Philanthropy News Report

PILOT deal is on its way

2009-11-11T14:19:00.000-06:00

Boston officials are nearing an agreement with large nonprofit organizations that could double or triple the amount the city collects in payments from them in lieu of taxes. City Councilor Steve Murphy said a pact could be ready within 90 days that would raise the payments from colleges and hospitals for local services from the current $15-million a year to between $32-million and $46-million.

Full text article by John Ruch is available via the Jamaica Plain Gazette, 11/6/09.

Trustee Seeks Billions for Madoff Investors

2009-11-11T13:14:00.000-06:00

The billionaire financier and philanthropist Jeffry M. Picower’s will instructs that the bulk of his estate be used to establish a new charitable foundation to replace the one he and his wife shut down last year due to losses in the Bernard L. Madoff investment fraud. The new foundation's direction? Primarily to benefit medical research. He also left $1-million each to the New York Public Library, the Harlem Children’s Zone, and the Nurse-Family Partnership.

Full text article by Diana B. Henriques is available via The New York Times, 11/9/09.

What's Wrong With Charitable Giving—and How to Fix It

2009-11-10T10:19:00.003-06:00

With the economic downturn shrinking their bottom lines, corporations are exploring numerous ways to stretch their charitable dollars. Corporate philanthropies are turning to alternatives to cash gifts, such as offering pro bono services and policy work and exploring public-private partnerships and program-related investments to further their charitable goals.

Full text article by Pablo Eisenberg is available via the Wall Street Journal, 11/9/09.

Five Trends Help to Create "Nonprofits of the Future," Report Says

2009-11-10T10:17:00.000-06:00

The nonprofit field isn’t going to simply bounce back a few years from now to the state it was in before the recession. That’s the message behind a new report by La Piana Consulting, which explores five trends that are hastening the emergence of a new nonprofit landscape.

Full text article by Caroline Prestion is available via The Chronicle of Philanthropy, 11/9/09.

Ford Foundation Commits $100-Million to Change Public Education

2009-11-09T10:15:00.000-06:00

The Ford Foundation has pledged $100-million over seven years to support efforts to improve American public education. The New York philanthropic fund said the money will go to “reformers whose visions of a just and fair public-schooling system can galvanize all the players — parents, students, teachers, and community leaders, as well as scholars and policy experts.”

Full text article by Ian Wilhelm is available via The Chronicle of Philanthropy, 11/4/09.

College Leaders Offer Blunt Advice for Campuses Hit by Hard Times

2009-11-09T10:12:00.001-06:00

Speakers at a leadership forum sponsored by the TIAA-CREF Institute called on public colleges to become more creative, efficient, and entrepreneurial. "The bigger issue is that most colleges are too concerned with trying to compete for prestige rather than serve their students and their communities," said Cal State's chancellor, Charles B. Reed.

Full text article by Goldie Blumenstyk is available via The Chronicle of Higher Education, 11/5/09.

An NAACP chapter of a different hue

2009-11-06T13:26:00.000-06:00

Benjamin Todd Jealous, who took the helm last year of the century-old civil-rights group the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, is leading efforts to expand the organization’s reach beyond its core constituency of African Americans. The NAACP, which has 2,200 chapters, now includes under its umbrella a group comprising Bangladeshi Americans in Hamtramck, Mich.; chapters in Seattle and San Jose headed by Southeast Asians; and groups in the Southwest that include Latinos and Native Americans. The Post article highlights a chapter in a Maine prison made up mostly of white men.

Full text article by Krissah Thompson is available via The Washington Post, 11/3/09.

Online Education, Growing Fast, Eyes the Truly 'Big Time'

2009-11-06T12:31:00.000-06:00

Online education is a runaway best seller. At a growth rate of 12.9 percent, online education dwarfs the overall pace of academe’s student expansion. More than 25 percent of all students may have taken at least one online class this year, according to a speculative estimate suggested at a distance-education conference that wraps up here today.

Full text of the article by Marc Parry is available via The Chronicle of Higher Education, 10/30/09.

Cargill charitable giving tops $58 million in FY2009

2009-11-05T12:22:00.000-06:00

Minneapolis-based Cargill has announced grants of more than $58 million to organizations around the world working to promote nutrition, health, education, and environmental stewardship. In response to the global financial crisis, the company donated $5.5 million for emergency hunger relief in ten countries through organizations such as Feeding America, the Salvation Army, and the Global Foodbanking Network. In addition, the company, as part of a five-year, $10 million commitment, awarded $2 million to the humanitarian organization CARE, which works to alleviate poverty in the developing world. And to help foster science, technology, engineering and math learning in Minneapolis schools, the company invested more than $3 million in two programs. "We recognize our continued success depends on the growth and health of our communities and partners," said Cargill chairman and CEO Greg Page. "We are committed to investing in communities where we live and work to promote vibrant, stable communities and growth that improves living standards."

Full text press release available via Cargill, Inc., 10/28/09.

