"A lot depends on how clearly and indisputably the donor specified his or her intentions, " says Leslie Lenkowsky, a professor at Indiana University's Center on Philanthropy.

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"There have been some institutions created as a result of it, " said James Ferris, director of the University of Southern California's Center on Philanthropy and Public Policy.

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The idea that growing wealth offsets high tax prices fits with evidence from a biannual survey of charitable donors by Bank of America and the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.

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Sievers is a visiting scholar and lecturer at the Haas Center for Public Service and the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, which he helped found in 2006, at Stanford University.

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John Havens, with Boston College's Center on Wealth and Philanthropy, is predicting that individual charitable giving will increase for 2010.

FORBES

In the seemingly infinite galaxy of philanthropy, the Liberty Science Center Genius Gala sparkled brightly on Friday night, not only honoring chess legend Garry Kasparov, brain-mapping scientist Dr. Cori Bargmann and entrepreneur Richard Branson, but with stratospherically smart award presenters like James Watson, best known for his co-discovery of DNA, election predictor Nate Silver and astronaut Buzz Aldrin.

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