Philanthropy Today - Philanthropy.com

These are items on other Web sites that are of interest to the nonprofit world. The Chronicle has no control over their content or availability. To reach the Philanthropy Today staff, send an e-mail message to daily.news@philanthropy.com

Compiled by Noelle Barton, Caroline Bermudez, Maria Di Mento, Audrey Hill, and Anne W. Howard.

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December 2007

December 21, 2007

Jewish Group Accused of Money Laundering Through False Charity

The leader of an Orthodox Jewish sect, Grand Rabbi Naftali Tzi Weisz of the Spinka religious group, was arrested Wednesday on 37 counts of alleged tax fraud and money laundering, reports The Los Angeles Times.

Federal prosecutors say that Mr. Weisz and his executive assistant, Gabbai Moseh E. Zigelman, who was also arrested, solicited “tens of millions of dollars” in contributions to Spinka charities and secretly promised contributors that they would receive up to 95 percent of their donations back. The contributors then illegally claimed tax deductions on their fake donations.

According to the indictment, Mr. Zigelman solicited close to $9-million in 2006 alone and kept $700,000 for the Spinka group after donors were repaid. The two men allegedly reimbursed contributors through a complex underground network that included businesses in and around L.A.‘s jewelry district.

Six associates, four of whom were arrested Wednesday, were also charged in connection with the scheme. Five Spinka charities based in Brooklyn are also accused of making out false receipts for donations as well as for receiving the money-laundering fees.

The article did not contain any response from the people who were charged with money laundering.

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Grant Makers Collaborate on New Effort to Help Effective Charities Expand

The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation has raised $88-million for a new fund designed to help nonprofit organizations with proven track records grow and become more efficient, reports The New York Times.

The Clark foundation has committed $39-million to the fund and attracted money from other grant makers, such as the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It hopes to raise $120-million by June.

The fund will initially benefit three charities: the Nurse-Family Partnership, Youth Villages, and Citizen Schools.

Hilary Pennington, director of special initiatives at the Gates Foundation, noted that such collaborations were unusual among grant makers. “So very often there is pressure on foundations to feel like they are the ones discovering something. We have said we want to explore ways in which grant makers could work together for great impact, and we have an obligation to put our money where our mouth is.”

Read The Chronicle’s special report on the growing interest among foundations and charities to expand programs that work and a profile of the Clark foundation.

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Harvard U. Discloses Compensation of Endowment Managers

Harvard University has disclosed the compensation of the six highest-paid executives who oversee the university’s endowment, including the former chief executive of Harvard Management Company, Mohamed El-Erian, who was paid $6.5-million last year, reports The Boston Globe.

While the endowment achieved returns of 23 percent, its fourth-best annual performance since 1974, the compensation packages for endowment managers were well below the level of many past payouts.

Some critics still wonder, however, if such high levels of compensation are appropriate for managers in a nonprofit institution. But Alan Johnson, a financial-services pay consultant in New York, said that the investment managers could have made as much as five times that amount working for private companies.

Mr. El-Erian, who was named to run the endowment at the start of 2006, said in September he would return to his former company in California, Pacific Investment Management Company, citing family concerns.

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Junior Achievement Announces New President and CEO

Junior Achievement, a nonprofit organization that helps young people learn business skills, has appointed Sean C. Rush as its new president.

Mr. Rush previously served as general manager of IBM’s Global Education Industry business.

He replaces Gerald M. Czarnecki as head of the organization.

Junior Achievement ranked No. 181 on The Chronicle’s list of the 400 charities that raise the most money from private sources.

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From The Chronicle: Red Cross Wins High Marks for Visibility

The American Red Cross is the best-recognized organization among 16 large, high-profile organizations involved in Washington politics and business, according to a new poll, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.

HOLIDAY BREAK

Philanthropy Today now takes its annual holiday publishing break. The next scheduled report will be in your e-mail in-box on Wednesday, January 2. We will continue posting any important news on our Web site during this hiatus and will release our annual list of the biggest gifts and grants of the year on New Year’s Day.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s staff sends all of our readers warm wishes for a happy and productive new year. And we hope to hear your views on the outlook for 2008. Share your thoughts with other readers and take a look at what other nonprofit leaders are saying.

December 20, 2007

West Va. U. Donors Pull Back Millions After Coach Leaves

Donors to West Virginia University have withdrawn gifts of about $12-million — which one former donor called “the tip of the iceberg” — after the university’s head football coach left to work for the University of Michigan, reports the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Several donors say they blame the university for not trying hard enough to keep coach Rich Rodriguez. Last December, supporters gave millions for a six-year, $1.9-million-per-year contract for the coach, and the university was about $200,000 away from finalizing the deal, some of the donors told the newspaper.

But Ben and Jo Statler, who earlier this year gave the university $25-million, said they would not pull back their donation, the largest gift ever to the institution.

University leaders say the institution tried hard to keep Mr. Rodriguez: His salary was recently increased by 70 percent, a $2-million academic center was built for the football team, and the university was spending $6-million to renovate the locker rooms, according to the newspaper.

“At the end of the day, the university is governed by its board and its president, and the people they appoint to positions of responsibility,” said Stephen Goodwin, chairman of West Virginia University’s board of governors. “Making donations to a public university does not entitle anyone to dictate policy or personnel.”

The newspaper said some gifts had “escape clauses” that permitted the donors to seek the return of money already paid.

Clinton Foundation Shares Donors With Clinton Presidential Campaign

Hillary Clinton’s senate and presidential campaigns have shared many donors and employees with the William J. Clinton Foundation, which her husband, former president Bill Clinton, founded, reports The New York Times.

Some of the larger donations to the foundation raise questions about the donors’ influence with the two politicians, according to the paper.

