Republicans give a bigger share of their incomes to charity, says a prominent economist It’s been a tough month for conservatives, with the Republican Party losing control of both houses of Congress, but a new book ALSO SEE: TEXT: How to Increase Giving ARTICLE: How an Author’s Views on Giving…
By Ben Gose
Senior Editor
Former Financial Officer Faces Charges in Museum Debt Crisis
Eighteen months after the Milwaukee Public Museum, one of the largest natural-history museums in the country, shocked the city by revealing that it was in a financial crisis, one of its top executives appears to be the only one to face criminal charges in the museum’s near collapse. Terry A.…
By Ben Gose
Senior Editor
Nobel Prize Win Focuses Attention on Microfinance
The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to the Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus this month may provide a lift to the already rapidly growing field of microfinance, and bring financial services to a larger percentage of the world’s poor, microfinance experts say. In 1976, Mr. Yunus founded the…
By Ben Gose
Senior Editor
Don’t Beg: Tips for Fund Raisers
Kenneth D. Strmiska jokingly refers to the Greater Green Bay Community Foundation as “the patron saint of lost causes.” The community foundation’s relatively inexpensive fees for its consulting work on fund raising and ALSO SEE:Article: Pioneering a New Direction strategic planning attract groups…
By Ben Gose
Senior Editor
Community fund advises both charities and donors When the Greater Green Bay Habitat for Humanity set out to raise $1.25-million to help build 50 houses over ALSO SEE: Chart: How Assets Have Grown at Green Bay’s Community Foundation Article: Don’t Beg: Tips for Fund Raisers the next five years, it…
By Ben Gose
Senior Editor
A Nonprofit Think-Tank Leader Takes Reins of White House Religious-Charity Office
Jay Hein, who takes over as director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives this month, has broad experience in government and grant making, and he started his own think tank. At a time when even some champions of the office believe its promise remains unfulfilled, some…
By Ben Gose
Senior Editor
Programs Respond to Needs of Katrina Children
The public schools in Houston, and the children whose families moved from New Orleans to Houston because ALSO SEE:Special Report: Rebuilding the World a Storm DestroyedArticle: Holding On in Houston of Hurricane Katrina, are both struggling through an adjustment period. On average, the displaced…
By Ben Gose
Senior Editor
Charities continue to help displaced Katrina victims secure homes and jobs as the city struggles to adjust From makeshift office space in Houston’s East End, 22 caseworkers — all of whom fled to this ALSO SEE:Special Report: Rebuilding the World a Storm DestroyedArticle: Programs Respond to Needs…
By Ben Gose
Senior Editor
Making Personal Pitches for Loans
By Ben Gose With the methods of supplying capital to microfinance institutions still in flux, entrepreneurs are exploring some new approaches. Two years ago, Matthew and Jessica Flannery spent time in rural Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, where Jessica worked for the Village Enterprise Fund, a…
By Ben Gose
Senior Editor
The Big Promise of Small Loans
A new crop of grant makers -- and investors -- is embracing microfinance to alleviate world poverty By Ben Gose Veena Mankar, a banker in Mumbai (formerly Bombay), India, looked at the slums in her city and wondered why needy people in urban areas could not benefit from the same access to loans and…
By Ben Gose
Senior Editor