Kansas City charitable foundation gets national attention | The Kansas City Star

Kansas City charitable foundation gets national attention | The Kansas City Star: "The Greater Kansas City Community Foundation grabbed the top “rising star” ranking in an annual report published Thursday on America’s 400 largest public charities.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy analyzed a 25-year history of private donations to nonprofits and found that the Kansas City foundation rose in a ranking from No. 400 in 1991 to No. 56 on the 2015 list in terms of annual support."



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Sigma Chi gets chilly to fight ALS | Concordiensis

Sigma Chi gets chilly to fight ALS | Concordiensis: "On Monday, Oct. 26, the brothers of Sigma Chi fraternity held an ALS Ice Bucket Challenge in just-below 50-degree weather as part of their Derby Days to help raise money for the ALS Association.

Union’s chapter of the fraternity has chosen to dedicate its Derby Days week to fundraising for and raising awareness of ALS."



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Why the world needs more online charity community forums | nfpSynergy

Why the world needs more online charity community forums | nfpSynergy:



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Harvard Raises $1 Billion for 2nd Consecutive Year - The Chronicle of Philanthropy

Harvard Raises $1 Billion for 2nd Consecutive Year - The Chronicle of Philanthropy: "Harvard University collected $1 billion in donations in the 12 months ending June 30, the second straight year in which its fundraising reached the 10-figure mark, Bloomberg writes, citing the institution's annual report issued Thursday."



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Would You Donate To A Soft Drink Company?- NPT TimesThe NonProfit Times

Would You Donate To A Soft Drink Company?- NPT TimesThe NonProfit Times: "The Blackbaud index showed a corresponding revenue growth of 1.7 percent that plummeted 8.9 percent when adjusted for inflation.

A study released just a few weeks ago by the Association of Fundraising Professionals shows charities are losing three more donors each year than new and returning donors are giving to organizations. Fewer than half of donors supported the same charity two years in a row."



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Komen’s Folly: A Decline in Fundraiser Ranking Tells the Story in Numbers | Nonprofit Quarterly

Komen’s Folly: A Decline in Fundraiser Ranking Tells the Story in Numbers | Nonprofit Quarterly:



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Live From BBCON: Empathy Gap Stalling Progress - The NonProfit TimesThe NonProfit Times

Live From BBCON: Empathy Gap Stalling Progress - The NonProfit TimesThe NonProfit Times: "Innovation is sweeping through the nonprofit world and beyond yet there remains an “empathy gap” when it comes to investing in solutions to address society’s problems, according to Nicholas Kristof.

The New York Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize winner presented Monday’s keynote at BBCON 2015, Blackbaud’s Conference for the Philanthropic Community, at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, "



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Von der Heydens Give Duke $8.36 million to Support Arts, Global Health | Duke Today

Von der Heydens Give Duke $8.36 million to Support Arts, Global Health | Duke Today: "DURHAM, NC - An $8.36 million gift from Duke University alumnus and trustee emeritus Karl von der Heyden and his wife, Mary Ellen, will support the arts at Duke and graduate students at the Duke Global Health Institute (DGHI), President Richard H. Brodhead said Wednesday."



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Why Young Trustees Matter This #Trusteesweek | Alex Swallow

Why Young Trustees Matter This #Trusteesweek | Alex Swallow:



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Fundraising staffing a matter of need - Crain's Detroit Business

Fundraising staffing a matter of need - Crain's Detroit Business: "he vast difference in employee numbers — from one to 550 at the seven nonprofits surveyed for this story — relies on the amount of private and public dollars rolling in and whether there are endowments. (Crain's Detroit Business contacted 12 nonprofits — three in four sectors — universities, arts foundations, medical foundations and social services foundations. Three of them chose not to provide numbers on development staff size or be interviewed. Two more answered part of the survey, but were not receptive to being interviewed.)

Surprisingly, the solo fundraising employee (see story) can corral $1 million if he or she knows how to obtain government grants. Typically, social service agencies' gifts are smaller, while a university might receive a $6 million endowment.

"A lot of nonprofits are small," said Paula Brown, head of the Detroit chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals and executive director and fundraiser for Reading Works in Detroit. "Once an organization gets its legs and starts growing, they can (hire) fundraising staff.""



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Atlantic Philanthropies Will Donate Archives and $4 Million to Cornell University - The Chronicle of Philanthropy

Atlantic Philanthropies Will Donate Archives and $4 Million to Cornell University - The Chronicle of Philanthropy: "Atlantic Philanthropies will donate its archives to Cornell University, The Cornell Daily Sun reports.

The records document the philanthropy's roughly $8 billion in grants distributed over more than three decades. The gift also includes a $4-million grant to Cornell’s Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, part of its library."