The Times has compiled a list of 97 donors who gave or pledged a total of $69-million to Mr. Clinton’s organization, which was established to finance his presidential library in Arkansas but has evolved into a global philanthropy. At least two dozen of these early donors are “Hillraisers,” which means they have brought in $100,000 or more for Ms. Clinton’s presidential campaign. One of the Clinton foundation’s lead fund raisers, Terry McAuliffe, is now Ms. Clinton’s campaign chairman and chief fund raiser.

Some donations made to the presidential foundation came at a time when the donors — which include companies, foreign governments, entrepreneurs, and the Saudi royal family — were facing scrutiny or had an interest in changing legislation, the newspaper reports.

“Donors did not seek, nor did President Clinton give, favors from the federal government,” the foundation said in a statement.

A spokesman for Ms. Clinton’s campaign said in a written statement, “Senator Clinton is not involved in the fund-raising or operations of the Clinton Foundation.”

President Clinton has promised to make public the names of all future donors to his foundation if his wife is elected to the Oval Office.

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Former Hedge-Fund Analysts Turn Attention to Charities

Two young former hedge-fund analysts are using their professional experience in a new nonprofit venture: GiveWell, a charity-watchdog group that rigorously evaluates the effectiveness of organizations, reports The New York Times.

Holden Karnofsky and Elie Hassenfeld, both 26, gave up six-figure incomes to work for the group, which they founded. That group studies nonprofit organizations in a given field, such as international disaster relief or HIV/AIDS prevention, and determines how effective they are through an intensive battery of questions. They say that the information currently available to donors just does not provide enough information.

An article in The Wall Street Journal notes several groups that help donors decide which charities will do the most good with their donations, including GlobalGiving.org and the Center for High Impact Philanthropy.

For more on this trend, read The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s profiles of GiveWell and Great Nonprofits, as well as its story on other new charity-evaluation efforts.

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Magna Carta Copy Sold for Charity

A 1297 copy of the Magna Carta put up for auction by the Perot Foundation sold for $21.3-million at Sotheby’s in New York on Thursday, reports Bloomberg News. The English royal document, also thought to be a symbol of freedom, is one of 17 surviving 13th-century versions and bears the wax seal of King Edward I of England.

The item was won by David Rubenstein, co-founder of the private-equity firm Carlyle Group, who said he would lend the manuscript back to the National Archives, in Washington, where it was recently on display. “I am really a temporary custodian,’‘ he said. “This document is going to be around a lot longer than I am.’‘

Ross Perot, founder of the Perot Foundation, said proceeds would be used for medical research and to aid military veterans and their families. Mr. Perot, who bought the document for about $1.5-million in 1983, said he was surprised that the item increased so drastically in price over the years, but was clearly pleased with the sale. “That’s a lot of money and a lot of opportunity,’‘ he said. “It’s time to take that money and use it for good causes.’‘

$17-Million in Grants Pay for Teacher Education

The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation will award $17-million in graduate-school stipends to strengthen teacher education and encourage good teachers to work at the neediest schools, reports The Washington Post.

The first fellowships, of $30,000 apiece, will be awarded to aspiring teachers in spring 2009, and fellows will begin teaching the following year. Recipients must teach for three years at struggling schools, the newspaper says.

Several funds, including the Lilly Endowment, the Annenberg Foundation, and the Carnegie Corporation, have supported the effort.

“What we’re really trying to do is to dignify the teaching profession and give it status,” said Arthur E. Levine, the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation president and former president of Teachers College, at Columbia University.

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Animal-Charity Leader Found Guilty of Theft

The leader of a nonprofit group that helps dogs was found guilty of theft and receiving stolen property for taking a sickly 19-year-old dog named Jake from a yard and refusing to give him back to the owners, reports the Altoona Mirror, in Pennsylvania.

Tammy Grimes, who founded Dogs Deserve Better, will likely not face jail time for taking the dog from the yard of Steven and Lori Arnold, of East Freedom, Pa. A neighbor of the Arnolds told a representative of the charity that the dog had been chained up and was lying on his side for several days without food or water. Ms. Grimes took Jake to the vet and then refused to turn him over to the authorities. The Arnolds were not prosecuted for animal cruelty.

Ms. Grimes has won supporters internationally because of the case, the newspaper reports. She says she will continue to fight for legislation that would prohibit dogs being chained up from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Government and Politics Watch

Among the highlights from The Chronicle’s Government and Politics Watch is a heads up that the Internal Revenue Service plans to announce its redesigned Form 990 informational tax form today. The Chronicle will post a news item about the new changes as soon as they are released.

From The Chronicle: New IRS 990 Tax Form

The Internal Revenue Service today delivered an unexpected holiday gift to smaller nonprofit organizations that have worried about how they would be able to adjust to filing the revised Form 990 — the main tax form for nonprofit groups, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.

December 19, 2007

Atlanta United Way Faces Questions About Retirement Package

The Atlanta United Way is facing scrutiny for securing a $1.6-million retirement supplement for its former chief executive, Mark O’Connell, who retired in July, reports The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Mr. O’Connell’s pension, which was paid by the organization in a lump sum two years ago, coincides with financial constraints that caused the organization to significantly cut back on local grants and lay off workers in 2003.

In his final three years, Mr. O’Connell’s earnings approached $1.2-million, not counting the lump sum. “It was our intent to say we don’t want to pay Mark as an average nonprofit executive,” said former board chairman Phil Jacobs, an AT&T executive. The board approved the pension supplement in 1995 and increased its value in 2000 and 2003. Mr. Jacobs said that, despite the economic slump that hit the organization during those years, the board felt it could not reduce the supplement and still retain him.

Over two decades, Mark O’Connell raised more than $1-billion for the United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta. Contributions to the organization more than doubled under his leadership.

But some groups, such as National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, are wondering whether the Atlanta United Way has its priorities in the right place. Aaron Dorfman, the committee’s executive director, commented, “These funds were raised for the purpose of benefiting disadvantaged people in the Atlanta area.”

The United Way declined to disclose what it pays Mr. O’Connell’s successor, Milton Little Jr.

