December 2008
December 31, 2008
Service Coalitions Propose 'Nonprofit Stimulus Package'
Several coalitions of groups promoting community and national service are urging President-elect Obama and Congress to include a “nonprofit stimulus package” as part of the economic-recovery plan they are drafting.
The package should include money to expand national-service programs and support nonprofit groups that are providing “vital” services in areas like education, youth development, poverty alleviation, and the environment, they say in a letter they are circulating to get more signatures.
“We believe that service and the nonprofit sector have a vital role to play in the nation’s short- and long-term economic recovery and urge you to make significant strategic investments in these two areas as part of the economic stimulus package,” it says.
The proposals were drafted by the coalitions America Forward, ServiceNation, and Voices for National Service. The e-mail seeking additional signatures says representatives of the groups are meeting with the Obama transition team next Monday.
The letter, addressed to President-elect Barack Obama and Congressional leaders, says nonprofit groups are threatened by “debilitating job losses due to shrinking revenue” while also facing increased demand for their services.
It says the economic-recovery plan should include proposals to expand national-service programs like AmeriCorps, and to create new ones, that Mr. Obama has already put forward and that are included in the proposed Serve America Act, S. 3487. Those would create more than 125,000 new full-time and part-time jobs by summer 2009, and an additional 50,000 new jobs the following year, the letter says.
That would “provide a critical, low-cost workforce for the nonprofit sector during challenging economic times, while leveraging hundreds of millions of dollars in private matching funds,” the letter says.
The package should also create a “nonprofit stimulus fund” patterned after Mr. Obama’s campaign pledge to create a Social Investment Fund Network, which would distribute government and private money to innovative charities working on projects that cities have identified as important, it adds.
The letter is signed by executives at a variety of nonprofit groups involved in the service coalitions, including America’s Promise Alliance, Be the Change, Citizen Schools, City Year, Civic Enterprises, and the Points of Light Institute. Joel Fleishman, professor of law and public policy, and Edward Skloot, director of the Center for Strategic Philanthropy and Civil Society, both at Duke University, have also signed it.
Foundation Sponsors Contest To Win Tickets to Inauguration
Want to win a trip to Barack Obama’s inauguration?
“The Change Begins with Me” contest, which is sponsored by the Case Foundation, will award a good Samaritan airfare, three-nights in a hotel room, and tickets to inaugural festivities next month in Washington.
On Case’s Web site, the foundation is asking people to enter the contest by describing their charitable commitments and how they help others.
“As we usher in this exciting new era of change we recognize that everyone has a part to play. So, how will YOU commit to bringing about change in your neighborhood, your community or your nation?” it asks on the Web site.
Earlier this year, Case offered a Social-Citizen Makeover contest.
Is there a philanthropist, charity leader, or friend you would nominate to win the prize? Click on the comment button below to share your ideas.
Groups Seek to Raise Cap on Retirement-Account Gifts
Earlier this year, Congress passed a set of tax laws that extended a beneficial provision for nonprofit organizations. Individuals more than 70 1/2 years old could contribute up to $100,000 of their Individual Retirement Account savings to charity without incurring taxes.
But some charity leaders worry that another recent law may discourage such donations. The Worker, Retiree and Employer Recovery Act of 2008 waives a requirement for IRA holders to accept a minimum distribution from their savings — a move aimed at preventing retirees from paying a tax penalty on IRAs decimated by declining stock values.
In a letter to Congressional leaders from the American Council on Gift Annuities and the National Committee on Planned Giving, the two groups called on Congress to increase or remove the $100,000 cap on charitable donations from IRAs.
They proposed instead to allow “life-income” donations to charities from IRAs — meaning retirees would be able to designate an amount of their savings that goes to a charity in return for a fixed amount of annual income. Such plans are already available for donors, but not when using IRA funds.
The nonprofit associations call their plans an “all-win” scenario: Charities could see increased donations from the measure and the federal government would get to collect taxes on the income distributions paid back to donors from their gifts.
