation to care for a seriously injured spouse or parent versus less than half (46 percent) of liberals. Conservatives have a better work ethic and are much less...

- Snip = Barack Obama ... consistently gave 1 percent of his income to charity. Al Gore has been famously stingy when it comes to actually giving his own money to charities. In 1998 he was embarrassed when his tax returns revealed that he gave just $353 to charity. - Snip - Senator John Kerry likewise has a poor record. In 1995 he gave zero to charity, but did spend $500,000 to buy a half stake in a seventeenth century painting. In 1993, he gave $175 to the needy. - Snip - [Ted] Kennedy's tax returns are obviously a closely...

Americans are hearing so much these days about how bad we are that we're starting to believe it. In a recent Gallup Poll, 68 percent said they are "dissatisfied with the position of the United States in the world today," and 55 percent said they think that the rest of the world views us unfavorably. However, as I page through a publication called the Index of Global Philanthropy, which is produced annually by the Center for Global Prosperity at the Hudson Institute in Washington, it becomes obvious that these American feelings of self-deprecation are misguided. This is the just released...

italics/bold mine:Yesterday the news was full of accounts of the Clintons' 2000-2006 tax returns. At the top of the stories -- as in the "deep background" report by Andrea Mitchell and the NBC investigative unit -- reporting their total income of $108 million over the past eight years (including 2007) was their $10 million in contributions to charity. The stories appear to be based in large part on the summary provided by the Clinton campaign, rather than on the returns themselves. Here is the summary's description of the Clintons' charitable contributions: CHARITABLE CONTRIBUTIONS: $10,256,741 The Clintons donated $10,256,741 to charity...

Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign released their tax forms from 2000-2007 Thursday, which showed the Clintons earned more than $100 million in that time period and donated $10 million of that to their own charity. The Clinton campaign reports donating $10,256,741 to the CFF between 2000 and 2006. During that time, CFF dispersed $2,530,100 in money to other charities and causes. The names of other persons who donated to the CFF are not required to be disclosed. Over the years, the CFF gave $80,000 to the Clinton Birthplace Foundation Inc., $20,000 to the Shakespeare Theatre, $40,000 to the School of the...

Residents of Austin, Texas, home of the state's government and flagship university, have very refined social consciences, if they do say so themselves, and they do say so, speaking via bumper stickers. Don R. Willett, a justice of the state Supreme Court, has commuted behind bumpers proclaiming "Better a Bleeding Heart Than None at All," "Practice Random Acts of Kindness and Senseless Beauty," "The Moral High Ground Is Built on Compassion," "Arms Are For Hugging," "Will Work (When the Jobs Come Back From India)," "Jesus Is a Liberal," "G-d Wants Spiritual Fruits, Not Religious Nuts," "The Road to Hell Is...

This is why politicians don't like to release their tax returns! Bloomberg News crunches the numbers on Sen. Barack and Michelle Obama's newly-released tax returns and finds: "The Obamas' donations to all recipients totaled $2,350 in 2000, $1,470 in 2001, $1,050 in 2002, $3,400 in 2003, and $2,500 in 2004. They also paid federal taxes totaling $311,044 during the same period on their $1.2 million of income."

3/25/2008 - BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan (AFPN) -- A Bagram Air Base Airman is making a difference for servicemembers and their families as she has one of the most difficult jobs in the area of responsibility. Senior Airman Sekina Moye, a services journeyman assigned to the 755th Air Expeditionary Group, is filling a six-month in-lieu-of tasking with Bagram's Mortuary Affairs. She is the only Air Force member of the five-person Army team who processes the remains of U.S. and coalition fallen heroes. "I was scared. I had never done this aspect of services," said Airman Moye, who is deployed from...

Tight-wads.

If you make your home in Texas, you can’t escape them. They are everywhere these days, hurriedly promising bounty to all within range of their voices. Even their printed matter is filled with pledges of greater public funding. The Democrat contenders for the Oval Office will GIVE everyone healthcare. They will GIVE everyone a meaningful education. They will GIVE those who are about to lose their homes, protection. They will GIVE those on the border and across the nation security. They will GIVE the illegal alien his or her unearned path to citizenship. The only thing wrong with all these...

The CEO of a Utah company surprised some lucky Utah National Guard members with a special "tour of duty": a seven day cruise to Bermuda. The Utah-based scrapbook company Stampin' Up donated 85 cruise cabins to the guard to thank the soldiers for their service. The unsuspecting winners received the good news today. One guardsman felt overwhelmed by the unexpected gift. "This has been kind of a dream come true. We've been married 22 years and I've been trying to get my wife on a cruise, just a three- or five-day cruise," Lt. Col. David Osborne said. Many of the...

