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, Anne W. Howard, and Candie Jones.

RSS / Atom

June 2008

June 30, 2008

Children of Arts Patrons Learning to Take the Reins

The children and grandchildren of arts patrons are learning to follow in their forebears’ footsteps by getting academic training in the arts, organizing galas, joining board meetings, and even working “in the trenches” at nonprofit groups, reports The New York Times.

“Arts institutions are now seeing more young people who want to be involved in and respect family histories,” says Virginia M. Esposito, president of the National Center for Family Philanthropy. Young patrons, she adds, “also want to ensure that those institutions reflect their changing values and experiences.”

Patsy Tarr, a dance advocate at the 2wice Arts Foundation, has groomed her daughter, Jennie Tarr Coyne, to work in arts patronage and has taught her that philanthropy is not just about benefits and galas. Ms. Tarr Coyne studied art history at Harvard University and earned a master’s degree in museum studies from Bank Street College; she works as vice president of the 2wice Arts Foundation, volunteers at the Metropolitan Museum of New York, has served as a board member of several dance companies, and wrote a children’s book on female artists.

“Jennie will most likely, if she wants it, eventually have the ability to give out grant money, but that is far off in the future,” says Mrs. Tarr. “We do not see ourselves in the world of philanthropy at all. We see ourselves in dance and museum education.”

Warren Buffett Helps Charity Raise $2-Million

The Glide Foundation, a San Francisco antipoverty group, will receive more than $2-million from a Chinese businessman who made the highest bid in an auction offering lunch with the billionaire and philanthropist Warren Buffett, reports the Reuters news agency.

Zhao Danyang, general manager of Pure Heart China Growth Investment Fund, bid $2.11-million — more than triple last year’s record set at the auction, the news agency reports.

Mr. Buffett has been donating lunches since 2000. The auctions have raised more than $4-million for Glide. (Read an article from The Chronicle’s archive about the Buffett family’s support for Glide.)

'Voluntourism' Gets Revamped to Make It More Fun

Some of the early “voluntourism” trips — where tourists spend their vacation volunteering on a local project — have proven to be a little too much work and not enough fun, but trip organizers are learning to focus on balancing vacation and service, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Critics of voluntourism have argued that the trips are simply too short for the mostly unskilled volunteers to acclimate to a new culture or make a real difference, and that tourists displace local workers who are just as able to construct a building, teach children, or make food, the newspaper reports. Newer programs combine volunteering and free time to give volunteers a chance to sightsee and take a break from work.

“We have to start with the principle of: Is there anything to offer the tourist?” says Kate Lloyd-Williams, who runs the Stay Another Day voluntourism program.

The article also offers several resources and tips on choosing and participating in a volunteering vacation.

Opinion: For-Profit Approach to Offer the Poor Small Loans Gets Unfair Criticism

Nonprofit leaders have criticized a successful Mexican for-profit bank that makes small loans to poor entrepreneurs because “the international charity brigade is at risk of becoming obsolete,” argues an editorial writer in The Wall Street Journal.

Compartamos Banco makes loans to very poor women and others who have struggled to obtain financial help. With an average loan size of $450, the bank serves 900,000 borrowers.

Compartamos began its life as a nonprofit group, but realized after 10 years that by forming a for-profit arm it could dig into sources of capital besides government and charity money. But critics like Richard Rosenberg, an adviser to the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor, argue that the for-profit approach may undermine the bank’s potential for helping poor people out of poverty.

The Journal suspects that the reason for this criticism is that successful for-profit ventures crowd out nonprofit organizations.

“Perhaps this explains why people who make their living giving away other people’s money are badmouthing Compartamos for the vulgar practice of earning ‘too much’ profit,” the editorial writer says.

Opinion: Defenders of an Arts Donor Are Right, Even Though Courts Don't Agree

The Friends of the Barnes Foundation, a group fighting to keep a museum in suburban Philadelphia, as its founder said he wanted in his will, continue their battle even as it seems their last-ditch efforts have been exhausted, writes Edward Sozanski, an art critic at the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The Friends’ petition to reopen legal hearings on the move was dismissed on a technicality, and it does not look like there are many more options to challenge the move.

But, Mr. Sozanski writes, “by filing their petition, they were representing the person who truly lacked standing, and whose historical and esthetic legacy is being threatened by a cabal of interests that appear not to appreciate its essential nature” — Albert Barnes, the donor who founded the museum known as the Barnes Foundation.

“The people who best understand and appreciate the significance of the Barnes collection and its educational program within the context of American cultural history have been ridiculed as cranks, crackpots, and cultists. And yet they have been mostly right all along,” writes Mr. Sozanski. “They still are, despite the fact that momentum for the move, generated by powerful political, economic, social, and cultural pressures, now appears too inevitable to overcome.”

Prospecting: Why Direct Mail Isn't Doing So Well

Two direct-marketing experts offer ideas about why baby boomers are slowing their response to direct mail — and it isn’t because they are giving online in other ways, according to a new item in Prospecting, The Chronicle’s fund-raising column.

Plus: Why nonprofit groups lose out on some big gifts.

Give and Take: Debating Creative Capitalism

Is Bill Gates’s idea to promote “creative capitalism” wise or naive? Two journalists who are writing a book are using a Web site to generate discussion of the issue, reports a new post in Give and Take, The Chronicle’s roundup of the best blog items about the nonprofit world.

Online Discussion Tomorrow: How Charities Can Go Green

Join us tomorrow at 12 noon, U.S. Eastern time, for an online discussion about the environmentally friendly steps charities can take to both save money and save the planet.

Our guests will be:

Cynthia L. Bailie, director of the Foundation Center’s Cleveland office and of the organization’s special online initiatives.

Sarah S. Brophy, a consultant who helps museums, historic houses, and other cultural institutions in New England and the Mid-Atlantic become environmentally and financially sustainable. She is co-author of The Green Museum: A Primer on Environmental Practice.

Kimberly Austin, a program associate at the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta. As part of her role, Ms. Austin is involved in Grants to Green, a new program that provides environmentally focused knowledge and financing to nonprofit groups in metropolitan Atlanta.

From the Chronicle: A Billion-Dollar Call for Change

Angry about the fiscal course pursued by the federal government, the financier Peter G. Peterson plans to put $1-billion into a new foundation that will support efforts to call for new public policies. As the foundation opened its doors last week, its founding donor and chief executive talked to The Chronicle about their plans.

June 27, 2008

From The Chronicle: Alaska's Charitable-Giving Law

Alaska has passed a new law aimed at bolstering philanthropic giving among state residents, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports. Starting next year, Alaskans can elect to donate to charity all or a portion of the annual dividend check they receive from the nearly $38-billion fund created to share the state’s oil wealth.

From The Chronicle: President Bush's 'Faith-Based' Update

President Bush told a gathering of religious and other nonprofit leaders that he is confident that efforts to help religious charities get government grants — which he called “one of the most important initiatives of this administration” —will continue after he leaves office next January, reports The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Humanitarian Groups Overstate Ethopia's Drought Crisis, Official Says

An Ethiopian official said that aid organizations are exaggerating the effects of a drought in that country in order to raise money “under false pretenses,” reports Reuters.

“These humanitarian organizations are showing pictures of emaciated babies on television, telling the world six million children are malnourished and that there will be a calamity unless they receive funds,” said Deputy Prime Minister Adisu Legesse. “While we appreciate assistance whenever it is needed, we reject being used as publicity to raise funds under false pretenses.”

Mr. Legesse, who is also Ethiopia’s minister of agriculture and rural development, added that some 4.6 million people and around 75,000 children need help, but that there is no famine.

The United Nations says that Ethiopia needs $325-million for 400,000 tons of food, according to the wire service.

Smithsonian Gets $15-Million for Ocean Project

Roger Sant, co-founder of the AES Corporation, a power company, and his wife, Victoria, are donating $15-million to the Smithsonian Institution for a new project about oceans and marine science at the National Museum of Natural History, reports The Washington Post.

Mr. Sant is chairman of the Smithsonian Institution’s governing board and chairman of the natural-history museum’s board, a post that he is resigning later this year. He and his wife have given a total of $25-million to the oceans project.

Last year, Mr. Sant criticized a $5-million pledge from the American Petroleum Institute because of the petroleum industry’s environmental record, and the institute withdrew the offer.

Ms. Sant is president of the Summit Foundation and the Summit Fund, Washington charities founded by the Sant family, and is president of the National Gallery of Art board and honorary chairman of the Phillips Collection.

(A free subscription is required to view this article.)

Cleveland Responds to Lack of Diversity on Nonprofit Boards

A recent study citing the dearth of minorities on nonprofit boards has spurred charities and civic leaders in Cleveland to create an antidote, reports The Plain Dealer, in Cleveland.

The Urban Institute released a report last year that surveyed more than 5,000 public charities around the nation and found that 86 percent of nonprofit board members were white, followed by 7 percent black, and 3.5 percent Hispanic.

To combat this, several black professionals in Cleveland started the Minority Board Member Pipeline Initiative, a service to match professionals of color to nonprofit boards.

Randell McShepard, one of the group’s founders, said, “I was appalled when I saw the Urban Institute research. Who the boards are serving, in the majority of cases, are people of color.”

Another group in Cleveland, Business Volunteers Unlimited, also steers minority professionals to nonprofit boards.

Program Pays Drug Addicts to Take Birth Control or Undergo Sterilization

A controversial program rewards drug users for accepting temporary or permanent birth control, reports The Daily Sentinel, in Colorado.

To qualify for the Project Prevention program, women must prove that they use drugs by presenting an arresting document, a statement from a rehabilitation clinic, or another official form. The clinic gives the women $300 and either Depo-Provera, Norplant, or Implanon. Men and women who elect to undergo sterilization, through vasectomy or tubal ligation, must be sober to make the decision. Altogether, about 2,500 women have been paid to use birth control, the newspaper reports.

Other groups argue that paying drug addicts only enables them to buy more drugs and that sterilizing substance abusers amounts to racial discrimination. But health officials in Colorado and Barbara Harris, who runs Project Prevention, point to the health problems suffered by children of addicts.

“I believe with all my heart that I’m preventing a tragedy,” says Ms. Harris.

Prospecting: Stock Donations Rising Rapidly

Americans are giving away tens of billions of dollars worth of stock, art, real estate, and other noncash gifts every year, according to the Internal Revenue Service, reports Prospecting, The Chronicle’s online column on fund raising.

Online Discussion Next Week: Going Green

Mark your calendar for our next online discussion, on Tuesday, July 1, at 12 noon, U.S. Eastern time. We’ll discuss the environmentally friendly steps charities can take to both save money and save the planet.

June 26, 2008

From The Chronicle: Donations for Midwest Floods

Charities have raised at least $13.3-million to help the victims of the recent floods in the Midwest, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.

From The Chronicle: Sharp Drop in Value of Utah Foundation

The value of the Huntsman Foundation fell sharply last week, after an expected buyer for the Huntsman Corporation — whose stock is a major financial base of the foundation — said it might not be able to complete the deal, reports The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Charlotte United Way President Gets Big Benefits Increase

The president of the United Way, in Charlotte, N.C., received an increase of more than $700,000 in retirement benefits for the 2007 fiscal year, reports The Charlotte Observer. The annual compensation for the president, Gloria Pace King, is now more than $1.2-million, with her benefits package rising from $108,590 to $822,507.

The organization said the increase is part of a Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan for certain managers, with the increase in benefits covering an 18-month period, as the plan is being applied retroactively to the beginning of 2006. Additionally, the plan may include payments promised in a 2001 agreement that were not previously delivered, the article noted.

The agency’s board chairman defended the increase as deserved; Ms. Pace King helped the Charlotte United Way raise a record $44-million last year.

But Aaron Dorfman, executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, a charity watchdog group, countered: “Nonprofit executives deserve fair compensation packages, but this is outrageous.”

As comparison, the United Way of Greater St. Louis, which raised $69-million last year, paid its leader $254,487 in salary and contributed $75,826 for benefits, according to the agency’s tax filings, the article said.

Married Couple Run Related Hedge Fund and Charity

Christopher Cooper-Hohn manages the Children’s Investment Fund, which donates some of its profits to help underprivileged children worldwide via the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, which his wife, Jamie, leads, reports The New York Times.

The couple have become the most generous philanthropists in Britain through the hedge fund’s and the charity’s unusual fee structures. Both were established in 2003, with the requirement that investors pay a 1-percent fee to the fund and a 0.5-percent fee to the foundation; if the hedge fund does well — with a return of more than 11 percent — investors pay the foundation another 0.5 percent.

The Children’s Investment Fund Foundation earned $856-million in the 2007 fiscal year, reflecting major contributions from the hedge fund and the couple themselves. The foundation’s total funds in Britain are about $1.6-billion, and it has a smaller U.S. presence worth about $156-million.

The charity worked with Bill Clinton’s foundation to reduce HIV-drug prices for children in a public-housing project and has done extensive work to help children and families affected by the disease in India. One of the foundation’s next major projects is to work with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to promote enriched food in countries where malnutrition is common.

(Free registration is required to view this article.)

Painting Donated to Goodwill Sells for $40,000

A rural Maryland Goodwill store received a donation that turned out to be a French Impressionist painting worth more than $40,000, reports the Associated Press.