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September 11 Memorial Timeline Pushed Back Again

The timetable for the September 11 memorial complex was pushed back again on Tuesday, further delaying the memorial plaza opening to 2010 and the museum to 2011, reports the Associated Press. The ‘‘Reflecting Absence’‘ memorial and an accompanying museum were originally scheduled to open on September 11, 2009.

Candace McAdams, a spokeswoman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which oversees the trade-center site, explained the adjustments were necessary to comply with the current pace of construction. ‘‘We see the reality and want to operate on responsible timelines,’‘ she said. ‘‘We’ll work as aggressively as possible to complete the project as soon as possible.’‘

While some have expressed frustration over delays on various memorial projects, others, such as Charles Wolf, whose wife was killed at the 2001 trade-center attack, said that the memorial opening should not be rushed. ‘‘This is not the kind of thing when you want to do a soft opening,’‘ he said. ‘‘You don’t want to open a memorial when it’s a work in progress.’‘

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Brandeis U. Announces Major Gift

Brandeis University announced a $22.5-million gift yesterday from the Mandel Foundation of Cleveland, among the largest ever received by the university, reports The Boston Globe. The donation will be used to build an interdisciplinary humanities center that school officials hope will serve as a hub for research, scholarship, and teaching in the humanities.

Jehuda Reinharz, president of Brandeis, called the gift “transformative” and said that with it, “Brandeis intends to create a truly visionary place that will highlight the relevance and importance of the humanities.”

The Mandel Foundation has a long history of supporting Brandeis. Previous gifts have established the Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education, as well as graduate fellowships in English, American literature, and the humanities. Ms. Reinharz said, however, that this gift was unique. “With this gift, they wanted to make a statement that this is a field that needs support. They wanted to set an example.”

Brandeis has been highly successful in recent fund-raising efforts and has nearly reached its goal to raise $800-million over the past six years.

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Troubles Continue for Connecticut Charity

A Connecticut nonprofit group that helps poor residents pay their heating bills had boxes of documents, as well as several computers, seized by federal agents on Thursday in its New Haven office, reports The New York Times. Agents who carried out the raid are investigating complaints filed by an employee that the Community Action Agency of New Haven accepted applications from illegal immigrants and others who were not eligible for aid.

The Community Action Agency is one of several organizations that determine which state applicants are eligible for the federally financed Connecticut Energy Assistance Program.

Amos Smith, the organization’s current president and chief executive, said simply, “I’ve never seen anything like it before.” Mr. Smith took over Community Action Agency after a series of fiscal problems led to a brief state takeover in 2005. He said that, despite past troubles, the group was “trying to get better.”

Mr. Smith said some illegal immigrants had received energy assistance in the past because the computer system’s drop-down menu for Social Security numbers provided a made-up or temporary number if applicants did not recall their numbers. The agency recently changed its policy so that people without a Social Security number have to have their applications processed manually.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell said in a press statement that the raid would not interrupt the work of the agency, as the office would be supplied with replacement computers and temporary help.

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From The Chronicle: Raising Money for National Parks

The National Park Foundation is embarking on a drive to promote private giving to the country’s national parks, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.

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December 18, 2007

Couple Gives $175-Million for Wisconsin College Students

John P. Morgridge, former chairman of Cisco Systems, and his wife, Tashia, a retired elementary school teacher, have donated $175-million to create the Fund for Wisconsin Scholars, which will provide college-tuition grants to needy graduates of public schools, according to a press release on the fund’s Web site.

The grants, which do not have to be repaid, will supplement state and federal grants with about $1,000 to $5,000 for the 2008-9 school year. Mary Gulbrandsen, who retired in June as chief of staff and executive director of student services for the Madison Metropolitan School District, will serve as the fund’s executive director.

The Morgridges both are graduates of Wauwatosa High School, in Wisconsin, and the University of Wisconsin at Madison. This year, they have supported the University of Denver with a donation of $10-million and contributed part of an $85-million gift to the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

“This is just the start,” said Mr. Morgridge in the news release. “We believe that the fund will grow substantially as others are inspired to join us in this effort.”

University Gets in Legal Fight With Donor's Widow

The University of South Dakota is involved in a legal tangle with a donor’s widow who says the institution didn’t live up to its pledge to her husband, the Sioux Falls Argus Leader reports.

Lucy Buhler, whose husband, Walter, donated $9.2-million to the university, says that the gift was made with the promise that the university’s business school would be named after Mr. Buhler.

She asked for $1.7-million of the money back when she learned that T. Denny Sanford, one of the nation’s most-generous donors, had donated $5-million to the business school on the condition that the institution name the school after one of his business associates.

The University of South Dakota Foundation declined Ms. Buhler’s request, saying it had agreed to name a business-school building after Mr. Buhler, not its programs — thereby freeing it to name the school after Mr. Sanford’s associate.

Now the matter is in the hands of a circuit-court judge, who has been asked to confirm that the university followed Mr. Buhler’s request, the newspaper said.

Diane Arbus's Estate Gives Archives to Museum

The estate of the photographer Diane Arbus has given her complete archives — including the often-disturbing portraits of carnival performers, twins, and dwarfs that earned her a cult following — to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York, according to The New York Times.

The gift, whose value experts declined to assess, includes hundreds of photographs, along with negatives and contact prints of 7,500 rolls of film, and hundreds of glassine print sleeves that she annotated. Ms. Arbus committed suicide in 1971, at age 48.

The museum has also purchased 20 of Arbus’s most important photographs, including “Russian Midget Friends in a Living Room on 100th Street, N.Y.C.” from 1963, from the Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco. Experts placed the value of these works at at least $5-million.

The gift and the purchase follow the museum’s popular retrospective of the artist’s work two years ago. Jeff L. Rosenheim, curator in the Metropolitan Museum’s department of photographs, predicted that scholars will benefit from the archive. “Generally this kind of material doesn’t survive the artist,” he said.

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America Online Shifts Giving Away From Local Approach

Nonprofit groups around the country — and around the world — now have a better chance of getting money from the Internet company America Online, which recently moved its headquarters from Dulles, Va., to New York, reports The Washington Post.