— Eric Kelderman
December 26, 2008
Obama Economic-Stimulus Plan Could Fight Poverty
As President-elect Barack Obama develops his multibillion-dollar plan to stimulate the economy, nonprofit leaders should push federal, state, and local governments to use the money to pay for construction projects that help the poor, writes Angela Glover Blackwell, an anti-poverty activist.
Mr. Obama has proposed spending upwards of $300-billion to improve American roads and infrastructure; he says his proposal would create jobs and fight the country’s economic recession.
Ms. Blackwell, chief executive and founder of PolicyLink, a nonprofit group in Oakland, Calif., writes that the plan — if put together wisely — “could be one of the most successful anti-poverty programs the nation has ever seen.”
“First off, we must stop building more and wider roads out to far-flung exurbs. Instead, we need to fix the bridges, transit systems and roads we already have — especially those in low-income communities that have long been ignored in infrastructure spending,” she writes on The Huffington Post.
She also suggests that the incoming administration expand public-transit systems, build broadband communications in poor areas, and construct grocery stores in economically struggling neighborhoods.
During a meeting of large foundations this month, an expert on urban planning also encouraged philanthropies to make sure that infrastructure spending helped the needy.
What do you think? How can Mr. Obama’s stimulus package benefit poor neighborhoods? Click on the comments button to share your thoughts.
December 22, 2008
IRS Announces Hearing on Record-Keeping Rules for Charities
The Internal Revenue Service announced today that it will hold a public hearing on January 23 on proposed rules to make sure donors keep proper records to prove they made gifts of cash and property to charities.
The IRS published the proposed regulations last summer to explain how the government plans to enforce recent laws that included provisions designed to cut down on abuses by donors and charities.
Members of the public who want to speak at the hearing in Washington must have submitted written comments about the proposed rules to the IRS by a November 5 deadline and must provide outlines of the topics they want to address at the hearing no later than tomorrow, December 23.
The proposed regulations were published in the August 7 Federal Register and are available online.
For more information, including instructions on how to attend the hearing, see IRS Announcement 2008-122 in Internal Revenue Bulletin 2008-51.
Obama Urged to Push Programs for Nonprofit Groups
The National Council of Nonprofits, in Washington, today asked President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team to take steps to help nonprofit organizations weather the widening recession.
The organization, which worked during the 2008 campaign to push the major-party candidates to discuss key nonprofit issues, said today that the recession has pushed many charities to the brink of extinction at a time when they are most needed.
As a result, the group has recommended the new administration:
- Create a proposed Social Entrepreneurship Agency for Nonprofits.
- Provide budget relief for state and local governments to prevent state and local budget cuts that would hurt nonprofit organizations.
- Start a Community Services Protection Fund that would provide money to nonprofit organizations that are performing services that have traditionally been performed or paid for by the government.
- increase the federal tax deduction for volunteers who use their own cars, trucks, and other vehicles for their charitable work to mirror the standard deduction given to those who drive their cars for business.
The moves would help nonprofit organizations provide key services at a time when demand for those services is increasingly rapidly, the National Council of Nonprofits said in its recommendations.
“The nonprofit sector remains committed to providing as much relief as possible to those in need,” the report said. “However, despite the purest intentions and the strongest dedication, community nonprofits cannot continue to do so much more with so much less for very much longer.”
What do you think are the most pressing federal priorities for nonprofit organizations? Should Mr. Obama’s administration be focusing their efforts on improving conditions for nonprofit groups in the current economic environment?
Click on the comments link below this post to share your thoughts.
December 16, 2008
President Bush Focuses on Social Needs in Final Days
With little more than a month left in office, President Bush is showing more of his “sensitive side” and frequently discussing the importance of helping needy people, reports The Washington Post.
