Charity Leaders and Donors Make ‘Time’ List of Most Influential People

Eight philanthropists and nonprofit leaders are highlighted in Time magazine’s latest annual report of the 100 Most Influential People in the World (April 18).

While many people on the list are well known, including the philanthropists Warren Buffett and Alice Walton and big names from the entertainment, business, and political worlds, the magazine also features less-well-known do-gooders. Among them is Barbara Van Dahlen, who established the nonprofit group Give an Hour, in which volunteer mental-health professionals counsel U.S. military personnel and their families who have been affected by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The nonprofit executives on the list include:

• Salman Khan, who established Khan Academy to provide school-age children around the world with free access to online math, science, and other academic lessons.
• Dulce Matuz, president of the Arizona Dream Act Coalition, which provides scholarships and pushes for policies to help immigrant students gain legal status.
• Ai-jen Poo, who leads the National Domestic Workers Alliance, an advocacy group working to help housekeepers and people who provide care to children and the elderly.
• Ben Rattray, who founded Change.org, a Web site that connects advocates and donors with causes.
• Cecile Richards, who has served as president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America since 2006.

To read the list, go to time.com.

Homeboy Industries, a Los Angeles nonprofit that seeks to help former and current gang members turn their lives around, needed to turn around its own finances when its survival was threatened by the economic downturn, Fast Company magazine reports. The nearly 25-year-old organization, which is run by its founder, Greg Boyle, a charismatic Jesuit priest, was in danger of collapsing in 2010 as the slow recovery caused more and more people to seek the charity’s services—and Father Boyle had trouble turning down those in need. As donors rallied to save the organization from collapse, the organization got help from an unlikely supporter: Bruce Karatz, co-founder of KB Home, who two years ago was charged with four felonies related to the home-building company’s questionable accounting practices.

During the months Mr. Karatz spent at home awaiting his sentencing, he volunteered to help the charity. He turned out to bring just the sort of business savvy (and a talent for aggressive fundraising) Father Boyle needed to save his charity from financial ruin.

Mr. Karatz’s commitment to the organization has continued. He was sentenced to five years of probation, eight months of home confinement, and 2,000 hours of community service, supervised by Father Boyle at Homeboy Industries.

To read the article, go to fastcompany.com.