How to Avoid Scandals: Online Training for Trustees
To the Editor: The Chronicle of Philanthropy and other news organizations repeatedly report stories involving conflicts of interest, financial scandals, and other abuses of fiduciary duties by charities’ board members. My involvement with various nonprofit organizations and their boards — as a…
How to Guarantee Respect for Public-Interest Lobbyists
Lobbyists have become a big issue in the political campaigns, as the candidates and the voters show their disdain for special interests that buy government action with piles of campaign cash. In Washington and elsewhere, pressure is growing to stop these interests from drowning out other voices…
By LAWRENCE OTTINGER
Contributor
Strong Charities Will Make Our Next President More Effective
Now that the presidential primary season is over and the general campaign has begun, things are going to get even tougher for many nonprofit advocacy groups. It certainly is already a difficult environment for fund raising at my organization. At a recent meeting with a donor to the advocacy…
By Joshua Horwitz
Contributor
Next on the Board’s Agenda: Fighting State Cuts
Nonprofit boards across the country need to set emergency meetings over the next few days. The item on the agenda to discuss: their responsibility to engage in advocacy in the face of $47-billion in budget cuts. That is the size of the deficits that 29 states will collectively post on July 1 as…
By Robert Egger
Contributor
American Red Cross, Southwestern Pennsylvania Chapter (Pittsburgh): Appointed Patricia M. Waldinger, chief administrative officer and senior vice president for the Global Institutional Clients Department at Mellon Financial Corporation (Pittsburgh), to be chief executive officer. Benedictine Life…
Opinion: Nonprofit Groups Should Expect a Lean Year
Opinion: Nonprofit groups should expect a lean year
To the Editor: In the space of an op-ed of only 1,400 words (“Philanthropy’s Jeremiah Wright Problem,” May 15), William Schambra has managed to throw mud at the leading Democratic candidate for president, several respected foundations, and organizations that have established track records of…
Social Activism, Not Socialism, Gets Results
To the Editor: I am a lifelong volunteer with children’s organizations and a certified secondary educator, and I hold a master’s in nonprofit management. Just recently I realized what the groups I volunteer with have in common: They give children the tools to struggle, lose sometimes, challenge…
Business and Philanthropy Are Inevitable Bedfellows
Michael Edwards is one of those increasingly rare foundation officials who does not hesitate to speak his mind, and he usually says something worth thinking about when he does. Following stints at humanitarian groups and the World Bank, he has been head of the Ford Foundation’s governance and…
By LESLIE LENKOWSKY
Contributor
Technology Isn’t the Only Key to Communication
To the Editor: As a longtime evangelist for communication in philanthropy, I was excited to see the package of articles in the May 1 issue (“Finding Their Voice”) and Rebecca Leet’s op-ed (“Strong Messages Mean Strong Leaders,” April 17). I have only one beef. Effective communication is not only…