Mr. Bush discussed addiction-treatment efforts during his weekly radio address Saturday, the newspaper noted, and has recently promoted his anti-AIDS work in Africa, and met with children whose mother or father is in prison, during which “he extolled the virtue of loving those who are less fortunate.”
Political observers quoted in the article differed on why in his waning days he was focusing on assisting others and social problems.
A former White House aide said the president was reiterating his role as a “compassionate conservative,” which was key to why he ran for office. But an official at the Brookings Institution, a think tank, said the president’s rhetoric did not match his actions and that he is merely being “wistful.”
What do you think Mr. Bush’s legacy will be in regards to helping the needy? Click on the comments button to share your views.
December 15, 2008
Obama Housing Nominee Praised by Charity Leaders
Several nonprofit and government officials are applauding Barack Obama’s pick to lead the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department in part because of his willingness to work with charities.
Mr. Obama on Saturday named Shaun Donovan, currently the head of New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, as his nominee for the federal-housing agency, saying that it will play a key role in the mortgage crisis, reports the Los Angeles Times.
One of his accomplishments in New York was creating a $200-million fund with foundations and financial institutions to help small commericial developers and nonprofit groups build and preserve affordable-housing units.
“He has moved our focus beyond the old public sector-driven solutions by giving the starring role to the private and nonprofit sectors,” New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg told the Associated Press.
“I think he’s going to take HUD to another level,” Abby Jo Sigal, vice president of the Enterprise Community Partners, an affordable-housing group in Columbia, Md., told the news wire.
Sheila Crowley, president of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, told The Huffington Post that Mr. Donovan “enjoys high regard across the spectrum of housing interests, from low-income housing and homeless advocates, public officials, developers, and financiers alike.”
What do you think of Mr. Donovan? What can the federal housing agency do to solve the current mortgage crisis? Click on the comments link below to share your views.
American Students Need a Global Education, Charities Tell Obama
Amid growing concern that American students lack the skills to succeed in a global work force, a group of charities is urging President-elect Barack Obama to help schools prepare young people for a world in which U.S. businesses and governments are less isolated from, and more dependent on, other nations.
Led by the Asia Society, the group of charities is calling on Mr. Obama to improve teaching of other cultures and economies, to provide more instruction in foreign languages, and to incorporate global issues into classroom lessons.
“Steering our nation out of the financial crisis we now face requires investing in an internationally competent workforce,” said Vivien Stewart, vice president for education at the Asia Society, a nonprofit educational-research group in New York.
“Our long-term comprehensiveness in a global economy depends on our willingness to reinvent education for a new era,” Ms. Stewart said in a statement. “As never before, American education must prepare students for a world where the opportunities for success require the ability to compete and collaborate on a global scale.”
The Asia Society and six national education groups presented a report, Putting the World Class into World Class Education, to members of Congress and the Obama administration.
Specific proposals include providing states with incentives to compare their educational standards with those in other countries, helping teachers understand and communicate the international dimensions of their subjects, and expanding federal programs that give students exposure to foreign cultures and countries.
The proposals come amid some uncertainty over Mr. Obama’s plans for education. Mr. Obama has yet to announce who will serve as secretary of education in his administration, and on Sunday, The New York Times reported that many people who work in education wonder if Mr. Obama will side with those who want to curb the power of teachers’ unions, or with those more focused on rewriting the No Child Left Behind legislation and who emphasize helping teachers become more qualified.
— Caroline Preston
December 11, 2008
Bill Gates in the Obama Administration?
Bill Gates said last week that, if asked, he would consider a position with the incoming Obama administration, according to The Washington Post.
He said his work as chairman of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is a full-time job, but “if there was some committee or pretty focused task where I could contribute, I’d be glad to consider that.”
What position would you nominate Mr. Gates for? Education secretary? United Nations ambassador? Philanthropist and chief — or is that Bill Clinton’s unofficial title?
Click on the comments link below to give your ideas.