Donor Motivations for Giving Vary With Income and Education, Report Finds

2009-11-05T12:11:00.000-06:00

According to a recent study by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, regional trends and values have less of an impact on donor motivation than income and education. Based on a survey of more than ten thousand households and funded by the Community Counseling Service, the report found that 18 percent of respondents said the most important reason for giving to charity was to help meet basic needs for other people such as food, shelter, clothing, and heat, while 17 percent said the most important reason was to make the world a better place.

Full text of this article is available via the Philanthropy News Digest, 10/27/09.

The Power of Race

2009-11-04T13:58:00.000-06:00

New research on admissions at elite colleges shows the role of affirmative action, the extent and limits of cross-racial interaction among students, and significant gaps in academic performance. Based on these findings, and the reality that some states have barred affirmative action and that the U.S. Supreme Court's blessing for consideration of race in admissions came with a 25-year time limit, the authors suggest that it's time for a massive federally supported effort, equivalent in intensity to the Manhattan Project, to determine the source of academic achievement gaps and to develop plans to shrink them.

Full text post by Scott Jaschik is available via Inside Higher Ed, 11/3/09.

Card clubs and other special interests give to Jerry Brown charities

2009-11-04T12:04:00.000-06:00

In the nearly three years since he took office, California Attorney General Jerry Brown has raised nearly $10-million for charities he oversees, including more than $100,000 from gambling establishments regulated by his office. Five Los Angeles-area “card clubs” have donated to two Bay Area charter schools that Mr. Brown founded during his tenure as mayor of Oakland. Corporate giants such as Pacific Gas & Electric, AT&T, and Wal-Mart have given $50,000 or more to the schools. Mr. Brown, a two-time Democratic presidential candidate and former California governor who is viewed as a leading candidate to reclaim his old job in next year’s state elections, said the donations have no effect on his public work, asserting, “I have an unimpeachable record of integrity.”

Full text of this article by Shane Goldmacher is available via the Los Angeles Times, 11/3/09.

Judge: State can press for disclosure of donors

2009-11-03T08:27:00.003-06:00

A Maine judge has ordered a nonprofit group to reveal the identity of donors to its effort to repeal the state’s gay-marriage law. The National Organization for Marriage, in Princeton, N.J., has contributed about $1.6-million to Stand for Marriage Maine, a political-action committee that is leading the repeal referendum. The nonprofit group went to court to challenge a state order to identify donors in accordance with Maine’s disclosure laws for ballot questions.

Full-text post by Trevor Maxwell is available via the Portland Press Herald, 10/29/09.

Lumina Foundation for Education Awards $4.5 Million to Minority-Serving Institutions

2009-11-03T08:16:00.001-06:00

The Indianapolis-based Lumina Foundation for Education has announced nine grants totaling $4.5 million to foster models of success among minority-serving institutions (MSIs). Grants were awarded to organizations working to improve the capacity of MSIs to collect, analyze, and use data to inform decisions that promote student success; create a collective voice for policy advocacy on behalf of MSIs; strengthen policy and practice to improve developmental education; increase MSIs' commitment to transparency and effectiveness in improving student learning outcomes; and increase postsecondary completion rates for traditionally underserved students, especially men of color.

Full-text post is available via Philanthropy News Digest, 11/3/09.

Volunteers screened before working with children, elderly

2009-11-02T12:53:00.003-06:00

Charities that work with children, as well as disabled and elderly people, are increasingly subjecting volunteers to criminal background checks. Checks by nonprofit groups for convictions on drug, domestic-violence, child-abuse, or sex-crime charges have risen steadily since enactment of the National Child Protection Act in 1993. The measure was amended five years later to enable charities and businesses to use national fingerprint databases to screen volunteers. Several states have followed suit, with Minnesota last year making such checks mandatory for organizations that work with vulnerable clients.

Full-text post by Jeff Schweers is available via USA Today, 11/1/09.

Paychecks Top More Than $1-Million for 23 Private-College Presidents

2009-11-02T12:35:00.001-06:00

Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the highest-paid private-college leader in this year's survey, joins 22 other private-college presidents with compensation above $1-million, according to an annual survey of the compensation packages of private-college chiefs (a companion survey of public-college presidents will be released in January). A total of 110 presidents of the 419 private colleges included in the analysis reported total compensation of more than $500,000.

Full-text post by Emma L. Carew and Paul Fain is available via The Chronicle of Higher Education, 11/1/09.

Fresh Surge of Flu Cases and Vaccine Shortages Raise Anxiety on Campuses

2009-10-30T13:54:00.000-05:00

College campuses experienced a surge in flu cases last week just as vaccine shortages and delays were forcing many to postpone scheduled shot clinics, the American College Health Association reported on Wednesday. Some of the increases in what the association called "influenza-like illnesses"—widely thought to be the H1N1, popularly called swine flu—occurred in regions that had seemed to be recovering from severe outbreaks earlier this fall. The unexpected rebounds in the Southeast, Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, and Northeast have some health experts worried that the holiday season might bring some colleges a double dose of illness.

Full-text post by Katherine Mangan is available via The Chronicle of Higher Education, 10/28/09.

