- What is the 2010 legislative agenda of the Council on Foundations? Based on e-mail correspondence with the council, Mitch Nauffts, of the Foundation Center’s Philanthropy News Digest, says it includes efforts to expand and extend the IRA charitable rollover, maintain current law on the charitable deduction, and reinstate the estate tax. The coalition is also hoping to get federal legislation that would encourage grant makers to make program-related investments.
- Writing on the eJewish Philanthropy blog, Stephen G. Donshik, a lecturer at Hebrew University, gives advice on how charities can handle personality conflicts among employees.
- Does the marketing of philanthropy advisers as “generosity coaches” have legs? Robert Frank, who writes The Wall Street Journal‘s Wealth Report, explores that question.
- Over the past year, Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund has experienced a 20 percent increase in assets from the previous year and a 9 percent increase in grant making. Rick Cohen, national correspondent with the Nonprofit Quarterly, discusses Fidelity’s track record during an interview with Fidelity Charitable Fund’s chief executive, Sarah Libbey.
- In the three weeks following the earthquake in Haiti, nonprofit groups made more than 800 requests about mobile giving, writes George Weiner, of the Huffington Post. He added that traffic to MobileGiving.org is up and inquiries to the foundation that runs it have skyrocketed.
- The Millennium Villages Project — a high-profile antipoverty program in Africa led by the Columbia University economist Jeffrey Sachs — is “not being as carefully evaluated as it should be,” argues Michael Clemens, a research fellow at the Center for Global Development.