Economic Crisis Calls for New "Social Contract," Charity Head Says
The severity of the nation’s economic crisis has created an opportunity for charities to transform the way they work with the government as a new administration and Congress take shape, Larry Snyder, president of Catholic Charities USA, said today.
Rising levels of poverty, unemployment, home foreclosures, and demand for food aid signal that “there needs to be a different social contract,” Father Snyder told Catholic Charities representatives from across the country participating in a teleconference about how to respond to the growing financial turmoil.
He said public officials should draw on the expertise of charities to design social programs, exploring “a new way to work together, a more mutual thing, rather than simply government throwing funding out and all of us scrambling for it.”
Father Snyder said Catholic Charities has been urging members of President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team to ensure that the economic-recovery plan that the new Congress is expected to adopt does not exclude society’s most vulnerable people. He said some observers believe the package will include new money in areas like food stamps, unemployment benefits, and the Women, Infants, and Children Program, as well as help for states and homeowners facing foreclosure.
He said the transition team has also signaled to Catholic Charities that the Obama administration aims to cut poverty in half within 10 years.
Catholic Charities is working to educate members of Congress about the growing strain that rising demand for social services — and cutbacks in donations and state payments — is placing on groups like his, Father Snyder added. It plans to participate in Congressional briefings next week — on the theme “Nonprofits on the Frontlines”—organized by Independent Sector, the coalition of charities and foundations.
Catholic Charities is also organizing a Congressional briefing in January, inviting national charities that have local affiliates working directly with the poor to discuss their experiences, he said.
A PowerPoint presentation summarizing some of the points made by Father Snyder is available on the Catholic Charities Web site.
December 10, 2008
Charities Urge Congress to Offer Pension Relief
Independent Sector, the coalition of big charities and foundations, and 77 nonprofit groups have sent a letter to Congressional leaders asking them to ease rules requiring charitable organizations to make certain payments to “defined-benefit” pension funds.
Noting that charities and foundations had been hit hard by the bad economy and stock market declines, the December 8 letter said: “Without some immediate help, the pension obligations will force our organizations to divert millions of dollars away from programs at the time they are needed most.”
The Pension Protection Act of 2006 requires employers that offer pension plans with defined benefits, or specific amounts of money, to retired workers to make catch-up payments when the value of the plan’s assets falls below certain levels.
“The abrupt market decline has turned those pension funding obligations into a severe problem never anticipated when the act was drafted,” says the letter, addressed to Reps. Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House, and John Boehner, minority leader.
The groups asked the House leaders to provide transitional relief like that offered in a Senate bill introduced in November — the Worker, Retiree, and Employer Recovery Act of 2008.
The bill would allow employers to take account of unexpected market losses in determining the value of a pension plan’s assets — using a formula known as “smoothing.” It would also lower the amount employers must pay when their plan’s fund target falls below a certain level and allow them to look at the plan’s fund level in 2008, rather than 2009, in determining whether to apply automatic restrictions on benefits for “underfunded” plans.
Among the groups that signed the letter, all of which have defined-benefit pension plans, are Easter Seals, Lutheran Services in America, the National Wildlife Federation, United Way of America, and a dozen local United Ways across the country.
Politician Sought Nonprofit Payday, Says Affidavit
Tuesday’s arrest of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich contained a somewhat telling perception about some nonprofit salaries.
Mr. Blagojevich, a Democrat, allegedly conspired to sell an appointment to his state’s open U.S. Senate seat, reports the Associated Press. A lawyer for Mr. Blagojevich said the governor denied the charges.
According to the 76-page affidavit from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, one of the ideas the governor floated was offering the national political position in exchange for being appointed to work at a foundation or the American Red Cross — places he thought he could make significant salaries.
In discussions with aides, which were taped by federal investigators, he also wondered about starting a nonprofit lobbying group — a 501©(4) under the U.S. tax code — by raising $10-million to $15-million from Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and other wealthy philanthropists.
