New Site Lists $1M+ Charitable Donations
Big-dollar philanthropists can now see where their fellow donors are giving gifts of $1 million or more at a free Web site offered by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.

The site, www.milliondollarlist.org, is designed to help high-net-worth donors and their advisors determine where others are giving and where donations may be needed.

The list is one of the largest free databases of it kind, according to the center. It is searchable by type of cause or by specific organizations and by geographic location. It consists of more than 60,000 donations of $1 million or more made since 2000 by individuals, foundations or corporations.

"One million dollars is a significant giving threshold for donors, so gaining a clear picture of where and how the gifts are made is an important step forward in the study of philanthropy," said Patrick M. Rooney, the Center for Philanthropy's executive director.

"Now donors and their advisors can see which organizations or causes matching their interests are receiving large gifts, where their peers are giving and where gaps in funding may exist," he added.

Advisors can aid their clients by searching the site for information on trends and help donors find like-minded individuals for potential collaborations to leverage their giving for greater impact, according to the center. The project was made possible by a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

"By providing information about their gifts to the Million Dollar List, philanthropists will encourage greater transparency among all those involved in charitable giving, increase opportunities to connect with other donors and strengthen understanding of philanthropy," said Una Osili, a member of the center's board of directors.

Trends that have been discovered so far include that 63% of individual gifts go to organizations based in the state where the donor lives and that higher education organizations receive the largest number of million-dollar gifts from individuals, while foundations receive the most money in gifts of a million dollars or more.


eFront To Launch Limited Partnership Performance Tool
A software program for performance monitoring and benchmark analysis for limited partnerships is being launched by eFront.

Pevara is a Web application that will enable the global limited partnership community to conduct independent analysis of investment returns, monitor industry performance trends and conduct like-for-like comparisons of investments for consistent, accurate risk reporting and asset allocation monitoring.

"The limited partner community has largely been underserved by technology providers," saaid Olivier Dellenbach, founder and president of eFront, a provider of software for the alternative assets sector.

Pevara is designed to enable limited partnerships to monitor the performance of their portfolios invested in equities, verify general partnership provided data and improve their decision making, according to eFront.

A beta version of Pevara will be available Nov. 1 and a full version is expected to be ready by the first part of 2012, according to eFront. 

-Karen DeMasters

 

On The Move

BNY Mellon has appointed Ray Sidwell to the position of family wealth advisor for the wealth management group in Tampa, Fla. Sidwell, a 20 year veteran in the legal and investment management industry, previously served as the senior family investment officer for GenSpring Family Offices, where he was an investment advisor serving ultra-high-net-worth families throughout North America. 

NAS Insurance Services has named Mark Bradway as business development manager for the U.S. northeast region. Bradway has over 13 years of insurance sales, marketing and distribution experience.
 
Barclays Wealth
has continued the expansion of its strategy across the Latin American ultra-high-net worth-client base with three new hires. Narciso Muñoz has been hired as an investment representative in Miami. Isaac Topel and Andres Cazenave have been appointed as private bankers in Switzerland.

Legacy Trust Family Wealth Offices of Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. has announced two new hires: Benjamin Hopf as trust associate and Nikki Cassala as office manager. As trust associate, Hopf handles all trust administrative duties with clients, including estate and financial planning. 

National Advisors Trust of Overland Park, Kan. has announced three new shareholders have joined the company: Halliday Financial in Glen Head, N.Y.; Pinnacle Wealth Planning Services in Mansfield, Ohio; and Greystone Wealth Advisors in Mount Kisco, N.Y.

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. has appointed Rafael Febres-Cordero as head of the firm's international wealth management business. Based in New York, Febres-Cordero has more than 20 years experience in the financial industry, including leadership positions at Fidelity Investments and in corporate finance and international corporate banking in Venezuela.

Bessemer Trust has named S. Alexander Haverstick II as principal of the New York office. Haverstick was a founding partner at Boxwood Strategic Advisors, a president of Morgan Stanley Trust Company and managing director at Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management.

-Kathy Lynch