keeping a close eye... by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy: A Small Foundation Leads by Example with an Open and Transparent Midterm Review

keeping a close eye... by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy: A Small Foundation Leads by Example with an Open and Transparent Midterm Review: "I’m either a philanthropy and social change geek who really likes reading good publications, or I’m a bit of a workaholic. Perhaps it’s a little of both!

In any case, I spent some time on my back deck this past weekend reading a new report from the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation titled Helping People and Places Move Out of Poverty: Progress and Learning 2010. What a refreshing and thoughtful document!"

keeping a close eye... by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy: How Can the Practice of Evaluating Philanthropy Improve?

keeping a close eye... by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy: How Can the Practice of Evaluating Philanthropy Improve?: "When it comes to philanthropic giving, people want to see results. They want to know that their contributions are making a difference and helping to “move the needle” on larger issues.

Does the current practice of evaluating philanthropy show that our gifts are delivering? Is quality of life improving? And how can the practice of evaluation evolve to better answer such questions?

Steve Mayer, of the Effective Communities Project, takes on these issues in his Responsive Philanthropy article “Wanted: Better Evaluation Practices for Philanthropy”."

The Nonprofit Quarterly | @npquarterly | Final Chapter for Book Store That Underwrote School Projects

The Nonprofit Quarterly | @npquarterly | Final Chapter for Book Store That Underwrote School Projects: "March 28, 2011; Source: Austin American-Statesman | As we've seen over and over again, good intentions are no substitute for cash in these troubled economic times. As a result, Tab Barker is closing the book today in Austin on a venture he started in 2003 to sell used books online to raise money to pay for schools and supplies in Nicaragua."

April 7520 Rate Unchanged at 3.0% | Planned Giving Design Center

April 7520 Rate Unchanged at 3.0% | Planned Giving Design Center: "For purposes of determining the present value of an annuity, an interest for life or a term of years, or a remainder or a reversionary interest, Revenue Ruling 2011-10 indicates the applicable federal rate under section 7520 for April 2011 is 3.0%; unchanged from the March rate and up 0.2% from the February rate of 2.8%."

NEW LEADER ON BOARD - Association Bisnow - Washington

NEW LEADER ON BOARD - Association Bisnow - Washington: "American Associations Day is finally here, and ASAE will be celebrating today and tomorrow with a legislative fly-in. (Unlike other holiday fly-ins, this one does not involve reindeer or your mother-"

World’s Richest Man Opens His Soumaya Museum In Mexico City - Kerry A. Dolan - Shades of Green - Forbes

World’s Richest Man Opens His Soumaya Museum In Mexico City - Kerry A. Dolan - Shades of Green - Forbes: "Carlos Slim has taken heat for his lack of philanthropy (compared to the size of his $74 billion fortune) and his unwillingness to sign on to the Giving Pledge, a movement by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett that encourages the wealthy to give half their riches to charity. The Soumaya Museum is worth just a fraction of Slim’s stake in Latin American wireless phone company America Movil, but it is nonetheless a positive step on Slim’s philanthropic path."

Policy Update: AFP Urges Senate Committee to Support Tax Incentives for Giving - Press - AFP

Policy Update: AFP Urges Senate Committee to Support Tax Incentives for Giving - Press - AFP: "Policy Update: AFP Urges Senate Committee to Support Tax Incentives for Giving

(March 29, 2011) Tomorrow, March 30, 2011, the Senate Finance Committee will hold a hearing titled 'How Do Complexity, Uncertainty and Other Factors Impact Responses to Tax Incentives' to determine whether tax incentives actually work, or whether they reward behavior that would have occurred anyway."

Heart and Soul 2011 - Submission Gallery | Community Techknowledge

Heart and Soul 2011 - Submission Gallery | Community Techknowledge: "Looking for inspiration for your poem?

Take a look at the gallery below. These poems were submited for the 2009 Heart and Soul grant award."

10 Tips for Charitable Giving During Retirement

10 Tips for Charitable Giving During Retirement

Chicago Children's Museum spinning its wheels again - chicagotribune.com

Chicago Children's Museum spinning its wheels again - chicagotribune.com: "The Chicago Children's Museum is back in the news, and never in the field of human endeavor have so many adults hidden behind so many children accomplished so little. After putting us through much fanfare to leave Navy Pier and redeploy to Grant Park, the museum recently agreed to enter discussions with Navy Pier to remain there."