To be sure, he also discussed looking for paydays by working for a labor union, putting his wife on a corporate board, and receiving a cabinet post or ambassadorship.
—- Ian Wilhelm
December 09, 2008
Foundations Expect to Spend More to Build on Election Day Improvements
Despite concerns that high voter turnout would severely strain the polling system, the November presidential election proceeded relatively smoothly, according to a survey released today by the Pew Charitable Trusts.
However, some voters reported problems with waiting times, absentee ballots, and inconsistent application of election laws, Pew’s Make Voting Work project, in Washington, said in a statement.
Pew has committed more than $20-million since 2000 to fix the nation’s election system, which has been plagued with problems like long lines and machine malfunctions. It said Make Voting Work would spend more than $8-million in 2009 to seek further improvements, in partnership with the JEHT Foundation, in New York.
“With momentum building for reform, now is the time to wrestle with where and how to improve our system based on the insights from voters’ direct experience in navigating it,” said Michael Caudell-Feagan, director of Make Voting Work, which is operated by the Pew Center on the States.
More than nine in 10 people who voted on November 4 (91 percent) said it was easy to find their polling place, 83 percent said the polling place was very well run, and 75 percent said they were “very confident” their vote was counted as cast, according to a survey of 10,000 Americans sponsored by Pew and AARP.
However, the survey, which was conducted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also found:
- African American voters waited more than twice as long to vote (an average of 29 minutes) than all other voters.
- Only 61 percent of absentee voters said they were very confident their vote was counted as cast, compared with 75 percent of Election Day voters.
- Twelve percent of voters in states that do not require identification to vote said they were asked to present an ID anyway;
- Among those who did not vote, 8 percent did not receive requested absentee ballots, 16 percent had registration problems, and 10 percent could not find their polling place.
The 2009 funding will initially pay for projects to evaluate how early voting and other alternatives to traditional voting at precinct polling places affects turnout, voter satisfaction, security, and administrative efficiency and cost, Pew said.
(See The Chronicle‘s article about foundation spending on election projects.)
Gift-Giving Tips from the IRS
Just in time for the holiday season, the Internal Revenue Service has released its annual guide to last-minute charity donations.
For starters, the agency is reminding older taxpayers — people 70 1/2 or older — that they can make a tax-free transfer of up to $100,000 from some Individual Retirement Accounts to an eligible charitable organization. Donor-advised funds and supporting organizations are not eligible to receive the transfers.
Donated clothing and household items must be in good condition or better. Such items for which a taxpayer claims a deduction of over $500 do not have to be in good used condition if the taxpayer includes a qualified appraisal of the item with the return, the IRS explains.
For all cash donations, regardless of the amount, donors must get a bank record or written receipt showing the name of the charity and the date and amount of the contribution. More information from the IRS on rules for charitable donations can be found here.
— Eric Kelderman
December 08, 2008
Seeking Advice for President Obama
Change.org, a Web site that connects donors with causes, is taking President-elect Barack Obama up on his offer to hear from “all Americans.” The site is asking readers to submit their ideas for how Mr. Obama should change America, and many of the proposals have a nonprofit bent.
Readers interested in humanitarian relief proposed the creation of a Cabinet-level department of development, ending the differentiation between emergency and longer-term development assistance, leading an “economic surge” in Uganda, and many other ideas.
For those who care about social entrepreneurship, starting a national-service corps to improve local infrastructure, recruiting volunteers from overseas to help in the United States as part of a “two-way service corps,” and giving “every business the opportunity to become a social business” were among the suggestions.
Those and hundreds of other suggestions appear on the Change.org Web site. Readers are asked to comment and vote on the proposals.
The 10 most popular ideas will be presented to Mr. Obama on Inauguration Day, according to the Web site. Change.org says it will them build a social movement to advance the ideas through Congress.
Do you have other ideas for the president-elect? Post your comments here on the Change.org Web site.
