November 12, 2009

About Gifts and Giving

SOMEWHAT LIKE A STOCK MARKET, the Social Impact Exchange, a new online forum, allows grant makers and donors to invest in high-performing charities with plans for major expansion.

LITTLE GIFTS ADD UP, and fund raisers neglect such donations at their peril, says Wendy Smith, the author of a new book on the cumulative impact of modest giving.

OVER-60 ENTREPRENEURS and charity leaders who work to support youthful caregivers, provide Internet access to schools, and promote other causes have won this year's Purpose Prizes.

BILL AND MELINDA GATES have started a campaign to publicize the generally unacknowledged success of U.S. foreign aid in curbing child deaths in poor parts of the world.

A SINGLE HISPANIC NEIGHBORHOOD IN DALLAS is the beneficiary of an array of coordinated education programs for parents and very young children, all with the aim of increasing the vocabulary of kindergarteners (Innovations).

THE FLORIDA MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY has received a cash gift and a collection of some two million butterfly and moth specimens together worth about $41-million.

THE FACE OF PHILANTHROPY: Medals4Mettle enlists athletes to give medals won in competition to cancer patients who are fighting to survive.

EMERGENCY GRANTS FOUNDATIONS and corporations have made due to the economic downturn.

About Fund Raising

MORE THAN 70 PERCENT OF CHURCHES in a new study raised as much or more money in the first half of this year as they did in the same period in 2008.

GIVING TO HOSPITALS and health-care organizations rose much more slowly in 2008 than the previous year, and at many places actually declined, according to a new survey.

MEN WHO SUPPORT CHARITIES are about as likely to make a charitable bequest as women are, a new study has found, somewhat undercutting the conventional wisdom about gender differences in giving.

AT FIDELITY CHARITABLE GIFT FUND, giving to donor-advised funds in the last quarter was stronger than it had been earlier this year.

MERCY CORPS has harnessed the interest of book clubs, as well as the message of a new book, Half the Sky, about improving the status of women worldwide, to help propel its anti-hunger campaign.

A HOUSING CHARITY that reclaimed a dilapidated New York hotel to provide residences for poor people with AIDS now brings in $300,000 a year by renting out the hotel's restored ballroom.

About Managing Nonprofit Groups

THE RECESSION forced painful changes at most nonprofit groups, but have charities done enough to weather what could be an even more difficult recovery? Many experts say no.

LEADING A CHARITY successfully through the economic crisis will require changes more radical than pay cuts and furloughs, as many nonprofit executives are coming to understand.

AN EXTRA DAY OFF during the summer weeks made pay cuts at the Sarasota Orchestra, in Florida, a little easier for musicians and other employees to swallow.

STATE BUDGET CUTS in Illinois prompted two Chicago-area organizations to set up a database to track funding for social services, in the hope that donors and grant makers will be better able to fill the gaps.

A MANHATTAN THEATER borrowed ideas from farmers in upstate New York to garner community support for the development of its new production.

A BOSTON CHARITY that works with homeless people transferred a jobs program for its clients to another nonprofit group, saving it some $170,000.

NONPROFIT GROUPS in Washington can save money on administrative expenses through "an office in a box."

CASH-STRAPPED CHARITIES in Los Angeles can get loans and financial advice from a new program started by a group of foundations seeking to help nonprofit groups avoid the dangers of long-term debt.

TO COMBAT THE STRESS of seeing their organizations through the recession, charity executives have devised some creative ways to keep their leadership fresh and their employees motivated.

BOOKS AND ARTICLES to help nonprofit leaders navigate the turbulent economy.

PROVIDING RETIREMENT BENEFITS to employees has become a struggle for many nonprofit organizations, according to a new survey, but a bill recently introduced in Congress may provide some small relief.

HOLLYWOOD'S CAMPAIGN to promote volunteerism through messages and plot lines on more than 100 television programs in October got mixed reviews from the critics.

LOW-PROFIT LIMITED-LIABILITY COMPANIES, or L3Cs, are a new kind of business and charity hybrid--a for-profit enterprise with a charitable mission.

SOME PRACTICES OF THE VERY WEALTHY are about to come under the scrutiny of the Internal Revenue Service in an effort by the agency to curb the use of complex financial arrangements to avoid paying taxes.

LAYOFFS AND CUTBACKS nonprofit groups have made due to the economy.

PEOPLE: Appointments and promotions in the nonprofit world.

About Technology

AS A WAY TO WIN SUPPORT for charities, social-networking technologies such as Facebook and Twitter have proved to be a bust, a new study suggests.

MOST RESPONDENTS to a recent survey said that new-media technologies such as blogs, online games, and message boards had raised their awareness of charitable causes, but few had used such means to make a donation.

A MEMPHIS ARTS GROUP has created an iPhone application that makes its listings of cultural events available to users of the cellphone.

About Careers in the Nonprofit World

MOST NONPROFIT EMPLOYERS cut jobs between mid-2008 and mid-2009, according to a new Chronicle survey, but 19 percent of those who responded expect to hire again in 2010.

RICHARD MOE leaves the presidency of the National Trust for Historic Preservation having seen its budget double in his 17 years there (Exit Interview).

Also in This Issue

Opinion: Larry Ottinger on the need for charities to engage in political action; Robert Campbell, Peter Goldberg, and Dennis Richardson on smarter approaches to financing social services; Pat Nichols on how to weather the economic recovery, now that the recession appears to be easing; Shifra Bronznick and Didi Goldenhar on the persistent gender gap in nonprofit leadership; and Sean Stannard-Stockton on philanthropy's entry into the strange new world of Twitter.

Letters: Criticizing The Chronicle's survey of executive compensation, and questioning new legislation governing the management of endowments.