Welcome to the Fifth Anniversary edition of the Catalogue for Philanthropy: Greater Washington. Since November 2003 the Catalogue has helped featured charities raise over $4 million. Our family of charities is now over 300 strong and represents the tremendous range of good works envisioned by people who saw a need and organized themselves to meet it. It also offers a rich array of philanthropic opportunities for donors. Many donors who used the Catalogue in its early years have maintained and even raised their giving in subsequent years, creating an important source of revenue – and relationships – for charities that do not have the resources to reach out to donors on their own.

Fifty-five reviewers from a cross-section of foundations, businesses, and advocacy organizations, evaluate applications to the Catalogue – over 250 this year – for distinction, merit, cost-effectiveness, and accomplishment. The Catalogue also reviews its charities for financial transparency, and all are scrutinized with an eye toward accountability. (See who our reviewers are.) Our rigorous evaluation process is designed to identify those organizations with the most impact and to provide you with a carefully vetted list of excellent, trustworthy nonprofits. These are certainly among the best smaller charities in Washington.

This year, for the first time, we include eleven nonprofits that have appeared before in the Catalogue, all in our inaugural 2003 edition; these are just some of the organizations for whom the Catalogue has made a very significant difference. We don’t claim credit for all the growth they have experienced, but their success is important to us and to the donors who helped make it happen. Their stories appear inside, marked by our icon. We hope you will enjoy getting acquainted with them–or reacquainted, as the case may be.

So as you’ll see in the pages that follow, we once again introduce to you the wide world of smaller charities. Though they comprise the great majority of all nonprofits, the public rarely hears about them because most cannot afford to make themselves heard. Yet they are right here, working hard to make life better in every arena of our lives – keeping our rivers clean, teaching our children to succeed in school, healing the uninsured, protecting our vulnerable citizens at home and abroad. Dollar-for-dollar, they offer some of the most cost-effective opportunities for philanthropy because they have no alternative but to do so.

You can make tax-deductible contributions either by using the Giving Form at the back of the Catalogue (every penny you contribute will go to the charities you choose), donating online at catalogueforphilanthropy-dc.org, or making a gift of appreciated stock (often a tax-wise decision). Gift certificates make wonderful holiday gifts for the person who has everything or for the budding philanthropist in your family. You can also mail your contributions directly to the charities themselves – and please let them know you found them in the Catalogue. We are accountable too, and want to be able to track our success in growing our culture of giving.

And for those who enjoy perusing the Catalogue and mulling their philanthropic choices, please note the creation of our Donate Now/Decide Later Fund. You can send a check to the Catalogue in December – we are a charitable organization with tax exempt status – and let us know in January to whom you would like us to distribute your gifts. The tax deduction goes to you in 2007, and your choices get made in 2008 – after the holidays settle down and you (and your family) have had time to reflect. Just check the Fund’s box on our Giving Form and include your email address. And, once again, 100% of your donation will go to the charities you select. We will even remind you when the time comes to make your decisions! As Michael Kaiser, President of the Kennedy Center and this year’s guest essayist, notes, “the freedom to choose what one wants to support is the great joy of being a donor.”

Recent research from Boston College’s Center on Wealth and Philanthropy reveals that residents of metropolitan Washington – one of the richest regions in the country–will bequeath some $2.4 trillion over the next 50 years, approximately $720 billion of which could be earmarked for philanthropy. The numbers raise important questions Where will donations be invested? Will they stay in the region? Will they strengthen the fabric of our community?

The dollar value of the wealth transfer staggers the imagination. But what really presents itself here is an imaginative possibility of another kind – not just the grand movement of dollars, but the emergence of a new philanthropic spirit that connects our community to its aspirations, reflecting what we believe, hope to achieve, and choose to claim as our legacy. Now in its Fifth Anniversary Year, the Catalogue for Philanthropy has emerged as the most wide-ranging and sustainable philanthropy promotion initiative in the region, and it is a critical part of this joyful process. Your engagement will help bring to life the vision we share – of a vibrant and thriving world here in our nation’s capital.