New IRS Plan Is Intended to Resolve Disputes Quickly
The Internal Revenue Service has begun a program to streamline how tax-exempt organizations resolve disputes over tax issues.
The new plan will now allow nonprofit organizations to enter into non-binding arbitration with the federal tax agency if there are disagreements over the outcome of an audit, instead of going through the traditional appeal process and eventually filing in court. The IRS has set a target of 60 days for the new process, which uses a service-appointed arbitrator to help the two sides find a solution.
That is “lightning speed” for the IRS, which modeled the new plan on a similar measure begun in 2003 for large corporate taxpayers, said John Klotsche, a tax lawyer in Washington. In the corporate program, more than 80 percent of the companies that enter into the arbitration process come to an agreement, he said.
If the discussions don’t work, then organizations can still go through the IRS appeals process, and can even enter into arbitration if the traditional process fails to satisfy the organization.
Not only is the new arbitration process faster, but it keeps the dispute out of the courtroom, where embarrassing details would be open to the public and media, explained Mr. Klotsche, who is also a former senior adviser to the IRS commissioner.
Obama Taps Latino Advocacy Leader for Government Role
Barack Obama has tapped another nonprofit official for a role in his administration.
Cecilia Muñoz, senior vice president of research, advocacy, and legislation at the National Council of La Raza, a Latino advocacy group in Washington, will become Mr. Obama’s director of intergovernmental affairs.
Last week, at a forum of 2,500 community organizers, Ms. Muñoz spoke to The Washington Post about the goals of the administration.
Valerie Jarrett, a senior advisor to Mr. Obama, also spoke at the event, which was sponsored by the Gamaliel Foundation, in Chicago.
Read The Chronicle’s article about a discussion between Ms. Jarrett and other nonprofit leaders last week.
Foundations Should Be Watchdogs of Local Governments
Foundations should make sure that states, cities, and localities make good choices in how they spend federal dollars that come to them as part of an economic stimulus package, said Bruce Katz, an urban-policy expert who is helping Barack Obama on housing and development issues.
Mr. Obama has proposed a multibillion-dollar plan that would create 2.5 million jobs and rebuild American infrastructure. He has also pledged to establish a White House Office of Urban Planning, reports The Washington Post.
During a meeting last week with foundation leaders, Mr. Katz said he is concerned that many state and local governments may not spend the infrastructure money wisely or quickly. Grant makers, he said, should be watchdogs to make sure they do.
Mr. Katz is a vice president at the Brookings Institution, a think tank in Washington, and is assisting Mr. Obama to bring his ideas to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
As an example of a service in need of financial aid, Mr. Katz said that local public-housing agencies would be “ecstatic” if they received a cash infusion from the economic-stimulus program.
Mr. Katz also encouraged foundations to work with businesses, universities, and civic activists to present a unified voice to White House officials on economic issues. “They don’t hear voices that cut across place and discipline,” he said.
Mr. Katz spoke at a gathering of the Council on Foundations, an association of grant makers, to discuss the Brookings Institution’s so-called Blueprint for American Prosperity, which seeks to improve government policies related to metropolitan areas.
During the two-day event, philanthropies provided feedback on the plan. Their suggestions included asking Brookings to not ignore rural areas, but find economic connections between them and cities; to include ways the public-school system and higher education, especially community colleges, can teach students skills for jobs in growing industries, such as the information-technology field; to emphasize the growth of broadband or other telecommunications infrastructure as a means to economic gains; to appreciate how arts and cultural institutions can help revitalize downtown areas; and to include ideas for providing job training to former convicts.
December 05, 2008
Education Foundation Head Named to Obama Policy Team
The Schott Foundation for Public Education, in Cambridge, Mass., has announced that its president, John H. Jackson, has been named to a transition group that will advise the incoming Obama administration on education-policy priorities.
It noted that the head of one of its grantees — Geri D. Palast, executive director for the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, in New York—has also been named to the Education Policy Working Group.