AOL has shifted its new business strategy to online advertising and has grown internationally. As a result, it is cutting back on its giving to Washington-area charities, which had previously relied on steady donations from the company.

“In the past, we focused on Northern Virginia, but our aspiration is to really reflect the areas where we have a major presence, which now includes Bangalore [India]; London; New York; and Mountain View [Calif.],” says Anne Bentley, an AOL spokeswoman.

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Baltimore Schools Chief Asks Foundations for $25-Million

The head of Baltimore’s public schools has undertaken a campaign to raise $25-million from foundations to overhaul the city’s middle and high schools, reports The Sun, in Baltimore.

The newspaper obtained a copy of a confidential presentation to several private organizations that outlined the city’s needs and proposed solutions. Faced with a large number of dropouts and overage students, Andres Alonso, hired in July as Baltimore’s schools chief, hopes to create smaller schools that combine middle- and high-school facilities and offer college preparatory, vocational, and alternative programs.

Local grant makers like the Abell Foundation and the Open Society Institute’s Baltimore office say they would be willing to support the right project. Previous school-improvement efforts garnered $20.8-million in private support from donors, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Those efforts, limited to a handful of city schools, were highly successful but not far-reaching enough, says Mr. Alonso.

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Cancer Charity Sues Food Company Over Slogan

Susan G. Komen for the Cure, formerly the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, in Dallas, has sued Smithfield Foods for allegedly infringing the nonprofit organization’s “Race for the Cure” trademark with a trademark application for “Deli of the Cure,” reports The Washington Post.

The Smithfield, Va., food company wants to use that slogan to publicize its donations to breast-cancer research.

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Carnegie Corporation's President Urges Grant Seekers to Focus on Ideas

The 12th president of the $3-billion Carnegie Corporation, Vartan Gregorian, “is at heart an intellectual” who works to make education and the dissemination of culture and information part of all of the fund’s efforts, says a profile of Mr. Gregorian in the Financial Times.

“I surround myself with professors and other thinkers. This place is full of scholars, idea people, creatives,” he says. “We believe in solving issues, regardless of where the solutions come from. We want to create debate.”

Mr. Gregorian, 73, has previously served as president of Brown University and the New York Public Library and became famous for his fund-raising abilities and for advising several important philanthropists, including Bill Gates and Ted Turner.

He says that he tries to encourage the flow of ideas and research within the 96-year-old foundation as well as through its grant making. Grantees, he says, must “demonstrate that you’re not in the need business, but rather in the idea business. You have to say: ‘I’m not entitled to your support. I want an opportunity to compete for your support.’”

“There are ideals worth believing in and fighting for,” he says. “When you stop learning or being curious, you’re deadening your soul. You have room to grow, no matter what age you are.”

Government and Politics Watch

Among the highlights from The Chronicle’s Government and Politics Watch:

The U.S. Agency for International Development is providing $100,000 for a new program designed to help American professionals afford the costs of volunteering overseas.

The British prime minister is calling on charities and companies to do more to help the world’s poor.

From The Chronicle: Retirement-Account Gifts

With the future uncertain for a law that allows older Americans to transfer money from their individual retirement accounts to charities tax-free, nonprofit groups are rushing to get as many gifts as possible by year’s end, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.

Nearly two years ago, Congress passed a law, set to expire on December 31, that allows people ages 70½ or older to transfer up to $100,000 annually from their IRA’s without paying tax on the withdrawals. The House has already approved a one-year extension of the law, and the Senate is expected to act soon to extend the provision through 2009.

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December 17, 2007

Senator to Propose Law on Retailers' Fund-Raising Deals With Charities

A U.S. Senator plans this week to introduce legislation to regulate promotions from retailers that promise to give a percentage of proceeds to charity, reports The New York Times.

Sen. Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, says he wants to make sure that charities actually receive money pledged by companies.

His proposed legislation would require retailers to notify charities that they plan to use the nonprofit groups’ names, receive approval from the groups, and disclose how much money actually goes to charity.

While several states have similar measures in place, it is not clear how well those laws work to prevent abuses, the newspaper said.

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Gates Foundation's Grants to Fight Disease in Africa Produce Mixed Results

Grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which focuses on diseases like AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis, have inadvertently harmed basic health care in some parts of Africa, reports the Los Angeles Times.

The article — part of an investigative series into the foundation by the newspaper — says that because the foundation has awarded billions of dollars to treat those diseases, largely through vaccinations, doctors are paying less attention to the nutritional needs of patients with common ailments like diarrhea. Plus, many patients who receive treatment for diseases lack food and transportation for check-up appointments, which undermines the effectiveness of the treatments.

While grateful for the Gateses’ generosity in supporting vaccinations, doctors and aid workers told the newspaper that other measures to treat diseases might be more effective.

Tadataka Yamada, president of the Gates Foundation’s global-health program, said the philanthropy recognized such challenges and was studying ways it could improve health-care delivery systems in Africa. But he noted that the foundation believed African governments should pay for health-care delivery. “What we do is catalyze,” he told the newspaper, by providing tools to help governments improve. “We are not replacement mothers.”

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Clinton's Presidential Library Raised 10% of Funds Overseas

The William J. Clinton Presidential Library, in Arkansas, received nearly 10 percent of its donations from overseas contributors, including $10-million from the royal family of Saudi Arabia, reports The Washington Post.

Mr. Clinton and his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton — who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination — had refused to name donors to the library, most of whom Mr. Clinton himself approached for money. The funds were accepted by the Clinton Foundation, which is allowed by law to keep the names of its donors anonymous. The Post tracked down donor information through interviews and by combing tax records.

Foreign governments, such as Kuwait and Taiwan, donated millions to the library as well, the newspaper said.

Previous presidential libraries also accepted large sums from overseas donors and governments. The libraries of former presidents George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter have made most of those donations public, while Ronald Reagan’s library has not.