Store employees suspected the painting, donated in March, to be valuable and asked the manager, Terri Tonelli, to take a look at it. She Googled the artist’s name, Edouard-Leon Cortes, and realized his works had sold for prices nearing $60,000 in recent auctions.

The painting, called “Marche aux fleurs,” features a Parisian street scene and was probably completed in the early 20th century. It sold for $40,600 at a recent Sotheby’s auction.

Bipartisan Group Wants New Treatment Standard for Detainees

Three nonprofit groups plan to release a statement today that requests a presidential order to end some interrogation and detention practices, reports The New York Times.

Organized by the Center for Victims of Torture, Evangelicals for Human Rights, and the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, a bipartisan group of more than 200 former government officials, retired generals, and religious leaders signed the document. They want the government to commit to only using methods the United States would find acceptable for other countries to use against American soldiers and citizens.

Further, the group seeks the end of both secret detentions and the transfer of prisoners to countries that use torture or cruel treatment.

Tony Fratto, a White House spokesman, said that President Bush signed an executive order last year outlawing torture while allowing the CIA to use some coercive methods; he also said that terrorists should not be treated the same way as American soldiers.

(Free registration is required to view this article.)

Top Schools Encourage Students to Seek Careers of Service

The Harvard professor Howard Gardner has begun leading “reflection” seminars at his university, as well as at Amherst and Colby Colleges, in hopes of encouraging more students to consider public-service and other careers beyond those in the financial sector, reports The New York Times.

“Is this what a Harvard education is for?” asked Mr. Gardner. “Are Ivy League schools simply becoming selecting mechanisms for Wall Street?”

Such questions highlight the increasing degree to which other institutions, such as Amherst, Tufts University, and the University of Pennsylvania, are seeking to respond to the same concern and, like Harvard, have expanded public-service fellowships and internships in response. “We’re in the business of graduating people who will make the world better in some way,” said Anthony Marx, president of Amherst. “That’s what justifies the expense of the education.”

(Free registration is required to view this article.)

Give and Take: Focusing Health Care on the Grass Roots

Health-care donors could make a major difference by giving money to fix common problems at local doctors’ offices and clinics that prevent Americans from getting effective care, says a new post in Give and Take, The Chronicle’s roundup of the best commentaries on philanthropy.

Correction: Bill Gates's Philanthropy

Yesterday’s Philanthropy Today misstated the size of the endowment for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in an item that linked to a Seattle Post-Intelligencer article. The foundation’s endowment is $38-billion.

June 25, 2008

Bill Gates Charts Future Course for Foundation

With an endowment of $38-billion that will essentially double with Warren Buffett’s 2006 commitment to distribute the bulk of his wealth to the fund, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation next year will be obligated to give away at least $3-billion annually to avoid paying penalty taxes, reports the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Mr. Gates told the newspaper that he plans to spend more time reviewing the strategy of the foundation, which has so far pledged $16.5-billion to various projects, and said he hopes to meet more with recipient organizations that have received research grants. “I’ll be out visiting those sites, talking to the scientists, and going to more conferences,” said Mr. Gates.

An article in The Seattle Times highlights China as one of the first priorities Mr. Gates will focus on when he assumes his new role as a full-time philanthropist this summer. The foundation will support health programs in the country, such as HIV/AIDS prevention and a new effort to curb smoking, and will collaborate with experts to improve African agriculture.

“China is kind of interesting, because … it’s a recipient [of assistance], but in a lot of ways it’s a participant in the things that need to get done,” said Mr. Gates. “They have capabilities that, now that they’ve improved their economy a lot, they can be a factor to help poorer countries.”

Ohio U. Gift Valued at Over $91-Million

A gift donated to Ohio University from the estate of the late Fritz J. and Dolores H. Russ of Dayton, Ohio, that in January was worth an estimated $80-million, is now valued at over $91.8-million, making it the largest received by any public university in Ohio, reports the university. The proceeds, $79.1-million in cash and securities, and $12.7-million in property, will go to the university’s college of engineering.

Mr. Russ received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Ohio University in 1942. The gift brings the Russes’ total giving to the university to at least $100.7-million.

Religious Group Challenges Legal Restrictions on Political Activity

A religious legal group, the Alliance Defense Fund, has begun a campaign to challenge the federal tax law that forbids tax-exempt groups from endorsing or opposing political candidates, reports AlterNet.

Citing a May 9 Wall Street Journal article, AlterNet said the group is urging pastors to discuss candidates for public office in hopes of sparking a new case to test the law, which in 2000 was unanimously upheld by a federal appeals court in the face of pressure on Congress to change it.

Despite a lack of support from ministers unwilling to engage their congregations politically, the legal group claims that dozens of religious leaders have expressed interest in taking part in the effort, which has drawn strong criticism.

“I assume the ADF will provide a list of congregations unwise enough to join this move, and we’ll be ready to report those churches to the IRS,” said Barry W. Lynn, executive Director at Americans United.

Also: Nonprofit leaders have filed a court motion this week challenging a controversial Georgia sex-offender registry law that stipulates that no registered sex offender can work for or volunteer at a church, an article in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. The court motion — which seeks to delay enforcement of the new provision until it becomes law on July 1 — argues that the law “criminalizes fundamental religious activities.”

“With this law, the state of Georgia is driving people on the registry from the faith communities and depriving them of the rehabilitative influence of the church,” said Sarah Geraghty, a lawyer with the Southern Center for Human Rights.

Legal Battles Tie Up Money Left for Poor Children in Panama

A gift of tens of millions of dollars to a foundation to help needy children in Panama has been tied up in disputes involving over 20 law firms, the Panamanian courts, and the donor’s surviving family, reports The New York Times. The donation — from the will of Wilson C. Lucom, who died two years ago at the age of 88 — is the bulk of his estate.

“This is all about greed,” said Hector Avila, an advocate for needy children in Panama, who survived a shooting within a week of a protest he led in May to push the court to honor Mr. Lucom’s gift.

Panamanian courts have so far expressed support for the will, but critics remain wary of potential corruption. “If you ask me if I expect to win in light of all the corruption I’ve seen, I don’t expect to win it,” said Richard S. Lehman, a longtime lawyer to Mr. Lucom who is now caught in the middle of the battle and who has been suspended by a Panamanian judge as the executor of the will.

Mr. Lucom’s widow, Hilda Lucom, 84, who received a $20,000 monthly pension and the use of his artwork and furniture, is fighting for his will to be dismissed. “He never talked to me about poor children,” said Ms. Lucom, who added in a court deposition, “He didn’t like children.”

(Free registration is required to view this article.)

Sugar Buyout Would Free Up Land to Restore Everglades

A months-long, secretly negotiated $1.7-billion buyout deal, expected to be final by November 30, would free up nearly 300 square miles of land in the Everglades to be environmentally protected, reports The Miami Herald.

The deal is being celebrated on both sides of the buyout, including Robert Buker, president of U.S. Sugar, who said he was “saddened” at the thought of the company’s close but also hopeful that the move could serve as a solution to some of the state’s longest and most heated environmental conflicts, including concerns over industrial pollution and clean water.

“This has been the holy grail,” said Mark Kraus, senior vice president of the Everglades Foundation. “I really wouldn’t have believed I’d see this in my lifetime.”

From The Chronicle: Calif. Foundation-Diversity Bill Defeated

A coalition of 10 big California foundations has headed off controversial state legislation to require big grant makers to disclose information about the diversity of their giving, staff members, and boards by pledging to spend millions of dollars to strengthen organizations that serve minority and low-income people, reports The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Government and Politics Watch: Obama Seeks Nonprofit Leaders' Advice

Several nonprofit leaders are among a dozen people invited to attend a conference on economic competitiveness that Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, is holding on Thursday in Pittsburgh, reports The Chronicle’s Government and Politics Watch online column.

June 24, 2008

Foundation Supports New Elder-Care Effort

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, in Princeton, N.J., is investing $15-million over five years to support Bill Thomas’s vision of “Green Houses,” the 48-year-old physician’s effort to replace large nursing homes with small, homelike facilities for 10 to 12 elderly residents, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Forty-one Green Houses are up and running in 10 states, and foundation officials say they hope the houses will eventually be built in all 50 states.

The foundation’s support of the houses represents the most ambitious challenge to date to the nation’s system of 16,000 nursing homes. To supporters, Green Houses could sweep aside what many see as the degrading life the elderly can experience at large institutions.

But Susan Feeney, a spokeswoman for the American Health Care Association, which represents thousands of for-profit and nonprofit nursing homes, says many of those institutions are moving toward creating a more homelike feel. “While it may not be scrapping a large building … we are changing,” she says.

The Green Houses also face many impediments, including elder-care regulations and the high costs of building the houses. Experts also say the concept faces resistance from many parts of the existing nursing-home system. However, an independent study found that residents in the Green Houses might be safer and healthier. The study found that Green House residents fell less often and sustained fewer injuries than residents in traditional nursing-home settings, reported The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Foundation officials say they don’t know whether Green Houses would be an economically sound model for providing elder care, but they’ve decided to invest in the effort anyway. The foundation — which holds $10-billion in assets — is directing the cash to NCB Capital Impact, a Washington nonprofit group that has been offering architectural, consulting, education, and other help to any party interested in operating a Green House.

Bill Gates Leaves Microsoft to Focus on Philanthropy

Friday will mark Bill Gates’s last day as a full-time employee of Microsoft, the company he co-founded 33 years-ago, reports InformationWeek. Mr. Gates is leaving his company to concentrate on his work with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Seattle fund he and his wife established in 1999.

Mr. Gates will remain in his role as Microsoft’s chairman.

The software mogul said he plans to encourage his wealthy friends to support the foundation’s efforts. “I need to orchestrate the rich world to help out,” said Mr. Gates.

“Everybody should give time and some money,” he added. “Pick a cause, and there are so many good ones out there, that you can develop some expertise in, and perhaps involve your spouse or the rest of your family,” he said.

Read The Chronicle’s recent article on the Gates Foundation’s new leader.

(A paid subscription or short-term pass is required to view the Chronicle article.)

Performing-Arts School Receives Anonymous $9-Million

An anonymous donor has given the Colburn School, in Los Angeles, $9-million to support its Dance Institute, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The donation will be added to the Dance Institute’s $1-million endowment, bringing the total to $10-million.

School officials plan to rename the institute the Trudl Zipper Dance Institute after Viennese dancer Trudl Dubsky Zipper, who was the wife of the school’s co-founder, the conductor Herbert Zipper. It is not clear whether the anonymous donor is connected to the Zippers, both of whom are dead.

“The next year or two will be really just solidifying our department and building on what we’ve already done over the past couple of years,” said Leslie Carothers-Aromaa, a former principal dancer with the Joffrey Ballet and the new director of the institute.

The institute has 406 students and a program for high-school dancers training for professional dance careers. The training program was established in 2005 by Ms. Carothers-Aromaa and another former Joffrey dancer, Glen Edgerton.

Read this Chronicle article about the growing trend toward large, anonymous gifts.

(Free registration is required to view the Times article, and a paid subscription or short-term pass is required to view the Chronicle article.)

Nonprofit Mergers 'Messy' for Some

While nonprofit experts are pushing charities to merge as a way to keep up with increasing demands for services and tighter budgets, the experiences of several organizations offer cautionary tales of what can happen when charities merge, reports the MinnPost.com.

Jan McDaniel, chief executive officer for the American Red Cross Twin Cities Chapter, characterized her organization’s 2006 merger, which joined the organization’s Minneapolis and St. Paul chapters, as “messy.”

“It was pretty awful,” said Ms. McDaniel. “Frankly, the first year was just running around trying to clean up mistakes.”

Jodi Sandfort, associate professor at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey Institute and a nonprofit-management expert, thinks information about nonprofit mergers is insufficient and poorly understood.

“It was shocking to me to realize — particularly because of how important it is on the private-sector side — how little is understood on the nonprofit side,” she said.

According to one study, the Stanford Project on the Evolution of Nonprofits, nonprofit groups should save more money, budget more time, and get to know each other’s organization’s better before considering a merger.

Philanthropist Pleads Guilty in Fraud Case

Henry Samueli, one of southern California’s biggest philanthropists and a co-founder of the Broadcom Corporation, pleaded guilty on Monday in federal court to making a false statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission about his involvement in an alleged plan to reward his company’s employees by manipulating stock options, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Because he pleaded guilty, Mr. Samueli will be allowed to avoid time in jail. The federal government is recommending he spend five years on probation and pay $12.2 million in fines and penalties. Forbes magazine pegged Mr. Samueli’s fortune at just under $2-billion.

Mr. Samueli has given more than $200-million to charity, according to the newspaper. The beneficiaries of his donations include arts organizations, a marine-science institute for children, the engineering school at the University of California at Irvine, and the Sala and Aron Samueli Holocaust Memorial Library, at Chapman University, in Orange, Calif.

“There are people who come back from criminal convictions but usually only after a long period of penance and full admission of responsibility,” said John Coffee, a Columbia University law professor who specializes in white-collar crime. “But if he continues to give away a billion dollars in a thoughtful manner, I’m sure there are plenty of people out there who will forgive him.”

(Free registration is required to view this article.)

From The Chronicle: President of MacArthur Foundation to Step Down

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation will start a search this summer for a successor to its president, Jonathan F. Fanton, who will depart in September 2009 under the foundation’s term-limits policy, reports The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Transcript: How the Economy Affects Giving

Read the transcript of our online discussion exploring how the state of the American economy is affecting charity fund raising.

