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Endowments at U.S. colleges and universities earned an average of 19.2 percent on their investments in fiscal 2011, the second steep annual climb following two years of recession-induced declines, a new report says.

Nonprofits that count on government funding expect deeper cuts, especially for programs serving the most vulnerable populations such as elderly and homeless people, and they expect those cuts will cause big problems for their organizations, a new study says.

Overall giving grew 3.4 percent in the first 11 months of 2011, marking the first time it had exceeded the level of giving in 2007, before the recession, Blackbaud says.

Nonprofit jobs grew at an average rate of 2.1 percent a year from 2000 to 2010, compared to a decline of 0.6 percent a year for for-profit jobs, a new report says.

Blackbaud, a provider of software and services for nonprofits, has agreed to acquire Convio, a provider of on-demand constituent-engagement solutions for nonprofits, in a deal Blackbaud says is worth $275 million.

Charitable giving in the U.S. quickly is becoming more ethnically, culturally and socioeconomically diverse, yet conventional philanthropy has not fully plugged into communities of color and needs to understand and support their philanthropy if it wants to drive social change, a new report says.

After sustaining big hits in the wake of the recession, donor-advised funds in the U.S. saw a rebound in 2010, but have yet to regain their peak asset and contribution levels, a new report says.

In virtually all wealthy households, women play a major role in deciding which charitable organizations the family will support, so understanding the motivations and giving behaviors of wealthy women is important for nonprofits, a new study says.

A partnership of the North Carolina Community Foundation and the North Carolina Rural Center aims to reverse the flow of wealth and residents from rural counties by inspiring donors to invest in endowment funds to boost the local economy.

Nonprofits are stepping up their grantseeking efforts, and although a majority see no rise in grant awards, there is collective optimism that the outlook will improve over the next six months, a new study says.