We got a tweet yesterday from a young woman, who said that reading our coverage of the Giving USA numbers resulted in her “stress eating 187 jelly beans.” A hint of the contents is in the (oh so subtle) title of the piece: “Giving USA 2012 Indicates Long Slow Uphill Slog . . . If We Are Lucky.”
 
The report mostly contains news that is not terribly heartening, in that it looks like if we ever recover our former 2007 high point in charitable giving it will not be for at least ten years from now. Yes, that is distressing, especially on top of the constrictions in other sources—like government grants and contracts. This has led the normally unfailingly optimistic Patrick Rooney of the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University to comment, “For many that rely on philanthropy . . . this is not just a tough year. This is going to be a tough era.”
 
There were some interesting details in this year’s report that made us look slightly beneath the surface to make sense of it all for you. It still doesn’t look good, but at least you know what the terrain is, and you can gird your loins and stuff yourself on jelly beans accordingly. Of course, each of our organizations is different, but we are all living through this confusing period together, and we must all work to make it better together—armed with the facts and ready to ride.
 
We will continue our coverage of this and related reports over the next little bit. In fact, today we wrote a related newswire about the marked increase in bequest giving and the charitable attitudes and wealth-hiding habits of HNW baby boomers. You’ll want to run right out and hang around with semi-destitute-looking sixty year olds. You can come by here, but, of course, I really don’t have any money.
 
Related to the fact that I don’t have any money is NPQ’s need for yours! But we want you to get some value for your buck, so I would ask each and every one of you to BUY A SUBSCRIPTION TO THE WORLD-CLASS NONPROFIT QUARTERLY PRINT JOURNAL TODAY! Buy 10 and give them to your colleagues and staff. We have a reverse auction going on, and the higher the number of subscribers goes the lower the price will fall.