Joining us online will were:

Melissa S. Brown, managing editor of Giving USA.

Richard Belous, vice president of research at United Way of America, in Alexandria, Va.

Robert Evans, managing director of the EHL Consulting Group, a fund-raising consulting firm in Willow Grove, Pa.

Clarification: Lance Armstrong Foundation

A Philanthropy Today summary on Monday of an article in The New York Times incorrectly described fund-raising efforts by Lance Armstrong for his foundation. He started raising money through his yellow Livestrong bracelets 16 months before he retired from cycling. Since he left cycling, he has raised $100-million for his charitable foundation, and only a small portion of that comes from the bracelets, according to foundation officials. The money is used not solely to finance cancer research but also to help people who have survived cancer as well as advocacy efforts to improve the health-care system.

June 23, 2008

Lilly Endowment Gives $50-Million for Indiana Flood Relief

The Lilly Endowment, one of the largest foundations in the country, has awarded $50-million in grants to three organizations for flood relief in Indiana, the grant maker said in a press release.

The Indiana Association of United Ways will receive $45-million for a disaster-response fund that it will administer and dispense to applicant organizations. The American Red Cross and the Salvation Army will each receive $2.5-million to help people and communities with urgent needs and to refill their disaster-relief funds. The Red Cross had said last week that it had run out of money in its relief fund.

Two British Business Executives Commit $1.5-Billion to Charity

Two large gifts made by British business executives are marking a trend of the very rich to give more and more to philanthropic efforts rather than leaving their vast fortunes to their children, reports the Guardian.

Chris Hohn, a hedge-fund manager, has given $913.6-million to the Children’s Investment Fund, a charitable foundation run by his wife to support projects in Africa and the developing world. The donation is thought to be the largest ever made in Britain.

Duncan Bannatyne, an entrepreneur and star of the television show “Dragon’s Den,” plans to give away his entire fortune, approximately $588.2-million, to charity as well.

The article estimates that the 30 most-generous philanthropists among Britain’s wealthiest 1,000 people either donated or pledged over $4.6-billion over the year to May 2008, double the total of the previous year.

The donations came after two British universities announced big gifts last week.

Unicef Shuns Gifts From Israeli Billionaire

The United Nations Children’s Fund has decided not to accept donations from an Israeli billionaire on grounds that his company may be building settlements in occupied territory, reports Reuters.

Lev Leviev, a real-estate and diamond tycoon, is chairman of Africa Israel Investments, a conglomerate that owns Danya Cebus, a company that has been accused of building within the occupied West Bank. Mr. Leviev has contributed directly to Unicef and sponsored at least one fund-raising event for the organization.

The Arab-rights advocacy group Adalah-NY came to Unicef with its concerns that Mr. Leviev’s network of companies was engaged in settlement construction, an act considered illegal by the United Nations.

Upon reviewing the group’s charges, Unicef decided to cease its relationship with Mr. Leviev.

Chris de Bono, a senior adviser to the executive director of Unicef, said, “I can confirm that Unicef has advised Adalah in New York that it will not be entering into any partnerships or accepting financial contributions from Lev Leviev or his corporate people.”

Mr. Leviev was not available to comment to the news service on the Unicef decision, Reuters said.

Planned Parenthood's New Approach Draws Critics

Planned Parenthood is building new, more stylishly appointed health centers as part of an effort to attract more-affluent patients and increase its revenue, but some critics say that Planned Parenthood is drifting away from its original mission, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Planned Parenthood has built two large new health centers, with at least five more on the way, and has opened more than two-dozen “express centers,” which offer faster service and sell merchandise. Many of the centers are located in suburban shopping malls.

Last year, the organization altered its mission statement, which used to say that all individuals have the right to “reproductive self-determination” regardless of income. Its statement now reads that the group will “leverage strength through our affiliated structure to be the nation’s most trusted provider of sexual and reproductive health care.”

Claire Keyes, an abortion provider in Pittsburgh, criticized the move, saying, “They’ve made a decision to go after the young and the hip and the affluent, and they’re leaving poor women behind.”

But Planned Parenthood says that by attracting people who can afford to pay full price out of pocket for services and contraception, the organization can afford to support health care for poor people, sex education for teenagers, and advocacy work. The group generated $1-billion in revenue in its most recent financial report and has $115-million in surplus cash.

Two Journalism Schools Receive $8-Million

The philanthropist Leonard Tow has given a total of $8-million to two journalism schools to analyze how newspapers can expand online and train students in new media, reports The New York Times.

Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism will receive $5-million, and the City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism will get $3-million.

Mr. Tow, who was chief executive of Century Communications, said he made the donation because “I’m really worried about the print-journalism side of the business. There’s so much contraction of employment going on; every day you pick up the paper and this chain or that chain has laid off another 10 percent, and we’re watching advertising support slowly disintegrate.”

Mr. Tow’s gift is part of a growing movement by donors and nonprofit groups to support journalism efforts, according to this article from The Chronicle’s archive.

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

Cyclist's Foundation Attracts Scrutiny

Some experts are concerned that instead of being known for his prolific fund raising on behalf of cancer research, Lance Armstrong is garnering more attention to his private life, reports The New York Times.

Since retiring from professional cycling, Mr. Armstrong has raised more than $70-million for cancer research through the sale of the very popular yellow Livestrong bracelets. He has also testified before Congress on the need for further research.

However, it is his romantic life that seems to spark newspaper headlines. Mr. Armstrong has had high-profile relationships with a number of celebrities, including the singer Sheryl Crow and the fashion designer Tory Burch.

Claire L. Gaudiani, a professor of philanthropy and fund raising at New York University, said, “He should be concerned about the impact of how he dates on the seriousness of his legacy. He’s got a great role to play, but it doesn’t have to be in bars or on red carpets with lovely young people. That will ruin his capacity to do the work he has said is important to him.”

Some people who have worked with Mr. Armstrong say that the significance of his work on behalf of cancer survivors outweighs his appearances on gossip pages.

Howard Chalmers, former leader of the Lance Armstrong Foundation from 1999 to 2001, said, “For cancer survivors and for the future of the foundation and the contribution the foundation can make, the boy has been cut a lot of slack and will continue to be cut a lot of slack because of the good he does.”

(Free registration is required to view this article.)

From The Chronicle: Giving Rose 1% Last Year, New Study Finds

The sluggish economy is showing its effects on charitable donations, which rose just 1 percent last year after inflation, according to Giving USA, the annual tally of American philanthropy.

Americans donated $306.4-billion in 2007, according to figures released today, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.

But fund raising is facing more challenges this year, especially as the housing and financial-services industries continue to crumble, fuel and food costs rise, and the stock market’s volatility strains individuals and organizations across the country. Charities report that donors of all types have recently delayed or reduced gifts — or stopped giving altogether.

Still, some organizations have come up with creative approaches to survive. You can listen to an audio interview with officials of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, who are working to encourage ticket buyers to step up their giving to the organization.

Give and Take: Advice for Generation Y

Nonprofit workers in their 20s should listen carefully to the advice of their older colleagues, advises a young nonprofit leader, in a post highlighted in The Chronicle’s Give and Take column.

Plus: The Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward is defending his foundation’s grant making.

Online Discussion Tomorrow: the Economy and the State of Giving

Join us tomorrow at noon Eastern time, for an online discussion exploring how the state of the American economy is affecting charity fund raising.

Experts will be available to take questions about the current giving climate and analyze the trends unveiled in the new edition of Giving USA, the annual tally of American philanthropy.

Joining us online will be:

Melissa S. Brown, managing editor of Giving USA.

Richard Belous, vice president of research at United Way of America, in Alexandria, Va.

Robert Evans, managing director of the EHL Consulting Group, a fund-raising consulting firm in Willow Grove, Pa.

The discussion is open to everyone, not just Chronicle subscribers.

People who ask questions in advance have a better chance of receiving answers during the online discussion.

June 20, 2008

U.S. Freezes Assets of Islamic Charity

The United States has taken action against the Al Haramain Islamic Foundation, freezing its assets in the United States and prohibiting Americans from donating to the organization or doing business with it, reports the Associated Press.

The charity, based in Saudi Arabia, is accused of sending money and support to Al Qaeda, the news service reports. From 2002 to 2004, the U.S. Treasury Department took similar action against 13 branches of the organization in the United States as well as in Afghanistan and the Netherlands.

Still, the Treasury Department notes that the organization continued to operate.

The article did not include any response from officials of the charity.

(Free registration is required to view this article on the Washington Post site.)

Historic Home Sites Face Financial Challenges

Historic house museums throughout the country are facing tough financial times, and many are embarking on new efforts to save their sites, reports the Associated Press.

Edith Wharton’s home, in Lenox, Mass., for example, has started a fund-raising campaign, saying it otherwise could face a mortgage foreclosure.

In Hartford, Conn., meanwhile, the Mark Twain House and Museum has already trimmed the size of its staff but is finding it difficult to come up with money to pay its bills, including a $4.9-million bank loan from earlier expansions, the news agency reports.

Richard Moe, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, tells the Associated Press that such institutions operate on a “shoestring” budget.

“It’s a complex financial situation out there for a lot of museums, and there’s no question that house museums are facing some unique challenges these days,” Mr. Moe says.

Atlanta Selected as Site for National Health Museum

The National Health Museum, which has displayed its collection on the Internet since it was founded in 1997 and at events it sponsored, has selected Atlanta for its new home and plans to build a 190,000-square-foot museum in the city, reports Cox News Service.

The organization said it chose Atlanta because it is already home to several major health institutions, including the American Cancer Society, the Arthritis Foundation, and the Centers for Disease Control, the news service reports.

Museum organizers plan to conduct a fund-raising drive to seek money for the new facility.

Online Discussion Next Week: The Economy and the State of Giving

Join us on Tuesday, June 24, at noon Eastern time, for an online discussion exploring how the state of the American economy is affecting charity fund raising.

Experts will be available to take questions about the current giving climate and analyze the trends unveiled in the new edition of Giving USA, the annual tally of American philanthropy, scheduled for release on Monday morning. (Check our site then for a full story on the new report.)

Joining us online will be Melissa S. Brown, managing editor of Giving USA, and Richard Belous, vice president of research at United Way of America, in Alexandria, Va.

The discussion is open to everyone, not just Chronicle subscribers.

People who ask questions in advance have a better chance of receiving answers during the online discussion.

Government and Politics Watch: The Candidates and the Estate Tax

The political debate over the estate tax has many implications for charities and has become an issue that divides the candidates for the White House, The Chronicle’s Government and Politics Watch column notes.

Give and Take: Graduate Training for Nonprofit Leaders

What graduate training is the most useful for nonprofit leaders to pursue? Join the discussion in The Chronicle’s Give and Take column, a roundup of the best blog posts about the nonprofit world.

From The Chronicle: What Foundations Can Do About the Housing Crisis

Foundations can take numerous steps to alleviate some of the troubles caused by the nation’s mortgage-foreclosure crisis, writes Rick Cohen in an opinion article in The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

(A paid subscription or short-term pass is required to view this article.)

June 19, 2008

British Universities' Campaigns Garner Big Gifts

Two British universities have received multimillion-dollar gifts this week, reports the Daily Telegraph, signaling a promising start to their capital campaigns.

The University of Oxford has received $50-million from Michael Moritz, a partner at Sequoia Capital, a venture-capital firm in California, and Harriet Heyman, a writer and former journalist with The New York Times. That university recently announced its campaign to raise about $2.5-billion.

Ros and Steve Edwards, who made millions through the sale of their software company, gave $60-million to the University of Cambridge, which is currently seeking about $2-billion in its campaign.

Read more about British philanthropy in The Chronicle.

(A paid subscription or short-term pass is required to view the Chronicle article.)

Insurance Company Ordered to Pay Princeton $9.6-Million in Legal Fees

A court has ordered an insurance carrier to pay Princeton University $9.6-million in legal fees related to a donor-intention dispute, after the insurer tried to cap its coverage at $5-million, reports the Times of Trenton.

Princeton is embroiled in a legal battle with the heirs of donors Charles S. and Marie Robertson, who gave $35-million in 1961 to encourage students to pursue careers in public service. The Robertson children argue that the university has used the endowment, which now stands at $880-million, for other purposes; the university says that it has fulfilled its obligations.

Because the Robertson Foundation board, which manages the endowment, is made up of four university-appointed members along with three family-appointed members, the insurance company sought to deny full coverage and argued the legal-expense claims were due to one insured party suing another. In 2006, the university sued National Union Fire Company of Pittsburgh and its parent company, American International Group.

A lawyer for Princeton says that legal expenses on both sides have totaled more than $50-million so far, the newspaper reports.

ACLU Asks Judge to Remove Muslim Groups From Co-Conspirators' List

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a motion to have two Muslim charities removed from the list of unindicted co-conspirators in a trial against the Holy Land Foundation, which is accused of funneling money to terrorists, reports The Dallas Morning News.

The Islamic Society of North America and the North American Islamic Trust argue that by including them on the list, the U.S. government has unfairly labeled them as terrorist supporters. Another group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, has filed a similar request separately.

In 2007, five leaders of the now-defunct Holy Land Foundation were tried on charges that they sent millions of dollars to Hamas, a Palestinian militant operation designated as a terrorist group by the United States and Europe. The case ended in a mistrial, and the retrial is set for September 8, the News reports.