The Nonprofit Quarterly | @npquarterly | Buffett Tells Philanthropists to Fail More

The Nonprofit Quarterly | @npquarterly | Buffett Tells Philanthropists to Fail More: "Philanthropists are beginning to embrace failure, or at least they’re beginning to talk about embracing failure. NPQ’s own Rick Cohen asked yesterday, “Is this posturing or is it for real? And to what end?” The latest philanthropist to espouse the failure principal is Billionaire Warren Buffet"

Changes in Arab Nations Create Opportunities for Charities - Giving - The Chronicle of Philanthropy- Connecting the nonprofit world with news, jobs, and ideas

Changes in Arab Nations Create Opportunities for Charities - Giving - The Chronicle of Philanthropy- Connecting the nonprofit world with news, jobs, and ideas: "While the popular uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa have posed immediate challenges for charities, many nonprofit officials say they are hopeful that philanthropy will soon have new opportunities in the region. The starkest example of a new climate may be in Tunisia, where the mid-January ouster of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, the country’s authoritarian president, has meant that nonprofits once repressed by the government are now advising the political transition."

The Nonprofit Quarterly | @npquarterly | Reframing Governance (Revised)

The Nonprofit Quarterly | @npquarterly | Reframing Governance (Revised): "Many members of the nonprofit world have expressed concern that the sector has not developed new forms of governance. We have not, they complain, seen anything more than a minor variation on current designs and practices. For some time, I shared this perspective. But then I realized that this is not exactly true. We have created the “new nonprofit governance” at a new level within our communities. But we have not identified this shift because we’re so focused on the artifact that we know as “the board.”"

Palo Alto Online : Partners in Education raises $3.4M for Palo Alto schools

Palo Alto Online : Partners in Education raises $3.4M for Palo Alto schools: "Parent volunteers have raised a record-breaking $3.4 million to donate to Palo Alto's 17 public school campuses, the foundation Partners in Education (PiE) announced Tuesday."

Merritt Island High's alumni donation a $3 million surprise | FLORIDA TODAY | floridatoday.com

Merritt Island High's alumni donation a $3 million surprise | FLORIDA TODAY | floridatoday.com: "The 485 students who graduated that year donated at least $3.1 million -- yes that's right, $3.1 million -- to the Brevard Schools Foundation. It was made possible largely thanks to a single donor, who the foundation said insisted on anonymity."

Tight Florida budget strands university projects awaiting matching grants - St. Petersburg Times

Tight Florida budget strands university projects awaiting matching grants - St. Petersburg Times: "TALLAHASSEE — University of South Florida's future polytechnic campus. University of Florida's graduate business studies building. Florida State University's Center for Asian Art."

Nonprofits That Invested in Fundraising Staff, Resources Were More Likely to See Increases in 2010 | eJewish Philanthropy: Your Jewish Philanthropy Resource

Nonprofits That Invested in Fundraising Staff, Resources Were More Likely to See Increases in 2010 | eJewish Philanthropy: Your Jewish Philanthropy Resource: "A majority of charities surveyed saw their fundraising revenue remain stable or increase last year, according to the 2010 Year-End Survey of the Nonprofit Research Collaborative (NRC), a coalition of six fundraising and philanthropic organizations. The survey also showed that strong fundraising results were more likely when organizations invested resources in fundraising staff and infrastructure, including volunteer management."

Secret Admirers Give University $100 Million - WSJ.com

Secret Admirers Give University $100 Million - WSJ.com: "In a twist on a higher-education mystery, anonymous donors once again have bestowed riches on Kalamazoo, Mich.

The city's Western Michigan University said Tuesday that it received $100 million from anonymous donors to establish a medical school. WMU ranked it the seventh-largest cash gift ever to a public university."

The Nonprofit Quarterly | @npquarterly | Foundations Embrace Failure: Real Lessons Learned

The Nonprofit Quarterly | @npquarterly | Foundations Embrace Failure: Real Lessons Learned: "The Hewlett Foundation report (PDF) quoted from above is widely seen as candidly self-critical on the foundation’s $20 million comprehensive community initiative with language in the foundation president’s cover letter describing one of the site’s self-destruction and calling the entire effort a “great disappointment.” More recently, Hewlett held what appears to be an internal competition among its grantmaking departments for each to identify one grant that fell short of expectations and provide an analysis of what went wrong and what the foundation should learn from the experience."

The Daily Collegian

The Daily Collegian: "This year, the class of 2011 voted overwhelmingly in support of the Need and Merit Based Scholarship Fund, according to the Annual Fund. The goal of the Senior Campaign Committee, which is composed of 26 students, is to raise $40,000 for the fund. A deserving student will be awarded a scholarship every year by subsequent Senior Campaign Committees until funds are depleted."

What Recession? Some Charities Are Just Fine- Exempt from The NonProfit Times March 22, 2011

What Recession? Some Charities Are Just Fine- Exempt from The NonProfit Times March 22, 2011: "What Recession? Some Charities Are Just Fine

Some nonprofits bucked the trend of falling revenues and slashing expenses in spite of weathering the worst economic time since the Great Depression. While some charities moved to cut staff to match expenses with lowered revenues, Compassion International raised child sponsorship rates and continued with a major infrastructure initiative to build capacity.

