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Monthly Archives: November 2012
November 27, 2012, 6:00 am
Why Donors Give
Anybody can eavesdrop on a conversation with the nation’s most prominent donors by watching a series of new video interviews that feature Eli Broad, Melinda Gates, Ted Turner, and about 50 other prominent philanthropists.
The interviews were conducted by the Bridgespan Group to help donors learn from one another. But the videos are also helpful for fundraising and charity executives who want to figure out what makes wealthy people give big.
For example, Eli Broad applies three key questions to the “philanthropic investments” he makes: “Would it happen anyway? If it’s going to happen anyway, we don’t make the investment,” he says in a video clip. “Two, will it make a difference 20 or 30 years from now? And lastly, is talent leadership there that can really make it happen? … If the answer to any one of those is no, we don’t do it.”
The videos are part of Bridgepan’s Give Smart…
November 15, 2012, 9:50 am
Campaign Begins to Help Legal Immigrants Become U.S. Citizens
A group of more than 80 grant makers, nonprofits, and businesses has created a network to help legal immigrants living in the United States become citizens.
The New Americans Campaign will aim to use $20-million donated by multiple foundations to make it easier for people to become full-fledged Americans. Currently, barriers prevent the vast majority of the nation’s 8 million legal immigrants from becoming naturalized. Only 8 percent of those eligible each year do so, the campaign reports.
Applying for citizenship costs $680—too much for many immigrants. The lengthy, labyrinthine path to citizenship can take two years to complete, dissuading many from trying. Many who do fall prey to fraudulent operators who take their money but offer little in legal services in return.
“The goal of the campaign is to allow those who want to take that last step toward citizenship navigate the …
November 5, 2012, 10:42 am
Bloomberg Philanthropies Aims to Spur Innovation in City Governments
Bloomberg Philanthropies announced today the 20 finalists for a competition designed to spark innovation among U.S. cities.
The 20 finalists—including High Point, N.C., for a plan to adapt a nonprofit gang-violence program to reduce domestic abuse; Philadelphia’s proposal to “re-imagine” the government grant-making process; and Milwaukee’s ideas for using foreclosed property—will attend an “ideas camp” in New York later this month to share their ideas and help them take shape.
“We want to identify the best thinking and most creative solutions percolating up from across the country, elevate the solutions, and ultimately help them spread,” said Jim Anderson, who leads the foundation’s government-innovation work.
The cities are competing for a $5-million top prize and four runner-up awards of $1-million each. Winners will be announced this spring.
Mr. Anderson said 305…
November 2, 2012, 5:24 pm
Multiyear Grants From Foundations Have Been Dropping Sharply
In a new analysis of grants by more than 1,400 foundations, the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy found that multiyear grants to charities dropped by $2.2-billion, or 32 percent, from 2008 to 2010.
Multiyear grants peaked in 2008 at a total of $6.9-billion. But in 2009, they declined by 21 percent, to $5.5-billion. They dropped again in 2010 to $4.7-billion.
When the nation’s largest grant maker, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is excluded from the analysis, the 2009 decrease is even bigger—33 percent. That year, the Gates foundation gave away $2.9-billion in multiyear grants—more than half of the overall total.
In multiyear grant making, Gates is unusual indeed: Over all, 90 percent of foundations in the study did not report or make any multiyear grants from 2004 to 2010.
“Clearly multiyear grants are difficult for nonprofits to find,” the…
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