Couple Works to Change Public-School Education

Wendy Kopp, who founded Teach for America, and her husband, Richard Barth, who runs the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP), have helped reshape ideas about education and now seek to remodel the nation’s public-school system itself, reports The New York Times.

Teach for America, which Ms. Kopp founded as a new Princeton graduate in 1989, recruits some of the nation’s top college graduates to work in poor public schools and has a budget of $120-million. Among its 14,000 alumni are Michelle Rhee, the Washington, D.C., schools chancellor, and Dave Levin and Michael Feinberg, the founders of KIPP, a network of charter schools that helps struggling students.

Ms. Kopp hired Mr. Barth to work at Teach for America in 1994; soon after, they began dating, and Mr. Barth left the group to work at another education organization. He is now working to expand KIPP so that it can enroll a significant portion of public-school students in Houston, New Orleans, Washington, and other cities.

While some critics have said the changes that Teach for America and KIPP can make on classroom teaching and the educational system are relatively small, other observers expect that the groups can make a significant difference.

“My generation thought the same thing, and we did change the schools a lot,” says Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of Great City Schools. “We pursued change through civil-rights laws and by seeking adequate funding and through legislation. They’re pursuing it through entrepreneurship, trying to bring in fresh blood and new energy.”

(Free registration is required to view this article.)

French Group Wants Investigation Into Sri Lanka Murders

Action Against Hunger, a Paris charity, has asked international authorities to investigate the August 2006 murders of 17 employees in Muttur, Sri Lanka, after strongly criticizing the local investigation, reports Agence France-Presse.

Seventeen aid workers employed by Action Against Hunger were found executed at a time when the government was battling Tamil rebels, who want to create their own homeland in the country. A Sri Lankan human-rights group said that members of the security forces and police were allegedly responsible for the murders.

Give and Take: Darwinism for Charities

If charities can’t show results, they should shut their doors, says Tom Belford, the veteran fund raiser and author of “The Agitator,“ reports Give and Take, The Chronicle’s roundup of the best posts about the nonprofit world.

Prospecting: Proving Results to a Foundation

Foundations “look for a relatively enduring change in behavior” when evaluating the success of their grant recipients, a speaker told a conference for fund raisers last week, according to The Chronicle’s Prospecting fund-raising column.

Government and Politics Watch: Foundation Leader Wins Seat in Congress

Donna Edwards, executive director of the Arca Foundation, in Washington, won a special election Tuesday to represent Maryland’s Fourth Congressional District in Congress, according to The Chronicle’s Government and Politics Watch column.

Plus: Two Washington think tanks have created a new fund to help policy makers, journalists, and the public better understand the way tax dollars are raised and spent.

Online Discussion Next Week: The State of Fund Raising

Join The Chronicle next Tuesday, June 24, at noon U.S. Eastern time for an online discussion about the economy’s impact on fund raising — and what nonprofit leaders need to know about trends in giving.

Experts will be available to take questions and analyze the trends unveiled in the new edition of Giving USA, the annual tally of American philanthropy, scheduled for release on Monday.

From The Chronicle: Promoting National Service

Two young men are traveling the country by Greyhound bus for 60 days, getting AmeriCorps volunteers to pressure politicians to expand national service, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.

(A paid subscription or temporary pass is required to view this article.)

June 18, 2008

From The Chronicle: Baby Boomers' Second Careers

At least 6 percent of Americans between the ages of 44 and 70, or 5.3 million people, are working in second careers with charities, governments, schools, or other institutions that benefit society, according to a new survey, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.

Foundations Give Millions for Efforts to Resolve Foreclosure Crisis

The Living Cities Consortium, which includes major foundations and financial institutions — such as the Ford, Kresge, and Annie E. Casey Foundations and Deutsche Bank — are announcing a plan to give as much as $10-million in grants and low-interest loans to state and local programs working to resolve the foreclosure crisis, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Intended to guide future efforts, the money will be used to buy, demolish, rehabilitate, and sell homes at more affordable prices, as well as keep foreclosed homes from being resold to speculators.

FEMA Returns Hurricane Supplies for Use by La. Charities

A portion of the $85-million in hurricane aid that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had distributed as federal surplus will be sent back to Louisiana and given to charities for distribution, reports CNN.

After the news network’s investigation revealed last week that FEMA had given away the relief supplies as government surplus, charity and state officials called for the supplies to be redirected back to Louisiana for Katrina victims still in need of the aid.

“It’s just another example of the failings of the federal bureaucracy,” said Sen. Mary L. Landrieu, a Louisiana Democrat, who has criticized FEMA’s response to the hurricane.

In defense of the agency’s decision, FEMA Administrator David Paulison told CNN that Louisiana had been offered some of the supplies but that state officials had declined the aid.

Boston Salvation Army Seeks to Revive Fund-Raising Effort

In the two years since the McDonald’s heiress Joan Kroc gave the Salvation Army in Boston $80-million to build a community center, the charity has had trouble raising the additional $30-million needed to begin construction, reports The Boston Globe.

With only $4.5-million raised and $5.3-million pledged, the charity has appointed John P. Hamill, chairman of Sovereign Bank New England, to lead a 24-member committee focused on raising the additional money, the newspaper says.

The charity has also hired a public-relations firm to promote the effort and will hold a reception tonight with potential donors.

(Free registration is required to view this article.)

Red Cross and Johnson & Johnson Agree to End Logo Battle

In a deal announced Tuesday, Johnson & Johnson and the American Red Cross have settled a lawsuit over the use of their shared red-and-white logo, reports the Associated Press.

The agreement comes after a federal judged dismissed the company’s lawsuit, ruling in favor of the charity’s right to use the symbol, including for self-promotion and fund raising. Johnson & Johnson had accused the Red Cross of violating a long-held trademark by selling products like humidifiers, toothbrushes, and combs under its own brand.

In a joint statement, the companies said that it is “more productive” to accept the judge’s ruling and forgo any remaining disputes.

(Free registration is required to view this article on the Boston Globe site.)

June 17, 2008

Red Cross Borrowing Money for Midwest Relief Effort

The American Red Cross announced on Monday that its disaster-relief fund is depleted and that it is borrowing money to pay for flood-relief efforts in the Midwest, reports The Washington Post.

While the Red Cross did not disclose the amount of debt accumulated for the Midwest aid effort, or the fund’s overall debt, the organization has already spent $15-million helping those affected by the Midwest flooding and may spend more than $40-million if the Mississippi River floods St. Louis later this week.

The organization, which maintains its headquarters in Washington, first took on loans in response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, borrowing $430-million, which it repaid by raising $2.1-billion in the months following the storm. The charity’s disaster-relief fund is currently empty.

“It’s a continuous series of storms and disasters that have led us to where we are today,” said Joe Becker, senior vice president for disaster services, who noted that the organization has had to deal with 30 midsize disasters since Katrina.

What’s more, the group said, the lack of a major disaster like Katrina has made it hard to galvanize donors to give, as has the troubled economy.

(Free registration is required to view this article.)

Judge Redistributes Leona Helmsley’s Estate to Charity

The Manhattan Surrogate Court has channeled $10-million of the $12-million the hotel mogul Leona Helmsley bequeathed to her dog to a charitable foundation, reports the Associated Press.

Mrs. Helmsley had left the money to her dog, Trouble, in her will, when she died last August. The judge said most of the money should go to the foundations Mrs. Helmsley established. It is not clear how much more of her estate will go to the foundation, but estimates are that a big chunk will go to charity.

(Free registration is required to view this article on the New York Times site.)

Cities Consider Copying Children's Charity in Harlem

The Harlem Children’s Zone, a New York charity that offers comprehensive services to young people, is a potential model for other urban areas plagued by crime, poverty, and poor education, says The Baltimore Sun.

The organization began a decade ago as a one-block pilot program and now reaches 7,400 children, about 75 percent of the youths living in the central Harlem area where the charity works.

Other cities, including Baltimore, are looking to copy many aspects of the Harlem Children’s Zone, although some criticize its focus on children without providing services to help parents find housing and employment. And the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has said that he wants to start 20 other programs like Harlem’s Children Zone across the country.

“Our mission is to transform an entire community by providing everything children need to succeed,” says Geoffrey Canada, the Zone’s founder and president, who says he was frustrated by most nonprofit groups’ narrow approach.

The charity’s services include a “baby college” — free classes that teach parents of children under age 3 child-rearing and nutrition skills — asthma education, a monthly farmer’s market, charter schools, and obesity-fighting programs.

Read The Chronicle’s article on how Harlem Children’s Zone uses business practices to expand its services.

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

Ex-Beatle Back in the Former U.S.S.R. for Charity

Paul McCartney performed a charity concert on Saturday to raise money for a pediatric cancer-treatment department in the Ukraine, reports the Associated Press.

The concert, the first by the former Beatle in the former Soviet republic, and the largest such event ever in the Ukraine, brought tens of thousands to Kiev’s central Independence Square, including Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili.

While free to concertgoers, the organizer, the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, requested donations from Ukrainian businesses. More than 500 people donated a total of about $600,000, according to the foundation; the money will help the Ukraine’s National Cancer Institute buy diagnostic equipment for its childhood cancer department.

Mr. Pinchuk, a billionaire, is Ukraine’s richest man; he started the foundation in 2006 to contribute to the modernization of the country and help develop new leadership.

(Free registration is required to view this article on the Washington Post site.)

Online Transcript: Moving to the Business World

Read a transcript of our discussion with two experts on the ways nonprofit leaders can move into careers in the business world.

Joining us today were Eric Webber, managing partner of WebberMcJ Communications in Austin, Tex., a fund raiser who is now a partner in his own for-profit communications company, and Paul Herrerias, a recruiter at Stanton Chase, in San Francisco.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy's Web Site

The Chronicle of Philanthropy is revamping its Web site to make it more useful to readers.

We have selected Siteworx, a Virginia consulting firm, to redesign our site. Siteworx has conducted similar work for U.S. News & World Report, National Geographic, PBS, and Discovery, among others.

If you have ideas, questions, or comments about the site, contact Peter Panepento, The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s Web editor.

June 16, 2008

Pew Offers Charities Office Space in New Headquarters Building

The Pew Charitable Trusts bought a 10-story office building in downtown Washington, with the aim of leasing out 90 percent of the new space at reduced rates to other nonprofit groups, reports The Washington Post.

Pew is based in Philadelphia but has a staff of about 150 people in Washington — with plans to double that number over the next three years, the paper reports. With commercial rents in Washington running about $55 to $65 per square foot, nonprofit organizations have been leaving the city, a city spokesman tells the Post.

“It’s a real problem,” Pew’s chief executive, Rebecca Rimel, says. “Many nonprofits want to be in the District for all of the reasons that we do: access to talent, access to colleagues and other nonprofits, access to policy makers. And at these rental rates, it’s very, very hard to not only find the resources, but to justify the investment.”

Ms. Rimel said Pew is negotiating with potential tenants but did not disclose organization names. One tenant that will continue to lease space in the building is the American Cancer Society, the Post reports.

(Free registration is required to view this article.)

Chinese Philanthropy Picks Up Steam in America

Chinese immigrants who came to America and found success in a variety of fields are increasingly giving some of their fortunes to charity, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Jerry Yang, who developed the Internet-search site Yahoo, and his wife, Akiko Yamazaki, gave $75-million to Stanford University last year. At the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, in San Marino, Calif., officials courted the Chinese community for most of the $18.3-million raised for the Chinese gardens at the museum.

“There is a palpable sense that Chinese Americans have, by any measure, become wildly successful and they are proud of it and want to give back,” Suzy Moser, the Huntington’s assistant vice president of advancement, tells the Times.

In another Times story, the usually press-shy steel magnate Cyrus Tang, who came to the United States as a student in 1950, tells the paper he uses his gifts to inspire others. Mr. Tang, 78, has given more than $150-million to three foundations that support education, health care, and neighborhood involvement.

“I believe success in life is not based on assets gained or knowledge acquired,” says Mr. Tang, who intends to leave his personal assets to his foundations. “It is how we make use of what we have to contribute to society.”

(Free registration is required to view these articles.)

Museums Take Silent Auctions Online

Several museums are adding an online component to their traditional silent-auction events, at which visitors to their collections make bids on pieces of art, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Among them is the Museum of Fine Arts, in Boston, which included an online preview to its Summer Party fund-raising event. And the Whitney Museum of American Art, in New York, is taking online bids for some of the artworks it is selling at its Whitney Art Party this week.

In its story, the Journal highlights several of the items being auctioned by the Whitney.

Opinion: Nonprofit Groups Should Expect a Lean Year

This year could be a lean one for nonprofit organizations, as the economic slump may cause more Americans to give less to charity than in recent years, writes Daniel Gross, in a column in Slate.

Mr. Gross discusses data by Giving USA, which found that charitable giving fell in recession years, such as in 1980, 1987, 1990, and again in the most recent year the economy performed poorly, 2001. He cites two examples to show how charities are already suffering this year: A recent gala for the Robin Hood Foundation took in nearly 22 percent less money than in 2007, and donations to the Salvation Army are down from 2007.

Robert Evans, a fund-raising consultant, says donations are likely to be slow to recover even after the economy improves.

Charitable giving is “a lagging indicator for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that in the minds of some, philanthropy is a luxury,” Mr. Evans tells Slate. “You pay your bills first, and then start making charitable gifts.”