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Toward a Theory of Sector Selection | Nonprofit Quarterly

Toward a Theory of Sector Selection | Nonprofit Quarterly: "s social entrepreneurs around the world create new organizations to solve emerging public problems, they do so drawing on a broad range of organizational forms, ranging from the traditional nonprofit form to the classic business corporate form—and, most recently, a whole host of hybrid forms located between these poles. Sometimes, the initial institutional auspice works well for the entrepreneur, and constitutes a firm foundation on which to build the organization. Often, however, the question of which form to adopt generates substantial stress inside the organization, because the reasons one form would be preferred over another are not well understood. The complexity of this decision is exacerbated by the continually blurring distinctions between for-profit and nonprofit organizations around the world. For example, more and more nonprofit organizations are integrating earned income models—with sales, revenues, and profits—into their nonprofit activities. At the same time, the socially oriented business attempts to integrate selflessness and social impact into its for-profit activities."



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Opinion: Bloomingdale’s ‘Icons With Impact’ Campaign Symbolizes Worrisome Shift in Philanthropy - The Chronicle of Philanthropy

Opinion: Bloomingdale’s ‘Icons With Impact’ Campaign Symbolizes Worrisome Shift in Philanthropy - The Chronicle of Philanthropy: "The descriptions read like failed pitches for a sitcom on the nonprofit world: A punk-rock makeup artist supports music programs for urban youth. A magazine director sponsors a school in Haiti. A "stylist, humanitarian, and power-mom" provides "everyday heroes" with "life-changing style experiences."
These blurbs accompany the "Icons With Impact," featured in October in Bloomingdale’s windows on 59th Street in Manhattan and on the store’s website.

The store, in partnership with Levi’s, selected eight stylish "trendsetters" who merited the honor by their involvement in a charity, thus "setting a new standard for giving back — and looking seriously stylish in the process.""



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Wasteful Fundraising Practices

Holly Hall in Inside Philanthropy
Wasteful Fundraising Practices:

I’m ending this series about consultant Jimmy LaRose’s effort to ignite a fundraising revolution where I began—with a story about Jimmy’s attack on so-called feasibility or campaign-planning studies. Fundraising consultants get paid for these studies to figure out how ready a nonprofit organization is for a capital campaign and what the monetary goal should be.  




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What Makes a Charity Tax-Exempt? Issues for Government Oversight and Due Diligence | Nonprofit Quarterly

What Makes a Charity Tax-Exempt? Issues for Government Oversight and Due Diligence | Nonprofit Quarterly: "Assisted by Uncle Gene, Hana has composed a very competent review of the requirements for entities to receive 501(c)(3) designations and, as she puts it, “whether governmental authorities are appropriately enforcing those requirements.”

After very helpfully reviewing Treasury regulations what it means to be “charitable” or “educational,” two of the possible purposes for 501(c)(3) status, Hana and Gene perceptively note that some critics have suggested that “it’s too easy to pass the requirements for furthering a ‘charitable’ or ‘educational’ purpose” and that this “anything goes” approach “has only been made worse by the new Form 1023-EZ” that the IRS started using last year for “streamlined” 501(c)(3) applications. The 1023-EZ form, a three-page application that simplifies qualification for 501(c)(3) status down to answering 11 basic questions about proposed activities, makes the IRS review process of the past look like an insuperable obstacle course in comparison."



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Nonprofit Compensation (Self) Reform at Colleges and Universities | Nonprofit Quarterly

Nonprofit Compensation (Self) Reform at Colleges and Universities | Nonprofit Quarterly: "As the arguments for student loan reform and free college education take the main stage in political rhetoric, university executive compensation plans are slowly but gradually being drawn into the spotlight. At the executive level, nonprofit compensation packages include high salaries, housing packages, and such perks as retention bonuses and performance bonuses. This issue isn’t limited to just the university systems; NPQ has been reporting for the past couple of years on efforts to cap nonprofit executive pay from California to New York. Recently, though, the University of Illinois took steps that indicate they could be giving up controversy for the role of a leader in compensation reform."



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Nonprofits Face Internal Leadership Shortfall - The NonProfit TimesThe NonProfit Times

Nonprofits Face Internal Leadership Shortfall - The NonProfit TimesThe NonProfit Times: "Nonprofit senior managers are engaged in an elaborate game of musical chairs, with 44 percent of C-suite positions filled during the past two years taken by members of other organizations. Internal promotions have resulted in just 29 percent of new hires, half the rate of the for-profit sector.

“The Nonprofit Leadership Development Deficit,” produced by The Bridgespan Group of Boston, Mass., and released today, f"



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The Nonprofit Leadership Development Deficit | Stanford Social Innovation Review

The Nonprofit Leadership Development Deficit | Stanford Social Innovation Review: "The Nonprofit Leadership Development Deficit

Succession planning is the No. 1 organizational concern of US nonprofits, but they are failing to develop their most promising pool of talent: the homegrown leader."



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Follow-up with 2014 Technology Innovation Award Winner: Alexandria Seaport Foundation | 501cTECH

Follow-up with 2014 Technology Innovation Award Winner: Alexandria Seaport Foundation | 501cTECH: "Questions answered by Kathy Siefert, Director of Development at Alexandria Seaport Foundation. This follow-up survey is designed to serve as a resource for understanding how grants serve nonprofits, and what obstacles grant recipients might encounter while implementing projects."



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