The Schott Foundation supports work aimed at improving public schools. Mr. Jackson previously served as a civil-rights adviser in the U.S. Education Department during the Clinton Administration.
The Obama transition project has posted the names of members of the working groups who are advising the next administration in various policy areas. However, most of them do not include biographical information.
Let us know the nonprofit connections of people you know on the list by clicking on the comment box below.
Obama Adviser Meets With Foundation Officials
Nonprofit leaders hopeful that Barack Obama will listen to their ideas take note: This week he sent a senior adviser to meet with foundation officials.
During a meeting organized by the Council on Foundations, an association of grant makers, Valerie Jarrett, soon-to-be a White House senior adviser and assistant to the president for intergovernmental relations and public liaison, discussed ways the federal government and philanthropy can work together to overcome the nation’s financial turmoil and housing problems.
The event was closed to the news media, but Steve Gunderson, the council’s president, said that the “listening session” had gone very well. Ms. Jarrett appeared open to nonprofit ideas and did not come with an agenda to impose on foundations, he said.
Mr. Gunderson said that the discussion included the National Fund for Workforce Solutions, a program supported by the U.S. Labor Department and several grant makers, including the Ford Foundation and the Microsoft Corporation, to train people for new jobs in growing industries.
To cut through Washington bureaucracy, Ms. Jarrett said foundations should reach out to her office with their ideas, Mr. Gunderson said.
Several people who attended the meeting said Ms. Jarrett’s decision to come to the event was a significant sign of Mr. Obama’s willingness to work closely with philanthropy.
According to The New York Times, Ms. Jarrett will have the ear of the next president. She has known Mr. Obama for almost 20 years, first hiring him as a lawyer while she worked in the Chicago city government.
December 04, 2008
Special Olympics Leader Calls for 'Department of Development and Service'
Since Barack Obama was elected, there’s been a drumbeat of encouragement for him to develop a new government role for charity — a cabinet-level position to promote the arts or a new White House office to support philanthropy.
Timothy Shriver, chairman of the Special Olympics and a member of the Kennedy family, is going one step further, calling for the creation of a U.S. Department of Development and Service. Mr. Shriver is the son of Sargent Shriver, who helped form the Peace Corps, and Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who established Special Olympics.
“Today, there’s no national voice inviting Americans to serve humanitarian interests around the world and no clear strategy for promoting democracy, economic development, health, education, and human rights,” he writes in The Washington Post.
“More than ever, citizen groups, philanthropies, businesses, and faith-based organizations are willing to do more to promote basic education for all, opportunity for women and girls, inclusion for those with disabilities, and peace. More than ever, the ability exists to eradicate age old diseases of the body like malaria and age old diseases of the spirit like fear and intolerance. With Obama’s inspirational power, the response to a presidential call would be monumental,” he writes.
What do you think of Mr. Shriver’s proposal? Click on the comments box below to add your thoughts.
December 03, 2008
Ford Foundation Links Parents of Obama and Treasury Secretary Nominee
In an unusual twist of fate, the parents of Barack Obama and his pick for secretary of Treasury, Timothy Geithner, share a nonprofit connection: they worked at the Ford Foundation at the same time.
Indeed, Mr. Geithner’s father was head of the philanthropy’s Asia grant making for a period in the early 1980s and oversaw the work of Mr. Obama’s mother, who developed the organization’s microfinance programs in Indonesia.
According to the foundation, they met at least once in Jakarta.
No word on whether the two parents speculated on the future careers of their sons.
December 02, 2008
Two Charity Heads Among Leaders Advising Obama on Innovation
Two charity leaders have been appointed to a group of more than 30 people that has been asked to help the incoming Obama administration devise an “innovation agenda.”
They are: Cheryl Dorsey, president of Echoing Green, in New York, which provides fellowships to entrepreneurial nonprofit leaders; and Paul Schmitz, president of Public Allies, in Milwaukee, which trains young people for nonprofit and public-service careers.