Prospecting: Direct Mail Stays Strong

Contrary to expectations, direct mail is thriving and will probably do well for another 10 years or more, according to a survey released at a fund-raising conference presented by the Greater New York Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, reports Prospecting, The Chronicle’s fund-raising column.

Also: The Heritage Foundation has hired three people at a telemarketing firm to serve as representatives for its President’s Club in the hope of building stronger ties with people who give between $1,000 and $10,000.

Online Discussion Tomorrow: Getting a Job in the Business World

Join us on Tuesday, June 17, at noon U.S. Eastern time to discuss how nonprofit executives make the transition to jobs in the business world.

Experts who have helped nonprofit workers get jobs at businesses will take your questions on how to prepare for such a move, how you can attract the attention of employers, and what you can expect to find once you get there.

The discussion is open to everyone, not just Chronicle subscribers.

People who ask questions in advance have a better chance of receiving answers during the online discussion.

From The Chronicle: Training the Next Generation of Trustees

A growing number of students are taking part in business-school programs that place them on charity boards for a semester or more, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.

(A paid subscription or short-term pass is required to view this article.)

The Chronicle of Philanthropy's Web Site

The Chronicle of Philanthropy is revamping its Web site to make it more useful to readers.

If you have ideas, questions, or comments about the site, contact Peter Panepento, The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s Web editor.

June 13, 2008

Mayor Bloomberg Commits $60-Million to New York Charities

Michael R. Bloomberg, the mayor of New York City, has given $60-million from his personal fortune to support hundreds of arts and social-service organizations over the next two years, reports The New York Times.

Mr. Bloomberg asked the Carnegie Corporation of New York to distribute the money. In addition to grants, the 542 beneficiaries will also receive guidance and training on managing their organizations.

The recipients include small community groups and large well-known institutions, including the YMCA of Greater New York, Cooper-Hewitt Museum, Batoto Yetu, an African dance center in Harlem, and Highbridge Voices, an after-school choir program in the Bronx.

Mr. Bloomberg, who since 2002 has given away about $175-million to New York groups through the Carnegie Corporation, is creating the Bloomberg Family Foundation, which may take over distributing the grants once he is out of office, the newspaper says.

Mr. Bloomberg ranked No. 7 on The Chronicle’s Philanthropy 50 list of the nation’s most-generous philanthropists.

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

Churches Borrow Franchise Approach to Expand

Church pastors seeking to expand their congregations overseas are turning to tech-savvy communication approaches and franchise marketing to bridge the distance between their services at home and abroad, reports The Wall Street Journal.

About 1,500 churches in the United States have satellite campuses, the newspaper says, up from 10 in 1990. At least half a dozen mega-churches in the United States have recently opened international branches, and many more plan to follow suit.

“If Starbucks can start four stores a day, why can’t churches?” says John Bishop, the pastor at Living Hope Church in Vancouver, Washington.

Plus: About 100 seminarians from more than two dozen denominations are attending a weeklong conference in Atlanta, hosted by the Fund for Theological Education, designed to deal with the expected shortage of ministers caused by retirement of baby boomers, reports the Associated Press in another article.

(Free registration is required to view the AP article on the New York Times site.)

Charity to Pay Fine for Phone Appeals

The Police Protective Fund, a charity that promotes efforts to keep police officers safe, will pay $450,000 to Missouri after allegations from the attorney general’s office that it continued to solicit money from residents who had asked the group to stop contacting them, reports the Associated Press.

Attorney General Jay Nixon’s office said it obtained a temporary restraining order in September after it received about 1,000 complaints from Missourians who said the charity repeatedly made fund-raising calls to them even after being asked to stop.

The article did not include any comments from officials at the Police Protective Fund.

Government Aid for Myanmar Falls Short of Goal

The United Nations said Thursday it has received less than half of the $200-million it requested for cyclone relief in Myanmar, reports the Associated Press.

“Funding is clearly not coming in at the rate we would hope,” said Amanda Pitt, a United Nations spokeswoman in Bangkok, Thailand. “Funding is urgently needed to sustain the pipeline for food and assistance.”

However, as donors and aid groups around the world draw from their resources to help Myanmar’s cyclone victims, the country’s junta said Friday that such assistance could not be trusted, reports the Associated Press in another article.

Government-run news sources continued to voice their skepticism stating that “the goodwill of a big Western nation that wants to help Myanmar with its warships was not genuine” and warned that aid from nations that impose economic sanctions against the country comes “with strings attached.”

(Free registration is required to view these articles on the Washington Post site.)

Volunteer Group Rescues Struggling Farmers

Farm Rescue, a volunteer group that works to plant and harvest crops for injured, ill, or disaster-stricken farmers, has been expanding rapidly, reports the Associated Press.

“Farm Rescue started out just as an idea I had, and people encouraged me to grow the organization,” said Bill Gross, who lives in Seattle and owns a farm in North Dakota. “I was initially just going to do it myself as a Good Samaritan, and people told me that I should think bigger.”

Using his own money and vacation time as a pilot for UPS, in 2006 Mr. Gross created the organization that has since helped almost 60 farmers in the Upper Midwest. The group now has more than 100 corporate sponsors and 50 volunteers and an operating budge of more than $200,000.

(Free registration is required to view this article on the Washington Post site.)

Obituary: Stewart R. Mott, Philanthropist

Stewart R. Mott, a prominent philanthropist for progressive causes, died of cancer on Thursday at age 70, The New York Times reports.

Mr. Mott, who inherited his fortune as a son of the Michigan entrepreneur Charles Stewart Mott, supported causes that promoted birth control, feminism, civil liberties, gay rights, and other causes. He also supported offbeat causes, the newspaper said, such as research on extrasensory perception.

When he was a young man, Stewart Mott asked to join his father’s foundation, and his father rejected the idea. That prompted Stewart Mott to use his own trust funds to found his own philanthropy, the newspaper says.

He told The New Yorker magazine in 1971: “Right now, my philanthropy is hearty, robust, full-bodied, but it still needs a few years of aging before it will develop fully its eventual clarity, delicacy, elegancy, fruitiness, and fragrance.”

(Free registration is required to view this article.)

Give and Take: Is 'Compassion Fatigue' Taking a Toll?

Is “compassion fatigue” dampening contributions to the relief efforts in China and Myanmar — or is there more to the problem, asks a marketing expert cited in a new post on The Chronicle’s Give and Take column.

Also, see a new post on the approach the Red Cross is taking to update people about its response to tornadoes in the Midwest.

From The Chronicle: Recommendations to the IRS on Policing Charity Boards

A committee that advises the Internal Revenue Service is urging the tax agency to be cautious in its stepped-up efforts to promote good governance by charities, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.

June 12, 2008

Charities Grill FEMA Over Distribution of Hurricane Katrina Relief Supplies

Louisiana nonprofit groups are wondering why they were never offered any of the $85-million in supplies for Hurricane Katrina victims that the Federal Emergency Management Agency stored for two years before giving them to federal and state agencies, reports CNN.

The supplies, which were deemed federal surplus, included buckets, boots, cleaning supplies, tents, camp stoves, clothing, plates, and utensils. Some were donated by companies and some were purchased as starter kits for the people FEMA housed in trailers after the storm. The items were offered first to federal agencies, including prisons, the armed forces, and the postal service, then to the state governments. Louisiana passed on taking any of the supplies.

“We didn’t have anybody out there who told us they wanted it,” says John Medica, director of the Louisiana Federal Property Assistance Agency.

But Martha Kegel, executive director of Unity of Greater New Orleans, says that “these are exactly the items that we are desperately seeking donations of right now: basic kitchen household supplies.” She says she first learned about the existence of the surplus items from a CNN reporter. “FEMA, in fact, refers homeless clients to us to house them. How can we house them if we don’t have basic supplies?”

Hedge-Fund Foundations Awarded $459-Million in 2007

The largest 25 hedge-fund foundations — which now control about $4.6-billion — grew 31 percent last year and gave away $459-million, reports The Wall Street Journal.

The foundations, which gave grants worth 61 percent more money in 2007, donated the most funds to nonprofit groups for children, education, and health care.

George Soros’s Open Society Institute is the largest hedge-fund foundation, with $1.3-billion. The firms that control the next four largest foundations were Julian Robertson’s Tiger Management, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, Stephen Mandel’s Lone Pine Capital, and T. Boone Pickens’s BP Capital Management, the newspaper reports.

(A paid subscription is required to view this article.)

Paul Newman Gives Foundation $120-Million Gift

The actor Paul Newman has donated his ownership in Newman’s Own, a food company, to his foundation — a gift valued at $120-million, reports Fox News.

The Newman’s Own Foundation received the donation over 2005 and 2006, Fox News reports. The announcement comes amid reports that Mr. Newman is ailing from cancer, which the actor has not confirmed or denied.

The news channel says that Mr. Newman donated $8,746,500 to organizations that support children, hurricane relief in the Gulf Coast, education, and the arts, according to a 2006 federal tax filing by Newman’s Own. He also founded the Hole in the Wall Gang camps in the United States and Botswana for poor and sick children.

Donation in Question After University Refuses Statue

A donor is threatening to withhold a $4-million donation to Oxford University, in England, after the institution declined to accept a statue the donor offered as a loan, reports The Times.

Zvi Meitar, a lawyer in Israel, offered the university an 18th-century statue of Sir George Cooke; Oxford refused the 10-foot artwork. Mr. Meitar called the university’s behavior “ridiculous,” “foolish,” and “offensive,” the newspaper reports. Oxford has recently begun a campaign to raise about $2.5-billion.

“There was a big future,” said Mr. Meitar. “Now the whole thing is in question.”

An Oxford spokesman told The Chronicle of Higher Education that “the statue’s relatively unwieldy size meant that none of these historic collegiate venues was able to accommodate the work without reinforcement.”

(A paid subscription or short-term pass is required to view the Chronicle article.)

Arts Organization Issues Report on Artists' Impact on the Economy

A new study from the National Endowment for the Arts reveals that nearly 2 million Americans identify their primary occupation as artist, and an increasing number of these are minorities and people living in the West or in the South, reports The New York Times.

Using data from the 2005 U.S. census, the endowment examined the demographic makeup of artists, including architects, dancers, fine artists, interior designers, and writers.

They represent 1.4 percent of the American work force and are more likely to be self-employed but less likely to work full time. About 13 percent of artists also work at a second job — about twice the percentage of the rest of the work force. The increase in minority artists was most marked among those under age 35.

“Without denying the higher purposes of the artistic vocation, it’s also important to remember that artists play an important role in America’s cultural vitality and economic prosperity,” says Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. “Artists have immense financial and social impact, as well as cultural impact.”

(Free registration is required to view this article.)

Prospecting: Fund-Raising for Father's Day and Charity Bequests

Fathers across the country will be feted this Sunday — and a handful of charities are hoping to take advantage of the occasion to raise money for their causes, Prospecting, The Chronicle’s fund-raising column, reports.

Also in the Prospecting column: One in five estates left money or other assets to charity in 2004, the most recent year for which information is available, according to a new report released by the IRS.

Online Discussion Next Week: Getting a Job in the Business World

Join us on Tuesday, June 17, at noon U.S. Eastern time to discuss how nonprofit executives make the transition to jobs in the business world.

The discussion is open to everyone, not just Chronicle subscribers.

People who ask questions in advance have a better chance of receiving answers during the online discussion.

From The Chronicle: Ted Turner's Philanthropic Ambitions

Ted Turner’s wealth has taken a hit in recent years, but that has done little to dampen his philanthropic ambitions, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.

(A paid subscription or temporary pass is required to view this article.)

June 11, 2008

Mass. Charities Urged to Merge and Pool Resources

A struggling economy has endangered the ability of nonprofit organizations in Massachusetts to provide charitable services to the needy, and that, according to a new study, should prompt many of the state’s nonprofit groups to merge, or at least to consider pooling their resources, The Boston Globe reports.

The study, which will be released today, was conducted by the Boston Foundation, the largest grant maker in the state, and surveyed the more than 36,000 nonprofit organizations in Massachusetts.

Its findings follow what officials at the foundation have been saying less formally in the past several years: that some of the state’s nonprofit groups should merge or pool resources to reduce overhead and offset cuts in state money and waning private donations.

The study found that while the state’s population has not increased in recent years, the number of charities has almost doubled. As a result, many of those groups have too few resources and not enough focus, a report on the study said.

(Free registration is required to view this article.)

American Red Cross Punished for Blood-Supply Error

The American Red Cross, in Washington, has been fined $1.7-million by the Food and Drug Administration because regulators found that the organization washed six units of red blood cells using the wrong saline solution, The Washington Post reports.

The units of blood cells were transfused to three patients in 2006 and last year at chapters in the Northeast and Southeast parts of the country.

Red Cross executives and federal regulators said that even with the mistakes, the country’s blood supply is safe and the transfusions did not endanger patients.

The charity has been fined more than $21-million for safety lapses over the past five years but said it has put into effect new measures to protect blood it collects.

(Free registration is required to view this article.)

Aid Groups Urged to Revamp Operations in Poor Countries

International health and development organizations are calling on aid groups in developing countries to change their approaches because some of the organizations are inadvertently contributing to the long-term damage to health systems of those countries, reports Propublica.org.

