- With two British bank CEO’s reported to be donating their annual bonuses, for a combined amount of $9.1-million, more financial executives should consider giving to charity, writes Martin Brookes, chief executive of New Philanthropy Capital. His views appear on the Web site of The Guardian newspaper.
- Lawmakers should close the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the National Endowment for the Arts, says Shikha Dalmia, a senior analyst at the Reason Foundation. In Reason Magazine, she says the two government programs have outlived their usefulness, and their support could be supplanted by private giving.
- John Brothers, an adjunct professor at New York University’s Wagner School for Public Service, writes about “third-sector grit”—courage in the face of hardship in helping nonprofit groups fulfill their mission—on the Stanford Social Innovation Review blog.
- As members of Congress look to trim federal spending, they should continue to support the long-running Reading Is Fundamental literacy program, says Matt Blum, who writes the Wired magazine blog GeekDad. He says millions of kids would be hurt if the nonprofit effort received less in government funds.
- Kerri Feazell, co-founder of a new social-entrepreneurship organization called Project Lace, writes about a recent discussion on prize-based philanthropy with Jaison Morgan, former director of the X Prize Foundation. She says that Mr. Morgan wants to rethink how philanthropic competitions are conducted: “Imagine if a prize was awarded not to an organization that got the most votes — but to the one that demonstrated it could get the most people off the streets for good.”
