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(Houston, TX – January 29, 2010) Philanthropy and fundraising experts Dini Partners this week announced that their second annual survey of major gift-giving individuals and foundations finds increasing optimism and donor confidence even as givers maintain a mixed outlook on the U.S. economy.

Last year, the inaugural Dini Partners survey found 62 percent of respondents expected giving to be adversely impacted, while only 5 percent expected to increase their giving.  This year, however, 27 percent anticipate that giving in 2010 will return to 2008 or prerecession grant making, while another 17 percent believe giving levels will exceed those achieved in 2009.

Only 23 percent state clearly that their grant-making capacity continues to be diminished.

Meanwhile, major donor sentiment on the economy is mixed.  Thirty-one percent of 2010 Dini survey respondents expect the economy to continue to improve and stabilize through the first quarters of 2010, while 28 percent anticipate a second downturn before year-end and another 25 percent feel too uncertain to venture a guess. 

“The year 2009 is one that will go down in the annals of American philanthropy as one of historic challenges to both well-established institutions and emerging agencies,” said Larry Vaclavik, Principal and Managing Partner of Dini Partners, as he announced the 2010 Dini Partners Giving in 2010 survey results.  “Executives, board members and fundraising professionals watched as external forces challenged some of the most fundamental assumptions about the capacity and drive of the American philanthropic spirit.”

Vaclavik added that “as many in other economic sectors are suggesting a transition to a ‘new normal’ and changed expectations for the coming years, the same might be said of the philanthropic sector for 2010.”

Of the 102 participants in the Dini Giving in 2010 survey, 64 are individual contributors or representatives of philanthropic families, 31 are foundation trustees or officers, and seven represent historically philanthropic corporations.  The individual contributors surveyed were comprised of millionaires with net worths ranging from several million dollars to more than $100 million. 

Approximately three-fourths of the 2010 respondents are from Texas with the balance representing areas as diverse as Colorado, Nebraska, Louisiana, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma and New York.