The announcement came at the annual meeting of the Global Health Council, in Washington, at which groups were asked to sign a voluntary code of conduct.

The code urges aid groups to avoid hiring government employees, such as doctors and nurses, away from agencies in the very countries the aid groups are trying to help.

Officials at health and development organizations said that the existence of tens of thousands of unregulated aid groups has become problematic for government health managers in developing countries because the aid groups each have their own ways of providing aid. The aid groups have also contributed to health-care inequities, according to the groups that formed the code.

Basketball Star Establishes Foundation to Aid Earthquake Survivors

Yao Ming, a player with the Houston Rockets basketball team, is giving $2-million to establish a foundation that will rebuild schools destroyed by last month’s earthquake in his native China, reports the Associated Press.

The Yao Ming foundation will help raise money to build earthquake-resistant schools in China, said Mr. Ming. He said some of the money given to his foundation by U.S. charities would also go to school-building efforts in the United States.

Mr. Ming is establishing the foundation with help from the Giving Back Fund, a Los Angeles organization that helps athletes, entertainers, and other celebrities manage their philanthropy.

Daryl Morey, general manager of the Houston Rockets, said the team plans to donate $100,000 to Mr. Ming’s foundation.

Science Museum in Boston Cuts Staff by 10 Percent

The Museum of Science, in Boston, announced on Tuesday that is has laid off 10 percent of its 400-person staff because of decreased attendance, a possible budget deficit, and a need to restructure its operations, The Boston Globe reports.

Ioannis Miaoulis, the museum’s president, said the board was told in November that the museum might face a possible $3-million deficit but said he decided to wait six months to make the cuts because the museum had not figured out how it should be reorganized.

Mr. Miaoulis told the newspaper that he expects his institution will break even this year, thanks to transfers from reserve funds and unfilled jobs.

“Regardless of the budget, we would have made cuts,” said Mr. Miaoulis. “Entering a recession made us look more in depth and make deeper cuts. But that was not the main driver of the organization. It was strategic.”

(Free registration is required to view this article.)

From The Chronicle: A Call for Changes in America's Foreign-Aid Approach

A coalition of nonprofit leaders, think-tank experts, and scholars called on the American government to streamline the way it fights poverty overseas, reports The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

From The Chronicle: Prize for Social-Worker 'Superstars'

A former charity employee turned software entrepreneur has started a foundation to recognize talented social workers and goad nonprofit groups into more effectively measuring their employees’ performance, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.

Give and Take: Getting Attention During Election Season

How can nonprofit groups get their message out amid all the attention given to the presidential campaign?

That is one of the topics of discussion in Give & Take, The Chronicle’s roundup of the best blog posts about the nonprofit world.

Among the other topics discussed:

Most Americans have grown comfortable giving online. But how do they know which Web site to use?

Why is the world of philanthropy so shaken by the idea of social justice?

June 10, 2008

Civil-Liberties Group Announces $335-Million Drive

The American Civil Liberties Union on Monday announced a campaign to raise $335-million, far more than it has sought before in a single drive, according to the Associated Press.

The campaign will focus on raising money to expand the organization’s work in Florida, Texas, and other places where the New York group is not as established.

“The purpose is to build a civil-liberties infrastructure in the middle of the country — where battleground states are often under-resourced and our efforts are most needed,” said Anthony Romero, the civil-rights group’s executive director.

The organization has already raised $258-million toward its goal, including major contributions from donors like the financier George Soros, who gave the group $12-million through his Open Society Institute. Before this effort, the group’s largest fund-raising push was a $52-million campaign in 2002 to expand its endowment.

Food Banks Turn to Gardeners for Extra Supply

As food banks nationwide face rising demand — spurred by the lagging economy and high fuel and food prices — more are asking local gardeners to help bolster contributions, reports the Associated Press.

At the Fall Mountain Foodshelf, in Langdon, N.H., Mary Lou Huffling, the pantry’s director, said that last year 30 to 40 families visited weekly, but this year more than 130 families come per week, leaving her unable to meet the need. However, Ms. Huffling expects that to change, as she has asked local gardeners and farmers to plant extra food to donate, as part of her new Grow-a-Row program.

Other similar programs, including the national Plant a Row for the Hungry campaign and the Grow-a-Row program in New Jersey, fill an important role at food banks. Last year, the Northwest New Jersey Community Action Program, in Phillipsburg, received 70,000 pounds of produce from the latter program.

(Free registration is required to view this article on the Baltimore Sun site.)

Master Artists Play the Role of Mentor

An unusual program, sponsored by Rolex, matches well-established artists with up-and-coming artists in one-year apprenticeships, reports The New York Times.

The program, which is estimated to have cost the company more than $2.3-million since it began in 2002, has sponsored 23 developing artists, providing them $25,000 during their mentorship year, and $25,000 upon completion of the year to finance a new project. Each mentor receives a $50,000 honorarium.

Mira Nair, the acclaimed film director of Monsoon Wedding, served as a mentor to an emerging Thai filmmaker, Aditya Assarat, as part of the program.

“You get to shadow a master artist and see what they do day to day, which is an unforgettable lesson,” said Mr. Assarat.

As a result of the mentorship, he says, he was inspired to start a production company with a friend; his first commercially released film, Wonderful Town, will be released soon.

Read a recent Chronicle article about the Rolex program.

(Free registration is required to view the Times article, and a paid subscription or short-term pass is required to view the Chronicle article.)

Global Food Crisis Forces Retooling of Farm Policies

The global food crisis has prompted a rethinking of farm policies in poor countries, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Over the last several decades, poor countries have been encouraged to invest in industries other than farming, with rich countries and international lending organizations asserting that subsistence farming keeps people in poverty.

Until recently, many of these countries could import basic staples from rich countries more cheaply than they could produce such foods themselves; subsistence farmers in countries like Haiti thus turned to producing higher-valued crops for export.

Now, with many going hungry worldwide, such advice is being reconsidered. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, big advocates of free-trade policy with regard to food production, now view investment in poor farmers as a good development strategy.

(A paid subscription is required to view this article.)

Chesapeake Bay Foundation Urged to Do More to Cut Farm Pollution

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation, an organization aimed at cleaning up the polluted waterway, has done too little to stem pollution by farmers, environmental advocates tell The Baltimore Sun.

About 10 years ago, the foundation decided to work with crop and poultry farmers in the region in hopes of mitigating the effects of agriculture on the Chesapeake Bay.

Farm pollution is the largest polluter of the watershed, and the group has raised millions of dollars for anti-pollution efforts, most recently helping to secure $400-million in cleanup money through the federal farm bill.

Yet the bay remains severely polluted; last year, farm runoff carried 290 million pounds of nitrogen into the bay, much more than the federal goal of 184 million pounds.

“The bay overall is a disaster, and the leading cause of that disaster is agriculture,” said Gerald W. Winegrad, a former Maryland state senator. “You couple this with the position of the 500-pound gorilla in the environmental field of the bay, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, taking a hands-off approach to agriculture … and you have a disaster in environmental leadership, too.”

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation, for its part, says that overly tough regulations cause farmers to sell their land to developers and that the runoff from large subdivisions would be much worse for the bay overall.

(Free registration is required to view this article.)

From The Chronicle: Courting Big Gifts Online

Read a transcript of our online discussion today with experts on seeking generous donations via the Internet.

June 09, 2008

Federal Audit Raises Concerns About Teach for America's Spending

The finances of a national teacher-recruitment program have come under scrutiny by the federal government, reports The New York Times.

According to an investigation by the inspector general at the Department of Education, Teach for America did not provide adequate documentation as to how it spent federal grant money it received from 2003 to 2005. The group received about $6-million in grants, and of that amount, auditors examined $1.5-million. Teach for America couldn’t account for $775,000 of the figure auditors looked at.

Nearly all of the questioned costs were related to training sessions for new members of the teacher corps in 2004 and 2005, according to the charity.

In a statement released on Friday, says the Associated Press, Teach for America stated, “As a result of this audit, Teach for America has learned that we were not tracking certain information at the level of detail requested by the Office of Inspector General. However, all funds were used for the intended purposes of the Department of Education grants. Furthermore, we have put in place all of the recommended tracking systems that will enable us to provide the requested documentation going forward.”

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

Growth of Small Foundations Puts Pressure on Investment Options

The number of small foundation in the United States is growing and with it, the need for investment options to accommodate them, reports The New York Times.

According to the Urban Institute’s National Center for Charitable Statistics, there were 76,849 private foundations at the end of 2005, the most-recent figure available. That represents a 49-percent increase since 1995. Most private foundations, 67 percent, had assets of less than $1-million.

However, most investment firms have minimums that well exceed the assets of the majority of small foundations, with some requiring as much as $50-million in assets. Further complicating matters is that some leaders at small foundations want their investments to reflect their charitable missions or that they want to invest with more than one firm.

Some investment advisers say that people who want to put less than $1-million into a foundation should consider donor-advised funds, often run by large mutual-fund companies or community foundations. Philanthropists can still receive tax benefits and decide how their money is donated.

Another option is the low-cost index fund. David Salem, founding president of the Investment Fund for Foundations, said, “It can cost as much as $10,000 to administer even a $1-million private foundation. If it is a really small foundation, then I believe that the Vanguard index funds are a good starting point because you get broad diversification at low cost.”

(Free registration is required to view this article.)

European Philanthropist Shares Advice on Giving

One of Europe’s most-generous philanthropists has shared his top five rules that guide his giving, reports Wealth-Bulletin.

Tom Hunter, the richest man in Scotland, who made his fortune by founding a retail-clothing chain, has pledged about $2-billion to education and humanitarian causes. His philosophy of giving:

Regard philanthropy as a business and be organized in donating money.

Have good relationships with experienced people.

Persuade others to support your causes.

Keep track of charitable projects through performance measures.

Learn from failure.

For more on Mr. Hunter, read The Chronicle’s profile on the billionaire.

(A paid subscription or short-term pass is required to view the Chronicle article.)

Growing Number of Groups Use Business Approaches to Help the World's Poor

A group of social-entrepreneurship organizations such as the Acumen Fund, Ashoka, and Endeavor, are looking to erase the distinction between business and charity, reports the Financial Times.

Those groups give loans to people from poor countries to start their own businesses, help them market their wares, and assist them in developing sustainable business models. Because the groups are not established as for-profit companies, they are not subject to banking laws and can experiment more, the newspaper says.

Bill Drayton, founder of Ashoka, believes that the difference between the nonprofit and business worlds will soon disappear. He says, “Entrepreneurs disrespect boundaries — they don’t care if it’s business or social. With every human need, you have a business system serving the need and a social system serving the need and for centuries they haven’t talked to each other — that’s all changed.”

Bay Area Teenagers Are Budding Grant Makers

A group of San Francisco Bay area teenagers have raised more than $200,000 for charity and have decided what groups will receive the money, part of a growing wave of philanthropy among youths, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.

The effort is part of an annual program run by the Jewish Community Endowment Fund. The youths, members of the Jewish Community Teen Foundation, held fund raisers throughout the year and through the fund, make grants to selected organizations, including the American Jewish World Service and PlayPumps International.

Sue Schwartzman, youth philanthropy director at the Jewish Community Endowment Fund, said, “These teens are learning how to run their own nonprofit foundations, and they are learning how to evaluate request for proposals and how to raise large amounts of money by hosting fund raisers and going to their parents and their parents’ friends to harness the power of their personal connections.”

To learn more about youth philanthropy programs, see The Chronicle’s special report.

(A paid subscription or short-term pass is required to view the Chronicle report.)

Opinion: Nonprofit Groups Should Narrowly Define Their Missions

Charities in China should take cues from charities that have succeeded by focusing clearly on what they want to achieve and on the people they want to serve, say two nonprofit consultants in an opinion article for Forbes.

Susan Colby and Nan Stone, both partners with the Bridgespan Group, a consulting firm, write of the Harlem Children’s Zone as one example of a group that used what they call “strategic clarity” to better define what it wanted to achieve.

Until 2000, Harlem Children’s Zone, originally named the Rheedlen Centers, worked to help poor children in the nation’s most-impoverished areas but realized this goal was out of reach with its limited resources.

The group renamed itself the Harlem Children’s Zone and focused solely on helping children up to age 18 living within the Harlem area of New York make the transition to adult self-sufficiency. At the end of 2007, 142 students had entered college, and graduating high-school seniors had received more than $2.25-million in scholarships.

Write Ms. Colby and Ms. Stone, “Whether in Harlem or China, deciding what’s inside and what’s outside an organization’s “zone” of activities is a challenge with which all nonprofits will have to wrestle as they mature. By bringing clarity and transparent measures to good intentions, they increase the case for philanthropy itself.”

Read The Chronicle’s special report on ways Harlem Children’s Zone and other organizations are seeking to grow.

(A paid subscription or short-term pass is required to view the Chronicle report.)

From The Chronicle: Online Giving

Online fund raising soared by a median of 42 percent last year at the nation’s biggest charities, according to the ninth annual survey of such giving by The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

That survey is the cover article of our newest edition, which was posted online this morning. You can see a full table of contents of all the articles from our June 12 issue.

(A paid subscription or short-term pass is required to view the Chronicle article, but access to the table of contents is free.)

Online Discussion Tomorrow: Raising Big Gifts Via the Internet

Join us tomorrow at noon U.S. Eastern time for an online discussion with several marketing and communications experts about what’s works — and what doesn’t — for raising money online.

