HISTORY

The Massachusetts Catalogue for Philanthropy was launched in 1997 as a collaborative project of about 20 leading foundations, corporations, and individual donors statewide, "to increase and improve charitable giving through donor education." It was conceived and coordinated by the Ellis L. Phillips Foundation of Boston, with active participation by all of the Massachusetts community foundations.

The Catalogue was published annually from 1997-2007, and distributed each November to over 200,000 affluent homes as a showcase of excellence in Massachusetts philanthropy—articles about the nature and history of philanthropy, demonstrated by reference to 100 diverse, competitively selected, small-to-mid-sized charities, in all fields, all across the Commonwealth.

Reinforcing the Catalogue was the "Generosity Index"—a public consciousness-raising device which we described as a "crude but telling" comparison of giving to income in every state nationwide. Using the best available (IRS) data, we ranked each state's Average Adjusted Gross Income and Average Itemized Charitable Deductions, compared those ranks for each state, and ranked the disparities—showing very concisely that Massachusetts and New England states combined high ranks in income with low ranks in giving. The media loved it (though they and even some scholars misinterpreted it) and publicized it energetically, quickly making it the leading stimulus of annual discussions of charitable giving nationwide. The GI was instrumental in promoting the notion that generosity is not just how much one gives, but how much one gives in relation to how much one has—what fundraisers refer to as the "widow's mite" phenomenon (from the Bible).

Controversial though these discussions were, there can be no doubt that giving increased in relation to income. Nationwide, in only four years 1997-2000 (i.e., up to September 11th and the economic recession beginning in 2001), income rose 39%, while Itemized Charitable Contributions increased by 62%. In Massachusetts, income rose by 39%, giving by 97.7%—by far the highest increase in the nation (the 2nd-highest state increase was 80%). The Massachusetts increase—a doubling, from $2 billion to $4 billion—was effected by the Catalogue target audience of the top two (IRS) income groups, whose share of state giving in those years rose from 51% to 74%. The Catalogue does not claim sole credit for the increase, but with no other stimulus unique to Massachusetts ever having been suggested by anyone, we believe that the combination of the Catalogue and the GI, which together raised the whole issue in the media of Massachusetts giving in relation to income, was demonstrably a leading cause of the doubling, and that our investment of $1 million on those first four issues was therefore highly cost-effective.

In 1997 when we began our work, the subjects of Massachusetts charities, nonprofits, and charitable giving were not topics of conversation or research, either inside or outside professional philanthropy. Almost nothing was known about these subjects because there was almost no publicly available data. No one had thought about what the IRS Statistics of Income Bulletin's state summaries of tax returns might reveal about charitable contributions. It was technically impossible to map or chart groups of charities, or to search for individual charities by name, much less by field. The IRS Form 990s were not broadly accessible. The most crucial words had not been defined. Knowledge of Massachusetts philanthropy was therefore only accidentally, informally, and impressionistically acquired and discussed. We were all stumbling around in the dark, but we didn't know it because we didn't think about it. Most of this was still true in 2005 when the Catalogue began working to pin things down.

Today we are in a different world. The Catalogue was the first institution to make "Massachusetts philanthropy" a subject of intense interest. Cumulatively, the eleven issues of the Catalogue presented over 900 excellent charities, in all fields statewide, to the most influential audience in Massachusetts philanthropy—thus providing at least an outline of the subject to a population that mattered. Its organized presentation of the charities by fields gradually evolved into the first systematic taxonomy of philanthropy. Research for the articles on philanthropy produced a clear and solidly documented definition and historical understanding of philanthropy, and a new interpretation of its significance for American history. We have published these findings separately as a book, Philanthropy Reconsidered (2008). Our experience in reviewing thousands of charities in all fields, all across the Commonwealth, combined with an exceptionally clear definition of philanthropy and the taxonomy, were further empowered by the revolutionary development of Internet technology in these years, which enabled the creation of this Massachusetts Philanthropic Directory. It, too, is designed to increase charitable giving through donor education, and especially to bring to light the vast majority of charities which are younger and modest in size, which have previously been too little known and appreciated.

The MPD is, however, as the first of its kind, very much a work-in-progress, needing collaborative help to develop it fully. We cordially invite all interested parties to help, for our common good.