In a continuing look at the NPT 100, a study of the largest nonprofits in the nation that appears annually in the Nov. 1 edition, Compassion International was among the charities that saw expenses rise in Fiscal Year 2009. However, the Colorado Springs, Colo., charity stayed the course and prioritized its long-term, capacity-building plans. Overall, NPT 100 charities had expenses decline about 6 percent in the aggregate but about half of the 100 nonprofits had higher expenses than the previous year."

Nonprofit Finance Fund 2011 Survey: America's Nonprofits Struggle to Meet Fast-Climbing Demand... -- NEW YORK, March 21, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --

Nonprofit Finance Fund 2011 Survey: America's Nonprofits Struggle to Meet Fast-Climbing Demand... -- NEW YORK, March 21, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --: "87% of Nonprofits Say, 'The Recession Has Not Ended'

NEW YORK, March 21, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- America's nonprofits are expecting 2011 to be another tough year for their organizations, and for the people they serve, according to a survey released today by Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF), with support from the Bank of America Charitable Foundation. The survey of more than 1,900 nonprofit leaders in markets nationwide found that while there are some signs of hope,"

Case Study: Corporate Social Responsibility in the US

Case Study: Corporate Social Responsibility in the US: "Historically, corporate responsibility activities within a corporation have been led by a single
department responsible for reporting, implementing initiatives and communicating activities within areas such as philanthropy, volunteerism and environmental affairs. Today, responsibility is increasingly embedded into core business functions and decisions, such as supply chain, transportation, engineering and marketing. Corporate responsibility experts are increasingly serving as resources for those functional decision-makers. Cramer says: “Companies are moving beyond philanthropy endeavours to look at corporate responsibility as a driver of innovation and competitiveness.”"

Measuring our giving

Measuring our giving: "The Fraser Institute recently published its Generosity Index which measures private monetary generosity in Canada and the United States. As in previous years, the 2010 index shows the differences in charitable giving which exists within Canada, and also between Canada and the United States."

Value of A Volunteer Hour Jumped 2.3%- The NonProfit Times MAR 17, 2011

Value of A Volunteer Hour Jumped 2.3%- The NonProfit Times MAR 17, 2011

Two-Thirds of Surveyed Charities Report Fundraising Results Held Steady or Improved in 2010 - Business Wire - SunHerald.com

Two-Thirds of Surveyed Charities Report Fundraising Results Held Steady or Improved in 2010 - Business Wire - SunHerald.com: "The study asked about two key measures of fundraising—the percentage of organizations reaching their fundraising goals and the percentage of charities raising more funds in one year compared to the previous year. In the NRC survey about 2010, just 52 percent of organizations reported reaching their fundraising goals that year. In a survey conducted by the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP, a member of the NRC) about 2009, 53 percent of charities reported meeting their yearly fundraising goals that year."

Queen Latifah Gives Fund Raisers a High-Profile Pep Talk - Prospecting - The Chronicle of Philanthropy- Connecting the nonprofit world with news, jobs, and ideas

Queen Latifah Gives Fund Raisers a High-Profile Pep Talk - Prospecting - The Chronicle of Philanthropy- Connecting the nonprofit world with news, jobs, and ideas: "And the musician and actor did her best to help fund raisers who gathered here Monday for the Association of Fundraising Professionals annual conference feel good about what they do and the people they serve.

“There is no fear in this game,” she said in a speech to attendees. “There is no room for ego. You have to go into the trenches and do what must be done for your organization."

Brew distribution laws hinder charity beer sales - Herald News

Brew distribution laws hinder charity beer sales - Herald News: "PLAINFIELD — Beer crafters at the Limestone Brewing Company in Plainfield would like to sell kegs of 6450 Red Ale to local restaurants who want to serve it to their customers.

Naming the ale for Plainfield’s Rotary Club Chapter 6450, Limestone donates 50 cents of every draw of the sweet malty ale to the local charity."

GuideStar Announces Plans to Acquire Innovative Startups Philanthropedia and Social Actions

GuideStar Announces Plans to Acquire Innovative Startups Philanthropedia and Social Actions: "2011



GuideStar Announces Plans to Acquire Innovative Startups Philanthropedia and Social Actions
Acquisitions Add Critical Impact Data to GuideStar's Outstanding Knowledge Base and Further the Organization's Long-Term Strategy of Helping Donors, Institutional Funders, and Those Working with the Nonprofit Sector Identify and Engage with High-Impact Nonprofits

Release date: March 17, 2011

Washington, D.C.—GuideStar, the nonprofit industry's leading resource for nonprofit data, today announced plans to acquire two innovative social impact organizations, Philanthropedia and Social Actions. GuideStar's addition of both organizations will strengthen its leading role in the nonprofit industry by adding to its growing knowledge base of tools, data, and information designed to advance transparency within the nonprofit sector."

Nonprofit Finance and Accounting 2011 | Philanthropy Journal

Nonprofit Finance and Accounting 2011 | Philanthropy Journal: "In this special report, PJ looks at ways nonprofits are handling their finances and accounting in the face of the troubled economy."