Our guests:

Jeff Regen, vice president of online marketing and communications for Defenders of Wildlife, an environmental charity in Washington. Defenders of Wildlife receives more than 40 percent of its first-time gifts of $1,000 or more online.

Betsey Fortlouis, senior director of member communications for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in New York, which has been expanding its online major-gifts campaign.

Jeff Patrick, president of Common Knowledge, a San Francisco consulting company that helps charities conduct online fund-raising campaigns.

The discussion is open to everyone, not just Chronicle subscribers.

People who ask questions in advance have a better chance of receiving answers during the online discussion.

June 06, 2008

Virginia Court Rules Against College Donors

The Supreme Court of Virginia ruled this morning in favor of Randolph College in two cases brought by students and donors upset at the institution’s decision to start admitting men, The Chronicle of Higher Education reports.

The court upheld the Lynchburg Circuit Court, which had dismissed both lawsuits against the college, formerly Randolph-Macon Woman’s College.

In one case, the court ruled unanimously against students and alumni donors who argued that all gifts to Randolph-Macon Woman’s College had been intended to support an all-female institution. The justices ruled that the law codes cited by the plaintiffs to make their case did not apply to the college.

In a second case, a group of students accused the college of a breach of contract, arguing that when they were accepted and paid tuition to Randolph-Macon, they were promised four years of education at a women’s college.

Relatives of U.S. Congressman Accused of Charity Fraud

Relatives of a U.S. congressman indicted on charges of bribery, fraud, and racketeering, have been charged with using charities for personal financial gain, reports the Associated Press

The sister, brother, and niece of U.S. Representative William Jefferson, a Democrat from Louisiana, have been charged with conspiracy and fraud.

Mr. Jefferson’s sister, Betty Jefferson, an elected New Orleans property-tax assessor; his brother Mose Jefferson; and Betty Jefferson’s daughter, Angela Coleman, are accused of stealing as much $620,000 from charities that were supposed to benefit poor people. They each face up to more than 200 years in prison.

Mr. Jefferson has been accused of taking millions of dollars in bribes from companies by using his position to negotiate business deals in Africa. FBI agents searched his home and found $90,000 in his freezer. Mr. Jefferson has denied wrongdoing.

Jim Letten, the U. S. attorney in New Orleans, said, “These nonprofits were simply looted by the defendants.”

Technology Entrepreneurs Urged to Step Up Philanthropy

Melinda Gates urged technology entrepreneurs to devote more time to solving the problems of the world’s poor at a conference last week, The Wall Street Journal reports.

“Think about what translates from your business to these problems,” she said. One example: cellphones. Of the 6.6 billion people in the world, 3.7 billion have access to a cellphone, she said. That opens an opportunity to use mobile technology for reworking banking for the poor, she said.

“Technological revolutions or advances — as the price of them really get down — how can we change things for people that live on less than $2 a day?” she asked.

(A paid subscription is required to view this article.)

German Arts Organization Takes American Approach to Raising Money

A German nonprofit organization is breaking away from the time-honored European tradition of government support for the arts and raising money largely through private sources, much like American charities, reports the International Herald Tribune.

The Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, located in Baden-Baden, Germany, stages opera productions and classical-music concerts. When it first started 10 years ago, it nearly collapsed.

The key to its success has been creating special experiences for donors, such as instituting a VIP lounge or giving bouquets to female concertgoers, the newspaper says.

Give and Take: Providing Disaster Aid and a City-by-City Look at Giving

A controversial watchdog group has issued its latest report on charities in major metropolitan areas, notes The Chronicle’s Give and Take column, a roundup of the best blog posts in the nonprofit world.

Plus, an expert on natural-disaster responses offers ideas for getting grass-roots groups more involved in relief efforts.

Online Discussion Next Week: Raising Big Gifts Via the Internet

Join us on Tuesday, June 10, at noon U.S. Eastern time for an online discussion with two charity marketing and communications officials about what’s works — and what doesn’t — for raising money online.

Our guests:

Jeff Regen, vice president of online marketing and communications for Defenders of Wildlife, an environmental charity in Washington. Defenders of Wildlife receives more than 40 percent of its first-time gifts of $1,000 or more online.

Betsey Fortlouis, senior director of member communications for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in New York, which has been expanding its online major-gifts campaign.

Jeff Patrick, president of Common Knowledge, a San Francisco consulting company that helps charities conduct online fund-raising campaigns.

The discussion is open to everyone, not just Chronicle subscribers.

People who ask questions in advance have a better chance of receiving answers during the online discussion.

June 05, 2008

Some Iowans Irked by Red Cross Fund-Raising Effort

While raising money in northeastern Iowa for victims of a tornado there in May, the American Red Cross has stepped on a few toes — including those of Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, reports The New York Times.

Even after the disaster-relief charity’s local office announced it had gathered enough money to pay for its expected costs, estimated to be $255,000, the national office of the Red Cross has continued to raise money from area residents. So far, the group says, it has raised $400,000 there, but not all of the money is for tornado victims.

“It looks like Iowans received a mixed message about Red Cross needs in Iowa after the tornado,” Mr. Grassley wrote to the Times in an e-mail message. “When the Iowa tornado relief effort is finished, the national organization needs to take a hard look at whether it confused fund-raising efforts on the ground.”

The Red Cross says that it originally underestimated the cost of helping the victims and now pegs the total amount at more than $350,000. But some observers have criticized the organization for not working more closely with local groups, as the Red Cross had promised to do after Hurricane Katrina.

“Everywhere I turn, the Red Cross is there like a giant vacuum cleaner, sweeping up every dollar they can,” says Kevin Truax, an insurance agent in Parkersburg, Iowa, who helped create a fund for the storm’s victims. “Where’s the money all going?”

(Free registration is required to view this article.)

Mistrial Declared in Jewish-Federation Shooting Case

The trial of the man who in 2006 allegedly shot six people at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, killing Pamela Waechter, has ended in a mistrial as the jurors could not reach a unanimous verdict on all the counts, reports The Seattle Times.

Naveed Haq, a 32-year-old man of Pakistani heritage and with a long history of mental illness, was charged with 15 counts related to the attack; he was found not guilty on one count, first degree attempted murder for the shooting of Carol Goldman. On the other counts, the jury struggled to determine whether he was not guilty by reason of insanity, as Mr. Haq has pled, and sent a note to the judge saying they could not reach a verdict.

The federation was frustrated and saddened by the news of a hung jury, though the prosecutors said they would retry Mr. Haq.

“There is no argument Haq killed [federation employee] Pam [Waechter]. There is no argument he viciously shot five others. There is no argument that he made anti-Israel and anti-Semitic statements. Somehow, all this was not enough,” said Richard Fruchter, the Jewish federation’s president.

Climate-Change Campaign Brings Together Companies, Cities, and Charities

U.S. cities, nonprofit groups, and companies will collaborate on the Together campaign, which will help American consumers choose the most environmentally friendly products and teach them other practices to fight climate change, reports Reuters.

The effort, organized by the Climate Group, an international charity, began in Europe last year. The organization says the program helped Europeans cut 522,000 tons of carbon dioxide and saved them over $200-million on household energy bills.

The Together campaign, through its Web site, will promote green products that save water and energy and will help consumers figure out which products are more environmentally friendly than others. Companies, including Target and JPMorgan Chase, will offer paperless transactions to their customers.

Makeup Company Raises $100-Million for HIV/AIDS

Over the past 14 years, MAC, a cosmetics company, has given away more than $100-million to HIV-related causes through its Viva Glam line of makeup, in an example of cause marketing that has become central to the brand’s image, reports the Financial Times.

MAC, created by a makeup artist and a hairdresser and acquired by Estee Lauder in 1998, donates 100 percent of the sales of Viva Glam products to the MAC Aids Fund. The campaign is unusual in its size and prominence — celebrity models are its spokespeople and MAC spends millions of dollars promoting the effort — and the fact that it supports some potentially controversial causes, such as groups that help drug users and gay men. But the company says that Viva Glam has increased sales instead of turning off customers.

“It’s love us or leave us,” says John Demsey, MAC’s global president. “You can’t operate with the people we do and expect it not to garner controversy. And Viva Glam definitely has image benefits for the overall company.”

Also: Read the opinion piece by the executive director of the MAC AIDS Fund in The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

(A paid subscription or short-term pass is required to view the Chronicle article.)

Girl Dies in Charity Plane Crash

A two-year-old girl was on her way home from Iowa on a flight arranged by a nonprofit group when the plane crashed, killing the child, reports the Associated Press.

Sydney Blanton, from Georgia, was on her way back from being treated for clubfoot on a flight sponsored by Angel Flight Central, which provides free travel for people who need health care. The plane crashed just after taking off from Iowa City. Sydney’s mother, Christina, and the pilot, Lewis Martin, were injured in the crash.

Mr. Martin has performed 60 flights for Angel Flight Central over the past 10 years, said the executive director of the organization.

From The Chronicle: $300-Million Grant Program for Health Care

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, in Princeton, N.J., has announced a $300-million commitment through 2011 to reduce racial and regional disparities in health care in 14 locations in the United States, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.

From The Chronicle: Justice's View of Charity Video Games

Sandra Day O’Connor does not play video games. But she believes in their potential.

In her keynote speech at the Games for Change conference in New York on Wednesday, the retired Supreme Court justice discussed her latest project, “Our Courts” — an online interactive digital game and civics curriculum designed for seventh to ninth graders, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.

Prospecting: Implications of Young Americans' Religious Habits

New research suggests that fund raisers should be worried about implications of the religious habits of young Americans, according to The Chronicle’s “Prospecting” column:

Give and Take: Facebook Fund Raising and Charity Taglines

Among the latest offerings on Give and Take, The Chronicle’s roundup of the best blog posts on the nonprofit world:

A contest to identify the best charity tag lines.

Debating Facebook’s effectiveness as a fund-raising tool.

Online Discussion Next Week: Seeking Big Gifts Online

Join us next Tuesday, June 10, at noon U.S. Eastern time for an online discussion with two charity marketing and communications experts about what’s works — and what doesn’t — for raising money online.

Our guests include:

Jeff Regen, vice president of online marketing and communications for Defenders of Wildlife, an environmental charity in Washington. Defenders of Wildlife receives more than 40 percent of its first-time gifts of $1,000 or more online.

Betsey Fortlouis, senior director of member communications for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in New York, which has been expanding its online major-gifts campaign.

The discussion is open to everyone, not just Chronicle subscribers.

People who ask questions in advance have a better chance of receiving answers during the online discussion.

June 04, 2008

Relief Agencies in Zimbabwe Ordered to Halt Aid Work

The government of Zimbabwe has ordered aid groups to halt all relief work there until after the election runoff on June 27 between President Robert Mugabe and his opponent, the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, reports The New York Times.

Human-rights groups and aid workers said they believe the restrictions are meant to prevent them from witnessing violent nighttime attacks on opposition supporters and others that Mr. Mugabe’s government sees as a threat to its hold on power.

CARE, Mercy Corps, Plan International, and Save the Children are among the groups told to cease relief operations in the county, aid workers said. Meanwhile, many Zimbabweans are struggling to survive in the face of the country’s economic collapse, unemployment that has risen to 80 percent, and soaring food prices.

Yesterday, officials from the United Nations Children’s Fund said that 10,000 children have been displaced by the violence, many have been beaten, and some schools have been taken over by pro-government forces and turned into centers of torture.

(Free registration is required to view this article.)

Former Islamic Charity Official Released From Jail

A U.S. District Court judge yesterday freed a former director of a defunct Islamic charity after ruling that a jury should not have convicted the man in January of most of the tax-related crimes for which he and another charity leader had been tried, reports The Boston Globe.

The judge, F. Dennis Saylor IV, acquitted Samir Al-Monla of conspiring to defraud the United States and of concealing the origins of the Boston-area charity, Massachusetts Care International. The charity had been accused of publishing newsletters promoting jihad and supporting Islamic militants overseas.

Mr. Saylor also acquitted Emadeddin Muntasser – the founder of the charity – of the same charges but sustained Mr. Muntasser’s conviction for making a false statement to the Federal Bureau of Investigation about having visited Afghanistan. Mr. Muntasser’s lawyers said they hoped time already served by their client — close to the maximum sentence of six months for such a crime — will mean he will be freed soon.

The judge said federal prosecutors failed to prove that the two defendants schemed to deceive the Internal Revenue Service about their group’s activities. He also said the government’s evidence against the two men was weak.

U.S. Attorney Michael J. Sullivan said he will seek permission from the U.S. solicitor general’s office to appeal the ruling.

(Free registration is required to view this article.)

Museums Prepare to Announce New Rules Governing Acquisitions

Directors of the country’s largest art museums will announce new guidelines today for how their institutions should acquire antiquities, a controversial issue that has led in recent years to several highly publicized art restitution cases, as well as political battles among some of the world’s most august museums, The New York Times reports.

The Association of Art Museum Directors acknowledged that the new policies will make it more difficult for museums to build antiquities collections, yet they stressed that the new rules will help cut down on the number of objects illegally dug up from archaeological sites around the world.

Under the new rules, museums will be advised not to acquire a work unless tangible proof exists that the object was outside its country of probable modern discovery before 1970 or was legally exported from its probable country of modern discovery after 1970, the year Unesco ratified a convention banning traffic in illicit antiquities and which has become the accepted cutoff date of antiquities collecting.

