Philanthropy Today - Philanthropy.com

November 19, 2009

Tufts President Criticizes Top Schools' Investment Strategies

Saying he believes there is a “pretty high correlation” between the size of U.S. college endowments and the riskiness of their financial strategies, Tufts University’s president, Lawrence Bacow, told Bloomberg that higher education institutions should look to reduce their stakes in alternative investments such as hedge funds and private equity.

Such risky investments sent assets at Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and other well-endowed institutions plummeting in the past year, leading to disruptive cost cuts at schools where endowments covered as much as 49 percent of operating budgets.

Mr. Bacow said Tufts’s endowment, which lost 25 percent of its value in the year ending June 30, will contribute only 10 percent of the schools operating costs this year and that there “are investments we will not make” in the wake of the financial crisis.

Downturn Taking Toll on Silicon Valley Giving

The economic downturn has taken a significant bite out of giving by Silicon Valley’s wealthy technology moguls, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Grants from donor-advised funds managed by the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, whose clients include Yahoo’s former chief executive, Tim Koogle, and E*Trade’s co-founder, Bernie Newcomb, totaled $46.2-million in the first eight months of the year. That’s a significant decrease from 2008 ($168-million for the year) and 2007 ($117.7-million). Assets in the foundation’s funds have declined from $997.5-million at the end of 2007 to the current $721.1-million.

Urban League Offers Small-Business Loans

The National Urban League is rolling out a program to provide loans aimed at spurring small businesses in areas with high concentrations of minority-owned firms to expand their hiring, reports the Associated Press.

The civil-rights organization is teaming up with On Deck Capital, a specialist in small-business borrowing, to offer loans of $5,000 to $100,000. The effort will debut in Philadelphia and Los Angeles before expanding across the country.

In the Arts: Tampa Performance Center Renamed for Record Donor

The Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center has been renamed for an area banker and philanthropist, David A. Straz Jr., in honor of what is being billed as the largest-ever gift for a Tampa Bay cultural facility, says the St. Petersburg Times.

The amount of the gift from Mr. Straz’s foundation was not disclosed, but it reportedly could be as much as $25-million, five times the previous record for a local arts institution, the paper says.

In other arts news, ground was broken Wednesday on the $185-million Perot Museum of Nature and Science, in Dallas, radio station KERA reports. Ross Perot Jr., son of the billionaire financier and former presidential candidate, contributed $50-million to the project.

And Washington, D.C.‘s experimental Catalyst Theater is shutting down in the face of debt arising from its move last year to a much larger performance space, according to The Washington Post.

(Free registration is required to view the Post article.)

N.Y. Public Library Leader Sets Departure Date

New York Public Library’s president, Paul LeClerc, announced Wednesday that he will step down in the summer of 2011, writes The New York Times.

Appointed in 1993, Mr. LeClerc is the longest-serving leader of the New York system, one of the world’s largest libraries. A scholar of French literature and the former president of Hunter College, he guided the library — which did not have a Web site when he took office — into the Internet age.

(Free registration is required to view this article.)

Local School Boards Vote to Join Gates Effort

School boards in Memphis, Pittsburgh, and Hillsborough County, Fla., voted this week to take part in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s national $500-million program to improve teacher effectiveness, according to press reports.

Hillsborough County, which includes Tampa and is the country’s eighth-largest school district, will get $100-million, the biggest of the grants announced so far. Memphis and Pittsburgh will receive $90-million and $40-million, respectively, with a consortium of Los Angeles charter schools due to get an as-yet-undisclosed amount.

GiveMN Blitz Brings in $14-Million for Minnesota Nonprofit Groups

The initial fund drive by a new Minnesota e-giving site took in some $14-million in 24 hours, far exceeding organizers’ expectations, reports the Pioneer Press.

Donors gave to more than 3,100 nonprofit organizations during the “Give to the Max Day,” which was organized by GiveMN, an electronic philanthropy site started earlier this month by the Minnesota Foundation. Charities across the state publicized the event — which ended at 8 a.m. Wednesday — via Twitter, Facebook, and e-mail.

Organizers had hoped to double the $3.8-million raised at a Dallas-area community-giving day in May. The final tally “literally blew us out of the water,” said Dana Nelson, GiveMN’s executive director.

Give and Take: Oxfam Ad Takes Unusual Approach

To promote giving during the holiday season, Oxfam America has produced a slightly bawdy, but funny, video, notes Give and Take. With a nod to the censored word, Oxfam suggests viewers donate $12, which will provide manure to impoverished farmers overseas.

Plus:

Why Goldman Sachs’s $500-million pledge won’t “quell public anger.”

Luis Ubiñas, president of the Ford Foundation, responds to The Wall Street Journal.

A call for fewer international aid groups

The significance of a one-day, $14-million online campaign.

An appeal for greater trust between donors and grantees.

Prospecting: Public Radio Station Raises Money -- for Another Group

Colorado Public Radio plans to hold a three-day fund-raising drive the week after Thanksgiving — but the beneficiary will be the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, The Chronicle’s Prospecting column notes.

Online Discussion: Getting Good News Coverage

Join us Tuesday, December 1, at noon Eastern time for an online discussion to learn how your organization can help generate headlines that spread the message about its work and get the attention of prospective donors, volunteers, and clients.

The Chronicle’s online discussions are free and open to everyone. People who ask questions in advance have a better chance of getting answers.

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