Over the last decade, former President Bill Clinton has raised more than $500 million for his foundation, allowing him to build a glass-and-steel presidential library in Little Rock, Ark., and burnish his image as an impresario of global philanthropy. The foundation has closely guarded the identities of its donors — including one who gave $31.3 million last year. Now, the secrecy surrounding the William J. Clinton Foundation has become a campaign issue as Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton seeks the Democratic presidential nomination with her husband as a prime source of strategy and star power. Some of her rivals argue that...

The stereotype holds that conservatives are mean and don't care about the poor, and that liberals who do care for the poor give more. But in his book, Who Really Cares, economist Arthur Brooks says that's not the case. "The average conservative-headed household gives 30 percent more money to charity than the average liberal-headed household, despite earning six percent less income," Brooks said. Brooks also found that the biggest givers in America are religious people from traditional families. "If there's one question I can ask you that will predict more than any other whether or not you're going to be...

Can you put a price on faith? That is the question churchgoers are asking as the tradition of tithing -- giving 10% of your income to the church -- is increasingly challenged. Opponents of tithing say it is a misreading of the Bible, a practice created by man, not God. They say they should be free to donate whatever amount they choose, and they are arguing with pastors, writing letters and quitting congregations in protest. In response, some pastors have changed their teaching and rejected what has been a favored form of fund raising for decades. The backlash comes as...

"Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.” - Psalm 95 A 7-year-old can find lots of things to do with rocks. They're good for stacking, throwing, pounding and keeping, among other things. “I collect the rocks and sell them so people can get food when they need it,” said 7-year-old Caden Stufflebeam. “I just sit down on the sidewalk so people can buy them when they come by. I thought it would be nice.” Caden's collection of rocks for sale won't put any jewelers out of business. He's got a stripy one with green tints,...

CAMP FOSTER, OKINAWA, Japan (Nov. 2, 2007) -- Coordinators and volunteers with the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program on Okinawa will be working overtime during the holiday season to extend the reach of the 60-year-old charity in the region. Reserve Marines, activated specifically for Toys for Tots support, are scheduled to begin their 2007 toy collection drive during ceremonies at post exchanges on Camp Foster and Kadena Air Base Nov. 3. This year, program officials added Thailand and Guam to their area of responsibility, according to Staff Sgt. Suzette Smith, a coordinator with Okinawa’s Toys for Tots....

WASHINGTON (RNS)—The numbers prove it: Southerners are more generous to their churches, while lagging in other categories of giving. Using data provided by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, a new study by empty tomb inc. shows that in 2005, Southerners gave an average $816.81 per household to church and religious organizations while Northeasterners gave only $453.84. And the South has been outpacing the Northeast in religious giving almost 20 years. “One point that often ‘defends’ the Northeast is that the region has higher living expenses,” said Sylvia Ronsvalle, executive vice president of empty tomb, a Christian research organization in...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 25, 2007 – Military families have a new partner in their efforts to understand and cope with having a loved one in a battle zone. The Blewitt Foundation focuses on helping children experiencing loss, serious injury or related anxiety or fear. “Our primary mission is to provide special comfort, enjoyment and enrichment opportunities for U.S. military families … through partnerships with unique recreational and educational programs,” said Joe Cantafio, the foundation’s vice president of programs. “The cornerstone of our family-based program is fun, but not just any kind of fun,” he said. “The Blewitt Foundation provides all-expense-paid...

LAS VEGAS - News conferences, a slew of felony charges, a perp walk in handcuffs and detention in a holding cell without bail — it's clear authorities aren't giving O.J. Simpson any celebrity breaks. Police insist such treatment is prudent for a man whose name is synonymous with a slow-speed chase from officers in a white Ford Bronco. But legal experts are questioning whether Simpson is being singled out for extra-tough prosecution in his casino-hotel robbery case as payback for his murder acquittal more than a decade ago. "It is regrettable that America has not gotten over the O.J. Simpson...

NEW YORK (AP) - Former President Clinton will appear on Oprah Winfrey's TV talk show next Tuesday, Sept. 4, his first interview to promote "Giving," a book on philanthropy and civic action coming out the same day. Clinton's appearance was announced Monday in an e-mail - "The first interview about his new passion!" - sent to members of Winfrey's book club. Winfrey, who interviewed Clinton in 2004 for his memoir "My Life," has good reason to think highly of the new book. "Giving" praises Winfrey's "Angel Network," which has donated millions of dollars around the world, from money for schools...