However, while a previous guideline had established a rolling, 10-year cutoff, the new rules leave the final decision on whether to buy or accept such objects up to individual museums.

The association said it also plans to establish a new, centralized Internet database through which its members can provide detailed information about newly acquired antiquities.

(Free registration is required to view this article.)

ExxonMobil Resumes Sponsorship of PBS Programming

PBS, in Arlington, Va., announced yesterday that ExxonMobil will begin sponsoring PBS programs this month, after a four-year break, The New York Times reports.

ExxonMobil will partially underwrite the “Nightly Business Report” and the science program “Nova.”

The Texas corporation had spent millions of dollars sponsoring PBS programs over 30 years but decided to withdraw its support in 2004.

The renewed sponsorship is particularly important for the “Nightly Business Report,” a half-hour business-news program, because one of the show’s previous sponsors, A.G. Edwards, ended its support in January.

(Free registration is required to view this article.)

Obituary: Philadelphia Museum of Art Director Dies Suddenly

Anne d’Harnoncourt, the director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and a tireless advocate for art as a crucial component to that city’s identity, died suddenly Sunday night at her Philadelphia home after undergoing surgery last week, reports The Philadelphia Inquirer. She was 64.

“It’s a shock and it’s very sad. It’s unimaginable — the museum world without her,” said Philippe de Montebello, director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a longtime friend and colleague of Ms. d’Harnoncourt’s.

Ms. d’Harnoncourt first came to the Philadelphia museum in 1967 but left in 1969 to become assistant curator of 20th-century art at the Art Institute of Chicago. She returned to Philadelphia and became curator of 20th-century art there in 1972 and director in 1982. She was in the middle of overseeing a $590-million expansion and renovation of the museum when she died.

Among her accomplishments, Ms. d’Harnoncourt was credited with establishing Philadelphia’s modern concept of cultural tourism with a 1996 Cezanne retrospective, which drew nearly 800,000 viewers, the newspaper notes.

From The Chronicle: Returns on Foundation Investments Beat Expectations

Despite a slowing economy, American foundations reported an average annual return on investments of 9.9 percent for 2007, a rate that was down from the year before but higher than the average of what foundations said they had hoped to achieve, according to a report by the Commonfund Institute scheduled for release today, according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

From The Chronicle: Federal Fund-Raising Drive Posts Little Increase

Federal employees last year pledged $273.1-million to the Combined Federal Campaign, the government’s annual charity drive — a gain of less than 1 percent over the 2006 total, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.

Government and Politics Watch: Pa. Legislators Form Charity Caucus

An alliance of nonprofit groups in Pennsylvania has worked with the state’s General Assembly to set up the Pennsylvania Charitable Nonprofit Caucus, reports The Chronicle’s Government and Politics Watch column.

Nonprofit Congress: Conference Updates

The National Council of Nonprofit Associations announced a new leader — and a new name — while nonprofit leaders laid out seven challenges for charities at the Nonprofit Congress meeting in Washington this week. See our conference notebook for regular online updates from the meeting.

June 03, 2008

S.C. Lawmakers Funnel $2-Million to Charity Via Universities

South Carolina legislators have funneled nearly $2-million in three years through public universities to nonprofit organizations, reports The Post and Courier, in Charleston.

Several legislators have sent such money to groups where they work and receive compensation. Officials channel money by including funds from the state budget in the universities’ appropriations, which the schools then hand over to specified charities.

“It looks like a way to camouflage money to do something they can’t do or don’t want to do directly, something that might be politically embarrassing,” said John Crangle, director of the government watchdog group Common Cause South Carolina.

Rep. David Mack, a Democrat from North Charleston, has sent $700,000 through South Carolina State University to the Palmetto Center for Advocacy, a health education group based in Columbia. Mr. Mack is currently the group’s outreach director and previously served as its interim director; he declined to say how much the group pays him.

Other legislators have sent money to groups on whose boards they serve as well as to organizations to which they have no direct connection.

More Needy Pet Owners Turn to Food Banks

As hard times mount, more pet owners are turning to food banks and discounted veterinary clinics to provide for their animals, reports The Associated Press.

Rising costs of food, fuel, and housing, combined with the foreclosure crisis, have affected people’s ability to care for their pets. Food banks report a surge in requests for pet food, and more owners are turning to discount veterinary clinics or skipping care for their animals. Other owners are giving up their pets altogether.

The Animal Welfare League, in Chicago Ridge, Ill., says 50 percent more people have sought monthly rations of pet food than last year. And the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals’ chapter in Santa Cruz, Calif., said that demand has risen by 20 percent for its pet-food bank over the past six months.

In addition, the foreclosure crisis has resulted in a growing number of pet owners abandoning their animals or giving them to shelters after the loss of a home or relocation to housing that does not allow animals.

The Petco Foundation, the charity arm of Petco Animal Supplies, is providing $5,000 grants to shelters to relocate animals abandoned through foreclosures, as well as to help people find housing that will allow them to keep their pets.

(Free registration is required to view this article on the Baltimore Sun site.)

Harvard Alumni Group Looks to Redirect Donations

A small group of Harvard University alumni are trying to persuade the institution to support outside causes, particularly colleges in Africa, reports The New York Times.

Harvard Alumni for Social Action, a group formed three years ago, tried to get the university to share its alumni donors list as well as to redirect class-reunion gifts to Africa. Both ideas were rejected by Harvard’s leadership, although the institution did eventually agree to create a scholarship fund for African graduate students, after a former graduate agreed to provide $250,000 to support that effort.

“There are large amounts of money being given to Harvard and other wealthy universities every year by classes like ours, and they don’t really need it,” said Jennifer Freeman, a 1983 alumna and part of the Harvard Alumni for Social Action outreach committee.

“It is simply not our mission to provide direct financial support to universities elsewhere in the world,” countered Tamara Rogers, vice president for university development at Harvard.

Harvard University, with its $35-billion and growing endowment, and other wealthy academic institutions are facing increased scrutiny as to whether they are fulfilling their charitable purpose.

(Free registration is required to view this article.)

Aid Groups Decry Closing of Relief Camps in Myanmar

International aid groups criticized the Myanmar government on Tuesday for forcing displaced people to leave cyclone relief camps, reports Reuters.

One month after Cyclone Nargis hit the country formerly known as Burma, United Nations officials and aid experts are still trying to determine the extent of the damage.

The United Nations called the Myanmar government’s decision to evict people from relief camps “unacceptable,” with many evicted persons returning to areas hit hard by the storm.

The policy is apparently aimed at preventing the relief camps from becoming permanent, although the government has not responded to questions from the United Nations or international relief groups.

Autistic People Form Advocacy Movement

A new movement is emerging in which people with autism or Asperger’s syndrome advocate for their own needs, reports National Public Radio.

The need for the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network was driven home by a New York advertising campaign that described Asperger’s syndrome as holding a child hostage, similar to conditions such as bulimia or depression, said Ari Ne’eman, the group’s president.

“We found these ads extremely offensive because they reinforced perceptions of people with disabilities as not being full people, as being somehow kidnapped and not fully present in our own bodies,” said Mr. Ne’eman, who is 20 and has Asperger’s syndrome.

Following public complaints, the Child Study Center at New York University, which produced the controversial ads, canceled the campaign.

The group intends to help people with the disorder speak for themselves, rather than relying on the advocacy of family members or care providers.

Opinion: “SingleStop” Shopping for Antipoverty Benefits

The nonprofit organization SingleStop USA helps needy people obtain government benefits, and its success is underscored by its ability to raise $35-million in less than nine months, writes Georgia Levenson Keohane, a philanthropy consultant, in an opinion piece in Slate.

Pointing to a record 28 million Americans on food stamps, Ms. Keohane asserts that SingleStop’s services are particularly needed in today’s “uncertain economic climate.” The start-up organization, she writes, uses “Turbo-tax like software” and counseling to help people tap into government benefits for which they are eligible but not using.

The Robin Hood Foundation started a pilot version of the program in New York in 2001, which has helped 70,000 New Yorkers gain access to benefits.

From The Chronicle: $70-Million Raised for Asian Disasters

American relief groups have raised more than $69-million to help victims of the cyclone that struck Myanmar and the earthquake in China last month, according to the latest Chronicle of Philanthropy tally. Roughly $31-million has been contributed for each disaster.

From The Chronicle: Philanthropy and Race

The Democratic primaries that wrap up today have focused new attention on issues of racism in the United States — and raised questions about how philanthropy can best heal the racial divide. Read the opinions of nonprofit experts whose comments have appeared in The Chronicle and share your views.

From The Chronicle: Getting the Most From Volunteers

Read a transcript of the online discussion The Chronicle hosted today on how charities can get the most from their volunteers.

June 02, 2008

Mo. Governor Criticizes Health Foundation

Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt, a Republican, is criticizing the Missouri Foundation of Health for refusing to help the state pay for health programs, reports the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Mr. Blunt issued a release accusing the foundation of being controlled by Jay Nixon, the state’s attorney general, and alleging that the group has “declined” to partner with the state.

Mr. Nixon, a Democrat, is expected to be the party’s nominee to replace Mr. Blunt, who is not running for a second term.

The foundation’s president, James Kimmey, said that last year the group’s board did refuse Mr. Blunt’s request for aid. Mr. Kimmey said the governor wanted the foundation to provide 80 percent of its budget for programs that are run by the state for the next 10 years.

“It was an unusual request,” Mr. Kimmey said. “I dare say unprecedented. … A lot of this, I think, has to do with the gubernatorial campaign.”

Mr. Kimmey noted that the foundation has not declined all requests to aid state programs.

Tony Blair's Charity Will Use Religion to Spur Economic Development

Tony Blair, the former prime minister of Britain, announced in New York on Friday the unveiling of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, a new charity that seeks to draw on religion as a source for economic development and conflict resolution, reports The New York Times.

The charity will help create an interfaith center in London and will develop educational materials about world religions. Additionally, it will encourage religious groups to work together on antipoverty projects. The first such project is part of the growing campaign to end the spread of malaria by distributing mosquito nets.

Mr. Blair declined to say how much money his foundation has raised, but a staff member for the effort confirmed by e-mail that individuals, charities, companies, and governments have given “tens of millions.”

(Free registration is required to view this article.)

Nonprofit Group Draws Scrutiny for Political Activity

A nonprofit group in Washington is drawing attention for its ties to the campaign of Sen. John McCain, The Washington Post reports.

The newspaper says concerns about improper political activity by nonprofit groups are gaining attention as the presidential contest heats up.

Citizens Against Government Waste has been running ads that take a similar position to those advanced by Mr. McCain, the newspaper says. The group is defending the view that the Air Force made a wise choice in awarding Northrop Grumman and its European partner a $40-billion contract for refueling tankers.

Although it never explicitly mentioned Mr. McCain’s name, the group’s willingness to run advertisements defending the deal has offered the candidate its indirect support at no cost to his campaign.

“This is the public-relations equivalent of air cover: You saturate debate with your rhetoric so people start talking about your message and stop talking about McCain. It’s a classic third-party technique,” said Sheldon Rampton, research director for the Center for Media and Democracy.

The McCain campaign and Citizens Against Government Waste deny any cooperation.

The group’s lobbying arm, Council for Citizens Against Government Waste has twice supported Mr. McCain for president, increasing speculation about whether a candidate for public office is benefiting improperly from the group’s activity. “The question is: What is lobbying and what is campaign intervention?” said Frances R. Hill, a law professor at the University of Miami who specializes in the intersection between charities and politics.

(Free registration is required to view this article.)

Low-Cost, Simple Approach to Giving Appeals to Teenagers

A campaign to prevent malaria by making $10 donations to purchase mosquito nets has drawn wide support from young donors eager to participate in simple and affordable philanthropy, reports The New York Times.

To supply children with mosquito nets that cost $10 each, Nothing but Nets has raised $20-million from 70,000 donors.

The opportunity to save a human life for the same amount of money it costs to buy a pizza has proved very appealing to teenagers with limited income who are looking to make a difference by supporting causes they deem worthy, the newspaper says.

“You won’t find them giving money for research,” said Naomi Levine, an expert on philanthropy at New York University. “It’s too far off. But a net is something you can hold in your hand.”

(Free registration is required to view this article.)

Dallas Museum Receives $50-Million

The Museum of Nature and Science, in Dallas, announced Friday it received a $50-million gift from Margot and H. Ross Perot’s five children, reports The Dallas Morning News.

In honor of their parents, Katherine Perot, Carolyn Perot Rathjen, Suzanne Perot McGee, Nancy Perot Mulford and Ross Perot Jr. made the gift for the construction of a new facility that will be named for Mr. and Mrs. Perot. The family’s gift brings the museum’s capital campaign to a total of nearly $106-million, the newspaper said.

Ross Perot made his fortune by founding the Electronic Data Systems company.

Nonprofit Congress: Online Updates From The Chronicle

The National Council of Nonprofit Associations holds its annual Nonprofit Congress in Washington this week.

The Chronicle will be posting updates from the conference throughout the meeting at http://philanthropy.com/news/conference/.

From The Chronicle: Donor-Advised Funds

Assets of donor-advised funds grew 25 percent in 2007, according to the latest Chronicle of Philanthropy survey, but many already see signs that such growth will not be repeated in 2008.

(A paid subscription or short-term pass is required to view this article.)