Sen. Barack Obama, Democrat of Illinois and a contender for the Democratic nomination for president, has proposed legislation to make all donations to such libraries public information.

The Clinton Foundation ranks No. 170 on The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s list of the 400 organizations that raise the most from private sources.

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College Programs Wed Religion and Management

Several university programs, all started in the past few years, are helping churches incorporate good management practices into their ministries, reports The New York Times.

This fall, Boston College began offering a pastoral ministry degree with a concentration in church management. It also offers a dual degree in which students earn both the pastoral-ministry degree and a master’s of business administration. Similar programs exist at the University of Notre Dame and St. Mary’s University in Minnesota. Villanova University plans to start an online-only program next year.

The programs do not teach people to run churches like businesses but to make sure that church leaders are prepared to manage employees well and handle finances responsibly, said scholars who run them.

Read The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s article about church-management programs.

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Hand-Made Rowling Book Earns Charity $4-Million

J.K. Rowling, author of the popular Harry Potter books, has sold a hand-written and hand-illustrated book of fairy tales for $4-million, which she will donate to charity, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Proceeds from the leather-bound book, Tales of Beedle the Bard, will benefit the Children’s Voice, a charity Ms. Rowling co-founded in 2005 to help prevent child abuse worldwide. There are only seven copies of the book in existence. The buyer was the London art agency firm Hazlitt, Gooden and Fox.

Give and Take, a Roundup of Nonprofit Blogs

Give and Take is a service of The Chronicle of Philanthropy that rounds up the best postings that appear on blogs about the nonprofit world.

Among the most-recent postings:

Is Google creating a special information section for nonprofit groups?

Is “social enterprise” really a new idea?

You can also read previous postings on issues about philanthropic giving, fund raising, and management of nonprofit organizations.

Give and Take is updated regularly throughout the day.

From The Chronicle: A Growing Fund-Raising Gap

As charities enter the final stretch of the busy year-end giving season, a divide between wealthy organizations and other nonprofit organizations is growing more stark, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.

December 14, 2007

University of Southern California Gets Surprise $60-Million Gift

The University of Southern California announced on Thursday that it had received a $60-million bequest to support its hematology division and cancer center, reports the Los Angeles Times.

The money came from the estate of Jane Anne Nohl, a longtime philanthropist who made her fortune with her late husband in investments and in Southern California real estate.

Ms. Nohl, who died in July, was not an alumna but made the gift to acknowledge the medical care her friend and financial trustee, Larry Kelly, received as a patient of Don Feinstein, a USC professor of medicine and an expert in blood disorders. The university was not told about the gift until after Ms. Nohl died.

Mr. Kelly, who still receives regular treatments at the center said, “I think by having this endowment, we will really give them the ability to hire the talent. We need a lot more Dr. Feinsteins around.”

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Philanthropists Emerge in Poverty-Ridden Countries

A growing number of wealthy people in countries that have long been marred by poverty — such as India, Mexico, Turkey, and Russia — are turning to philanthropy, reports The New York Times.

Many new billionaires in those countries are using their wealth and status to push for social change.

One such example is Husnu M. Ozyegin, a banker who received $2.7-billion last year when he sold his stake in the institution he founded.

Mr. Ozyegin has directed more than $50-million of his money to aid education in Turkey. He explained, “If I can have an impact on one million Turkish people in the next 10 years, I will be happy.”

Other examples of such social-minded billionaires include Carlos Slim Helú of Mexico, a telecommunications entrepreneur who has pledged billions of dollars to aid health and education, Roman Abramovich, Russia’s richest man, who has given more than $1-billion to the impoverished Arctic area of Chukotka, and Azim Premji of India, who has established his own foundation to support elementary education.

While the gifts may still only make a dent in the serious needs of many of these countries, the trend does provide some reasons for optimism, say observers. Jane Wales, president of the Global Philanthropy Forum, told the newspaper: “What we are seeing in these countries are people emerging from the private sector with tremendous wealth who are attracted to highly strategic philanthropy.”

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Foundations Give $17.5-Million to Improve New Orleans Schools

Three major national foundations are donating $17.5-million to improve New Orleans schools two years after Hurricane Katrina, reports The Associated Press.

The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, the Doris & Donald Fisher Fund, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will together work to create new public charter schools and support efforts to train and recruit teachers and principals.

New Schools for New Orleans will receive $10-million to recruit teachers, start schools and advocate for school improvement and accountability; Teach for America will receive $6.5-million to recruit and train new teachers; and New Leaders for New Schools will receive $1-million to train and assist principals.

New Grants Designed to Teach Young People to Be Philanthropists

Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund has announced five $15,000 grants to colleges that will establish charitable funds to be managed and dispersed by student-led groups, reports The Boston Globe.

David Giunta, president of the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, hopes the program will help cultivate a new generation of experienced philanthropic leaders. He said, “Students are going to learn what it means to create thoughtful, workable plans for long-term charitable giving.”

Of the 35 institutions that applied for the program, the winners are Boston University, California State University in Fresno, Portland (Ore.) Community College, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Whitworth University in Spokane, Wash.

Students will invest the funds, form boards of directors, create grant-making guidelines, conduct research on prospective grant recipients, choose which organizations should get money and how much they should receive, and may even do fund raising on their own. Fidelity said that recipients of the money must distribute between 50 and 75 percent of it to charity over the school year.

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California Official Calls for Standards on Reporting Hospital Contributions to Society

The California state auditor’s office on Thursday recommended that lawmakers give nonprofit hospitals more specific instructions on how to determine the value of services they provide to the cities and towns they serve, reports the Los Angeles Times.

The auditor’s office said that hospitals take such a broad range of approaches to assessing the value of free care to the poor and other services that it is hard to compare them.

The California report was issued at a time when a growing number of federal and state officials are asking questions about whether nonprofit hospitals deserve their tax-exempt status.

Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, said the California report underscores the reasons he is pushing the Internal Revenue Service to standardize regulations on hospital reporting.

“The California auditor’s report highlights the problem with nonprofit hospitals and their tax-exempt status,” he said. “There aren’t uniform standards for what’s charity care and what isn’t, so everyone’s left to define it for themselves.”

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From The Chronicle: IRS Priorities for Charities

The Internal Revenue Service plans to scrutinize charities’ donor-advised funds, business practices, and political activities in 2008, agency officials said at a briefing Thursday outlining charity-regulation plans for the year, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.

From The Chronicle: Congress Expresses Outrage on Fund-Raising Costs

Members of a House committee on Thursday blasted veterans charities that funnel tiny portions of the money they raise to veterans and their families. The lawmakers vowed to seek legislation to rein them in, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.

December 13, 2007

Case Foundation Announces Online Philanthropy Contest

An ambitious effort to draw more donors to online giving and promote wide-scale philanthropy will start today with the support of the founder of America Online and the popular social-networking Web site Facebook, reports The Washington Post.

The Case Foundation, the philanthropy of Steve and Jean Case, is promoting America’s Giving Challenge, which aims to draw people who do not consider themselves to be philanthropists to donate as little as $10 to charities around the world. The foundation is working with Network for Good and GlobalGiving, nonprofit groups that allow donors to conduct online searches for charities to support.

The foundation has also begun a similar challenge on Facebook. Facebook users can donate to any of 1.5 million charities through the site’s “causes” section and have their donations and causes displayed as part of their personal profiles.

The Case Foundation is giving away $750,000 in the two online efforts, which start today and end January 31. People who recruit the most friends from their social networks will each receive $50,000 to donate to charity. The 100 charities that garner the highest number of online donations will each get $1,000.

Dennis Whittle, the founder and chief executive of GlobalGiving, said, “It used to be that if you wanted to give and have an impact, people thought you had to be Bill Gates or Oprah Winfrey. But because of the way the technology works, you can be an ‘ordinary Oprah.’ If you’ve got $10 or $100 or $1,000, you can come and find a school in Africa to support, and you can get updates from the field to get responses to your support.”

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Senator Challenges Smithsonian to Raise $30-Million

In a contentious meeting between the Senate Rules and Administration Committee and Smithsonian officials Wednesday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, demanded that the institution raise money from private sources, reports The Washington Post.

Senator Feinstein, who chairs the committee, created a plan called the Legacy Fund to direct an additional $15-million in federal money to the institution on the condition that it raise $30-million in private money for maintenance and renovations. The plan received the support of the Senate and House Appropriations subcommittees on the interior and other agencies.

The plan was met with reluctance by Smithsonian officials at the hearing. Robert Kogod, chairman of the board’s facilities committee, said he preferred a one-to-one match for the money raised.

Of the Legacy Fund, Cristián Samper, the acting secretary of the Smithsonian, replied, “We are very grateful.”

To which Ms. Feinstein testily replied, “No, not ‘grateful.’ I hope it would be ‘very supportive.’ “

The Legacy Fund is included in the Interior appropriations bill for the 2008 fiscal year. Ms. Feinstein said she is optimistic that it will be passed by both houses of Congress.

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Generational Shift Seen in Giving to Jewish Causes

A generation of young Jewish donors is increasingly opting not to give to the causes supported by their parents and grandparents but are instead creating charities and foundations that are directly relevant to their lives, reports The Boston Globe.

Jewish donors traditionally have given to anti-defamation leagues, Jewish community centers, Jewish federations, and synagogues — charities that younger donors say are out of touch with what it means to be Jewish today.

A recent report by United Jewish Communities, a network of 155 Jewish federations throughout North America that distributes money to charities, found that federation giving among Jewish people under 50 years of age had sharply decreased. The report also found that nearly half of Jewish people between the ages of 55 and 64 gave to Jewish causes, while fewer than one-third of those between 18 and 34 did. The UJC also noted that fewer people are contributing to its annual fund-raising campaign.

Reflecting differing lifestyles between generations, groups such as InterfaithFamily.com, an online charity that promotes relationships between Jewish people and non-Jewish people, and JDub Records, which uses hip-hop music and reggae to espouse Jewish values, have been created by young people.

Both groups have received grants from the Slingshot Fund, created last year by young Jewish people in their 20s and 30s. The fund supports groups that do creative work that is usually ignored by traditional Jewish organizations.

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Experts Skeptical About Value of Charity Product Ties

The practice of companies including a donation in the purchase price of items such as clothing or jewelry has some charity experts concerned that such promotions are more about marketing than helping charities, reports The New York Times.

Experts say that the practice, which some consultants have termed “embedded giving,” is unregulated. Many charities and corporate partners decline to reveal how much money is raised or how money is distributed.

Lucy Bernholz, founder of Blueprint Research and Design, a consulting firm for nonprofit organizations, said, “It’s virtuousness as a marketing gimmick run amok.”

In one example, the World Wildlife Fund was the unwitting beneficiary of a giving program mentioned in the Barneys New York “Have a Green Holiday” catalog. The charity discovered this only after being contacted by the newspaper for the story.

Some experts worry that mixing products and charitable donations could decrease direct contributions to charities. Timothy N. Ogden, chief knowledge officer at Geneva Global, a philanthropic consulting firm, said, “Once purchasing and giving are conflated, the consumer is likely to conflate retailers and charities.”

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From The Chronicle: Nonprofit-Management Courses

An association of universities that offer courses on nonprofit management have released new guidelines devoted to shaping undergraduate study of the philanthropic world, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.

Give and Take, a Roundup of Nonprofit Blogs

Give and Take is a service of The Chronicle of Philanthropy that rounds up the best postings that appear on blogs about the nonprofit world.

Among the most-recent postings:

An online poll for the best — and worst — celebrity philanthropists.

A skeptical view of the United Way’s latest fund-raising plan.

Lessons for all charities in the Red Cross’s woes.