Green Offshoots

2009-10-30T13:50:00.000-05:00

A small but growing number of environmental nonprofit organizations are establishing for-profit businesses to pursue their agendas and build a green-economy work force. Commercial ventures such as SmartRoofs, a spin-off of the nonprofit group Sustainable South Bronx, also generate revenue for the parent organizations, potentially reducing their dependence on foundations, individual donors, and government grants. Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins of Green for All, a national group working to develop environmentally friendly economic opportunities in poor areas, called such enterprises “early adopters” that are “paving the way for mainstream business to integrate the concept of green jobs into everyday practices.”

Full-text post by Liz Galst is available via The New York Times, 10/28/09.

Charitable Giving for U.S. Health Care Rises a Tepid $241 Million in 2008, While Canadian Charitable Giving Plunges 13 Percent, Association for Health

2009-10-29T12:30:00.001-05:00

Charitable donations to benefit U.S. health care grew by $241-million, to $8.6-billion, in 2008, a 2.9 percent growth. In Canada health-care giving plummeted by nearly 13 percent, to just under $1.1-billion. The slight bump in U.S. medical giving resulted from most nonprofit hospitals and health-care systems closing their books before the recession hit with full force in the final quarter of 2008, the association reported. Institutions that closed at end of the calendar year reported a 0.2 percent fund-raising dip.

Full-text post by Kathy Renzetti is available via the New York Post, 10/26/09.

Doing the Most Good, Digitally

2009-10-29T12:24:00.002-05:00

In this age of instant communication online, a lot of money could be saved and organizations can be far more efficient and get much broader distribution by going 100 percent to a virtual annual report. A need to transition the Salvation Army's annual report to digital-only occurred to Maj. George Hood, the organization's national community relations and development secretary, and he discusses a downloadable annual report on the organization's Web site — basically a printable version of the mailed annual report.

Full-text post by Abny Santicola is available via Fundraising Success, 10/27/09.

Billionaire Aids Charity That Aided Him

2009-10-28T13:18:00.001-05:00

Sergey Brin, the Russian-born co-founder of Google, has donated $1-million to the Jewish organization most responsible for his childhood immigration to the United States. The gift to the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society was the largest of several Mr. Brin gave to groups that assisted his family’s move from the Soviet Union 30 years ago, when he was 6. The aid society helped the Brins apply for visas, paid for transport, and gave them money as they moved from Russia to Paris to Maryland. “I would have never had the kinds of opportunities I’ve had here in the Soviet Union, or even in Russia today,” said Mr. Brin, who in recent months has publicly discussed giving away more of his estimated $16-billion fortune. “I would like to see anyone be able to achieve their dreams, and that’s what this organization does.”

Full-text post by Stephanie Strom is available via The New York Times, 10/24/09.

U. of Phoenix Expects to Spend Up to $80.5-Million in Settling Whistle-Blower Case

2009-10-28T12:30:00.001-05:00

The parent company of the University of Phoenix expects to spend no more than $80.5-million to settle a contentious six-year-old whistle-blower lawsuit filed by two former admissions counselors, the company announced on Tuesday. While the amount could be a record settlement for an institution of higher education, the sum is far smaller than the $1.5-billion that the parties had hoped to collect for themselves and the federal government after accusing Phoenix of obtaining federal student-aid funds under false pretenses.

Full-text post by Goldie Blumenstyk is available via The Chronicle of Higher Education, 10/27/09.

Cuomo's pay-to-play rap for nonprofits

2009-10-27T11:50:00.001-05:00

Dozens of New York State charities have been ordered by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to take back illegal political contributions or risk losing their tax-exempt status. A spokesman for Mr. Cuomo’s office said an investigation found “widespread” donations by nonprofit groups to candidates and officeholders, including state legislators and New York City Council members, in violation of federal and state law. Many of the groups reportedly received government grants arranged by the politicians they supported.

Full-text post by Fredric Dicker and Sally Goldenberg is available via the New York Post, 10/23/09.

Presidents Favor Reining In Athletics Costs but Feel Powerless to Effect Change

2009-10-27T11:42:00.001-05:00

A majority of college presidents at the nation's largest athletics programs favor sweeping change to contain the escalating costs associated with big-time college sports, but are hard-pressed to identify an entity that can achieve it. Those are among the key findings of a new report on the financing of major-college athletics programs that was issued on Monday by the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics. The report was based on a survey of 95 college presidents in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's most competitive grouping and was conducted last spring. The report also includes comments based on interviews with nearly a quarter of the campus leaders surveyed.

Full-text post by Libby Sander is available via The Chronicle of Higher Education, 10/26/09.

Carnegie Medals Recognize Catalysts for Giving

2009-10-26T11:39:00.001-05:00

This week, the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy was awarded to outstanding individual philanthropists and family foundations who have embodied Andrew Carnegie's ideals. Drawing parallels to the Nobel Prize in honoring individual contributions to society, the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy recognizes individuals who live in the same spirit as Andrew Carnegie: “private wealth for the public good.”

Full-text post by Susan Carey Dempsey is available via onPhilanthropy, 10/23/09.