Collaboration with governments and businesses matters most in responding to economic hard times, natural disasters, and other tragedies. Read more…
Standing Beside Alaska's Non-Profits
Foraker Group Blog | PHILANTHROPY 
Community giving and participation are essential for social progress and global development, and can generate increased local ownership and local accountability, new report says. Read more…
Craig Newmark, the founder of Craigslist, discusses how nonprofits can urge their supporters to work together to advance social goals. Read more…
Laura Fredricks, a fundraising consultant, says to tailor every pitch to the individual and explains what to do when potential supporters say no. Read more…
The new era of ‘megafoundations’ is significantly changing the American landscape of giving, bringing strategic grant-making and public-policy advocacy to the forefront of philanthropy according to Stanley N. Katz a Princeton University academic. Read more…
More than half the money collected in house-to-house charity solicitations arises from residents seeking to avoid the awkwardness of opening the door and saying no, according to a new report. Read more…
The paper has eliminated its philanthropy beat, a move that could make it harder for nonprofits to get their stories told to a national audience. The newspaper was one of the last daily newspapers to employ a reporter to cover national nonprofits on a full-time basis. That reporter, Stephanie Strom, is now writing about business. Read more…
It seems that nonprofits don’t do nearly enough to tell donors how their money will be used. That’s one of the striking preliminary findings from a new survey by the researcher Penelope Burk of Cygnus Applied Research which has conducted an online survey with thousands of donors.
The survey asked donors “what could unleash your philanthropy at a whole new level?” Nearly half of the donors said that they had more money to give but held back. Many of them said that was largely because they had not received enough information about how past donations had been spent.
Burk is careful to say that the preliminary responses she released are not necessarily representative of the entire group of donors. Still, organizations may want to take note of the comments she shared. One donor wanted “the need for funds translated into personal stories. Two charities I support have done this and it is highly effective in inspiring me to give more generously.” Read more…
The basic model for a private foundation in the U.S. is that it is endowed by some wealthy source and then chartered to direct some portion of its funds each year – the legal minimum is 5 percent of its assets – toward philanthropic ends, typically by giving out grants. But some say that model is outdated. Read more…
The first family of philanthropy is without a doubt Bill and Melinda Gates, whose eponymous foundation is the world’s largest and perhaps the world’s most influential. Read more…