Their group — the Technology, Innovation, and Government Reform Policy Working Group — will recommend ways to modernize government; use technology to expand the economy and solve pressing national problems; and promote “active citizenship” and government partnerships with civil-society organizations, according to the Obama transition project’s Web site.
President-elect Barack Obama has special ties to Public Allies: he served on its founding board, and his wife, Michelle, opened the group’s Chicago office in 1993. (See The Chronicle’s article about the organization and its ties to the Obamas.)
The working group also includes Michele Jolin, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, in Washington, who has publicly advocated creating a White House Office of Social Entrepreneurship. She made the proposal in a chapter of a “progressive blueprint” that was co-published last month by the Center for American Progress Action Fund, the liberal think tank’s advocacy arm. She said it would give innovative nonprofit leaders a “greater voice in the public policy debates of the day.”
Howard W. Buffett, the grandson of Warren Buffett, the investor and philanthropist, is another member of the group. Mr. Buffett is an adviser to the United Nations Office for Partnerships, which promotes alliances between the UN, foundations, and businesses, and head of Cliffspringer, his own strategic-advisory group. His father, Howard G. Buffett, runs a foundation in Decatur, Ill.
Sonal Shah, head of global development at Google.org, the search-engine company’s philanthropic arm, co-chairs the group, along with Blair Levin, managing director of Stifel Nicolaus, a financial-services firm; and Julius Genachowski, co-founder of Rock Creek Ventures, a new-media investment company.
The working group is divided into four committees: Innovation and government, innovation and national priorities, innovation and science, and innovation and civil society. Spokesmen for the Obama transition team declined to say who would serve on the committees or give any other information beyond what appears on the Web site.
On the campaign trail, Mr. Obama said he would expand national-service programs, establish a Social Entrepreneurship Agency to coordinate federal programs that help innovative charities, and create new funds to stimulate entrepreneurial social projects.
December 01, 2008
Obama to Elevate U.N. Ambassador to Cabinet Rank
In a move praised by nonprofit groups, President-elect Barack Obama has announced the selection of Susan E. Rice, a Brookings Institution scholar and former State Department official, to be United Nations ambassador.
In nominating Ms. Rice, Mr. Obama also plans to restore the position to cabinet rank, as it was under former President Bill Clinton, reports The New York Times.
In the Times article, Ms. Rice drew praise from the nonprofit Save Darfur Coalition for her advocacy on behalf of a stronger response against the fighting in Sudan’s Darfur region.
The United Nations Foundation, meanwhile, applauded both the selection of Ms. Rice and the decision to restore the position to cabinet rank, saying in a statement that it “sends an unambiguous signal to the world that the United States plans to re-engage with the United Nations at the highest levels.”
But John R. Bolton, who served as U.N. ambassador under the Bush administration, told the Times that it was unwise to elevate the position to cabinet level.
“One, it overstates the role and importance the U.N. should have in U.S. foreign policy,” he said. “Second, you shouldn’t have two secretaries in the same department.”
What do you think of Mr. Obama’s decision to make his U.N. ambassador a member of the cabinet?
Mileage Deduction for Volunteers Won't Change in 2009
People who drive their own vehicles as part of their volunteer work for charities will not be getting any extra tax incentives for their efforts in 2009.
The Internal Revenue Service, in its newly released list of 2009 standard mileage rates, said volunteers could take a deduction of 14 cents a mile on their federal taxes.
The rate is fixed by law. Congress had been considering legislation that would have increased the rate to compensate for increases in fuel prices.
But those efforts have stalled.
According to the IRS, taxpayers are eligible to deduct 55 cents per mile for business miles driven and 24 cents per mile driven for medical or moving purposes.
Do you think Congress should increase the mileage rate for charity volunteers? Click on the comments link below this post to share your thoughts.