You can also read previous postings on issues about philanthropic giving, fund raising, and management of nonprofit organizations.

Give and Take is updated regularly throughout the day.

December 12, 2007

L.A. Couple Gives Major Modern-Art Collection

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art announced a gift this week from Janice and Henri Lazarof that includes their private collection of 130 works, valued at roughly $100-million, reports the Los Angeles Times. The gift, which includes 20 works by Pablo Picasso spanning 65 years, comes at a key time for the museum as it enters a new phase of renovation and expansion.

Mr. Lazarof, a veteran composer, and Mrs. Lazarof, daughter of the late banker and philanthropist S. Mark Taper and president of the S. Mark Taper Foundation, have kept a low profile in art circles but said they have long considered what to do with their impressive collection. Mrs. Lazarof explained that, as long-time Los Angeles residents, “we wanted to be able to enjoy watching other people enjoy what we had enjoyed for so many years.”

About 80 works from the collection will debut in the museum on January 13, just before the museum opens a new contemporary art building financed by Eli Broad as part of its expansion and renovation project.

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NFL Players Hope Disability Fund Will Lead to Policy Change

Two NFL players — Matt Birk, of the Minnesota Vikings, and Kyle Turley, of the Kansas City Chiefs — have been aggressively raising money for the nonprofit Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund to help retired players who are disabled by football-related injuries, reports The New York Times.

Mr. Birk and Mr. Turley have each given $25,000 to the fund. But they said their long-term goal was to use the fund to help overhaul the current Players Association policy regarding disability benefits.

Mr. Turley told The Minneapolis Star Tribune, “every player in the league is at risk of becoming a retired player every day that you’re on the practice field.”

On hand for the announcement was Hall of Famer Mike Ditka who also contributed $25,000 to the fund. According to the Associated Press, Mr. Ditka’s Hall of Fame Assistance Trust Fund, which was created to cover health costs of former NFL players, was recently dissolved after criticisms that it had distributed only $57,000 of the $1.3-million collected since 2004.

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Russia Seeks to Shut Down British Charity's Offices

The British Council, a nonprofit group sponsored by England’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office, may have to suspend some of its regional operations after Russian authorities claimed the organization has no legal basis to work in the country, The Washington Post reports.

The Russian Foreign Ministry ordered the closure of all of the group’s offices in Russia, outside Moscow, by January 1, the paper said. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said in a statement that “the practical activity of the council was accompanied by violations of the Russian financial, tax, and other laws.”

The dispute highlights the growing strain in British-Russian relations that began after Russia refused to extradite Andrei Lugovoy, the prime suspect in the murder of Alexander Litvinenko in London in November 2006.

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Experts Offer Advice on Food-Related Giving

With food banks struggling to bring in donations during a time of increased demand, The New York Times has compiled a giving guide for donors who want to help such charities.

Experts such as Melissa Berman, president of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors and an adjunct associate professor in the social-enterprise program at the Columbia Business School, says donors should begin by looking inward. She said, “The question to ask yourself as a donor is, What problem do I want to solve, and how do I best think that it could get solved?”

Ms. Berman suggested that donors consider what size organization to give to first and then follow up by examining the group’s fund-raising and administrative expenses to ensure efficiency in operations.

Others, such as author and nutrition professor Marion Nestle, who teaches at New York University, suggested giving on a “friendship basis,” meaning to groups with whom the donor has a personal connection.

Gael Greene, New York food critic, author, and a board member of Citymeals-on-Wheels, however, said that during a year in which food banks are facing critical shortages, donors should respond first to immediate needs. She said, “To think there are people in New York City that don’t have enough to eat when we eat the way we do is unconscionable.”

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From The Chronicle: Recipients of 'Megagifts'

Colleges, hospitals, and museums — long at the top of the list for America’s biggest donors and grant makers — are receiving a growing slice of multimillion-dollar gifts, according to a new study, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.

December 11, 2007

Philanthropy Grows Increasingly Global

Philanthropy is becoming increasingly global, in large part because of changes in technology and the number of donors who made their money from businesses that operate around the world, declares The Financial Times in a special section examining the changing trends in giving.

Awareness of the problems facing remote parts of the world is also growing, says the newspaper, as people travel more frequently and people like Bill Gates and Al Gore raise the visibility of global issues, reports the newspaper.

The special report also examines ways in which the Internet is providing charities with a low-cost tool that nonprofit groups can deploy to spread their messages to as many potential donors as possible. Another article suggests that the Internet is “providing a forum for the exchange of knowledge and ideas between charities and nonprofit groups, facilitating a more ‘open source’ approach to coming up with solutions to intractable problems.”

The report also provides an in-depth look at companies encouraging their workers to volunteer with charities, the push for greater openness, among U.S. foundations, and other articles about the changes sweeping the nonprofit world.

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Foundation Establishes College Savings for Newborns

Officials at the Harold Alfond Foundation, in Portland, Me., said they will soon begin a program at two Maine hospitals that will establish a $500 college savings account for each child born at the institutions, reports the Portland Press Herald.

The money will be invested in college-tuition savings accounts managed by the Finance Authority of Maine. Money invested in the accounts will not be taxed as long as it is used for college tuition.

Mr. Alfond, who founded Dexter Shoes and was a big shareholder in Berkshire Hathaway, died last month at age 93.

Foundation officials said that the investment will grow to $2,000 in 18 years, based on 8 percent interest. If the money is matched by $50 a month from a child’s family, the account would then be worth $25,000 by the time the child reaches age 18.

The donations will cost the foundation more than $7-million a year if current birth rates continue.

Six Charity Workers Face Trial in Chad

Six French members of the Zoe’s Ark charity are among 10 people who will be tried by a criminal court in Chad after they attempted to fly 103 African children to France, reports Agence France-Presse.

The others include three Chadians, and a Sudanese national who are being held for complicity in kidnappings and fraud.

