Private efforts to solve the problems faced by rural America could benefit from some help from government and large national foundations — and from patience that would allow rural community foundations to build up their endowments, writes Robert Thalhimer, on the Philanthromedia blog, in the wake of this month’s conference on rural philanthropy.

“Government is increasingly pressuring philanthropy to spend out its dollars rather than build endowments,” writes Mr. Thalhimer. “But pressuring nonprofits to spend down their endowments would rob rural areas of the ability to eventually build an asset base through which they can address their own issues with reduced outside help.”

Because so much of philanthropic giving is dependent upon bequests, and because the assets of rural Americans are often held in land rather than in liquid accounts, he writes, “building endowments in rural areas...

More presidential candidates appear to be ready for their turn on the hot seat in the Nonprofit Congress’ Nonprofit Primary Project, according to Rosetta Thurman of the Perspectives from the Pipeline blog.

The effort by Nonprofit Congress (a program of the National Council of Nonprofit Associations) is designed to give nonprofit leaders a chance to directly question people running for the nation’s highest office.

Invitations have been extended to all major declared candidates.

Ms. Thurman, who is keen on the primary’s potential to raise the nonprofit world’s profile with lawmakers, writes, “The best outcome, which is indeed a long-term one, is that more public officials understand the impact, contributions, and expertise of the nonprofit sector in improving communities, causing more public support of nonprofits and more influence in the policy process.”

—Heather Joslyn

Recent admissions by private foundations about difficult experiences with the grants they’ve made represent a refreshing burst of candor — and a chance for all grant makers to learn from each other, writes Diana R. Sieger, president of the Grand Rapids Community Foundation, in Mich., on her blog.

“I have been a big proponent of the fact that when a program does not produce the results that were planned from the beginning, that isn’t necessarily failure,” writes Ms. Sieger. “It is information that we can use to revise plans — start over — or just make sure that in the future when armed with better information, we can chart a course that has a chance of working.”

Ms. Sieger directs readers to an opinion article in the current issue of The Chronicle, written by Paul Brest, president of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and James E. Canales, president of the James Irvine...

Food banks, attempting to keep their shelves stocked as donations from manufacturers and retailers decline nationwide, are raising money to buy more food —and are at risk of “losing their business model at best, and shifting it at worst,” writes Carla E. Dearing in the PhilanthroMedia blog.

Ms. Dearing, chief executive of Community Foundations of America, cites a May article in The Wall Street Journal, which reported that “…food banks are seeking ways to raise money to buy more food. They are also looking for new types of food, including perishables. Some food banks are hiring trucks to pick up food directly from farms.”

The situation “sounds like prime territory for a series of social business enterprises between the food banks and the big retailers to me,” writes Ms. Dearing, who adds, “Granted, this is an easy enough call from the armchair, I hope the experts will weigh in.”

As the Nonprofit 2020: Issues and Answers from the Next Generation conference begins today in Grand Rapids, Mich., Rosetta Thurman of the blog Perspectives from the Pipeline cautions the nonprofit world to recognize the challenges it faces in recruiting and nurturing young nonprofit professionals like herself.

Citing what she calls “some pretty fundamental leadership deficits in the nonprofit sector,” Ms. Thurman, director of development and finance at the Nonprofit Roundtable of Greater Washington, writes about the need for greater professionalism at the executive level.

A discussion of this topic this month with Kathleen Enright, Executive Director of Grantmakers for Effective Organizations at a DC Young Nonprofit Professionals Network meeting, Ms. Thurman writes, left her unsatisfied, she writes.

Ms. Enright said that she believed the coming generational shift at the top...

The new study of volunteering rates in U.S. cities by the Corporation for National and Community Service contains some surprises — and a strong indictment of the toll taken on American society by geographic sprawl and a shortage of affordable housing, writes Tiziana Dearing in the PhilanthroMedia blog.

Ms. Dearing writes of being surprised by the strong showing by Minneapolis/St. Paul, which racked up the survey’s highest rate of volunteerism (40.5 percent) and also by Las Vegas’s bottom-rung ranking. Only 14.5 percent of the Nevada city’s residents volunteer, according to the survey, despite the city’s 64 percent population growth from 1990 to 1999.

The correlation between high commute time and decreased volunteering struck Ms. Dearing as noteworthy. “Those of us who live in major urban centers with sprawl and difficult commutes (I live in Boston) could have told you that...

Nonprofit groups undergoing leadership transitions would be best served by tapping an outsider as their interim chief executives, writes Ken Goldstein, a freelance grant-proposal writer, on his Nonprofit Consultant Blog. Relying on an outsider, he writes, diminishes the likelihood of stirring up internal resentments once a permanent leader is chosen.

Mr. Goldstein, who reports that he is currently serving his third stint as a temporary nonprofit chief, recounts an example of one organization with which he is acquainted that promoted a staff member to the interim post — and then chose an outsider for the permanent position.

“The interim was demoralized to return to her staff position after being in the leadership post for nearly six months (and having been praised for her performance),” Mr. Goldstein writes. “She considered it a slap in the face, and so did many of the other staff. ...

Relatives who plan to give money would benefit from crafting a family charitable mission statement, writes Robert Thalhimer on the Philanthromedia blog.

The chief value of such mission statements, Mr. Thalhimer writes, is to set a benchmark to measure the family’s philanthropy against.

Mr. Thalhimer, senior vice president for advancement at the Community Foundation Serving Richmond and Virginia, notes that writing a mission statement enables donors to more easily judge the merits of requests for support.

As time passes, he writes, it also provides a reference point to measure the success of the mission, within the family’s...

When Diana R. Sieger, president of the Grand Rapids Community Foundation, in Michigan, took the helm of the organization 20 years ago, the line between public and private support for charitable endeavors was more clearly drawn, she writes in her President’s Point of View blog. “It was 1987 and while public/private partnerships were being touted, actual examples were still hard to come by,” she writes.

This year, however, a local project to open all the city swimming pools, which had been in danger of closing due to a loss of government funds, drew significant support from foundations, corporations, and individuals, she writes. It’s “a good story,” Ms. Sieger writes, “ but the story continues and where it goes is anybody’s guess.”

In 2005, her organization gave more than $345,000 to build, renovate, and supply libraries connected to elementary schools of the Grand Rapids Public...