A Chadian judge has dismissed the case against 12 other suspects. The French workers were among a group of 17 Europeans arrested in the Chadian city of Abeche after the group tried to fly the African children to France last month, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy. Those being tried face charges of kidnapping minors, fraud, and document forgery.

The defendants face terms of between five and 20 years of hard labor if they are found guilty. All six French defendants say they are innocent, and lawyers for Zoe’s Ark have argued that the children were orphans from Darfur, the war-torn Sudanese region that borders Chad.

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From The Chronicle: Campaign 2008

Sixty organizations today announced that they have formed a coalition, pioneered by social entrepreneurs, to press the presidential candidates to consider solutions to America’s problems, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.

From The Chronicle: United Way's New Fund-Raising Effort

Thirteen banks have offered to encourage consumers to make a one-cent donation to United Way of America every time they use a charge or debit card, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.

From The Chronicle: $600,000 International Justice Prize

In an effort to raise the profile of justice issues around the globe, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation on Monday awarded Kofi Annan, the former head of the United Nations, with a new prize for international justice, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.

The award provides Mr. Annan with $100,000 and enables him to select a charity to receive an additional $500,000.

From The Chronicle: Rating Charities

Read a transcript of The Chronicle’s online conversation today with Holden Karnofsky, who is seeking new ways to evaluate whether charities are making a difference — and trying to establish a foundation he calls the “world’s first completely transparent charitable grant maker.”

December 10, 2007

Schwarzenegger Reveals Names of Donors

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, of California, revealed the names of donors who have contributed money to a little-known nonprofit group that has paid for many of the governor’s international trips, reports the Los Angeles Times.

The group, called the California State Protocol Foundation, is set up as a charity, and part of its mission is to enable Mr. Schwarzenegger to serve as an “ambassador” for the state. Donations have paid for trips made by the governor and his aides to Canada, China, Israel, and other locales. Money has also been given to support Mr. Schwarzenegger’s state delegation to China for the Special Olympics.

In the past, both the governor and the nonprofit group have declined to name donors or describe their ties to the state government.

A November fund-raising event garnered $435,000 in gifts for the nonprofit organization. Among the donors: Don Fisher, founder of the Gap clothing stores; Charles Munger Jr., the son of Berkshire Hathaway’s vice chairman, Charles T. Munger; and George P. Shultz, the former U.S. secretary of state.

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Museums Engage in Legal Dispute Over Two Picassos

A legal battle over two Picasso paintings has begun between two major New York art museums and the descendant of the paintings’ original owner, who claims that the works were forcibly sold in Nazi Germany, reports The New York Times.

The Museum of Modern Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, which oversees the Guggenheim Museum, asked a federal court last week to declare them the owners of the paintings — “Boy Leading a Horse” (1906) and “Moulin de la Galette” (1900), respectively.

“Boy Leading a Horse” was donated to MoMA by the founder of CBS, William S. Paley, in 1964. The art dealer Justin K. Thannhauser donated the other Picasso to the Guggenheim in 1963.

Lawyers for Julius H. Schoeps, the great-nephew of the paintings’ original owner, Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, say the works were sold to Mr. Thannhauser under pressure from the Nazis. They have demanded the return of the paintings. Mr. Schoeps’s lawyers offered no comment for the article.

Thomas Krens, director of the Guggenheim, says, “Both museums feel this claim is without merit. This is a serious issue, and we want to take the most direct path to confirm it.”

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Groups Say Volunteers Needed to Transport Older Adults

Charities that help older adults who need transportation say they face a growing shortage of volunteer drivers, just as demand is expected to grow, reports The Washington Post.

Organizations like the Annandale Christian Community for Action, based in Virginia, say the average age of its drivers is now 89. The group says it has a hard time recruiting younger people who can drive during the day.

The AARP says that more than 20 percent of Americans age 65 and older do not drive, and more than half of them often stay home because they have no means of transportation. This is especially true among those who have health problems, are poor, or live in rural areas.

Vacationers Look to Mix Philanthropy With Luxury

Tour operators are capitalizing on an increasing desire by wealthy vacationers to combine luxury travel with doing good works, reports The New York Times.

Ashley Isaacs Ganz, president of Artisans of Leisure, a luxury-tour company, says that the demand for such trips has risen by 15 percent over the last two years.

Participants travel to locales such as Cambodia, Kenya, and Vietnam to visit schools, hospitals, or wildlife centers.

Travelers also go on traditional sightseeing tours and safaris that may cost $300 to $1,000 a day, not including airfare.

The increased interest for philanthropically minded trips may be inspired by celebrities like Bono and Angelina Jolie, who promote international causes, the article says.

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Opinion: Charities Should Be More Open and Accountable

In a special section devoted to philanthropy, an opinion article in The Wall Street Journal says that charities should be more forthcoming about their effectiveness and adopt more thorough forms of evaluation.

The opinion piece — written by Sally Beatty, a Wall Street Journal writer — cites a recent study by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University that found that wealthy Americans would give more if charities spent less on administrative costs and did a better job of showing how donations make a difference.

The Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance, which evaluates charities, reports that about 30 percent of the charities that the alliance asked for information failed to provide it, an increase from 22 percent four years ago.

In an interview, Brian Gallagher, chief executive of United Way of America, says nonprofit groups can be reluctant about being evaluated. He says, “We get irrational pushback from nonprofits who say, ‘You can’t measure mission-centered work.’ You most certainly can. The question is, ‘Are you committed to do it?’ And then, ‘Are you committed to report on it?’”

The article makes three recommendations for how charities can be more accountable: 1) Provide more information online; 2) Adopt high standards of measuring efficiency; and 3) Adhere to those voluntary standards.

The special section also includes a guide to giving and financial planning, information on how to research charities, a story on how philanthropy assists disaster relief, an article about charitable foundations, and a piece on British philanthropy.

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Government and Politics Watch

Among the highlights from The Chronicle’s Government and Politics Watch is the decision of an evangelical group to send its lawyers to meet with Sen. Charles E. Grassley to discuss the senator’s request for information.

December 2007

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