Charter Program Aims to Teach Success to Hispanic Youngsters
Washington When leaders of the National Council of La Raza, a nonprofit group in Washington, were looking for ALSO SEE:Nonprofit Lesson PlansHow ‘Charter’ Schools Are Run: a Primer ways to improve education for poor Hispanic children, they agreed that the stakes were so high that a big gamble was…
By Meg Sommerfeld
Contributor
More charitable groups are starting charter schoolsDetroit Three years ago, when officials of the YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit were thinking of opening an ALSO SEE:Charter Program Aims to Teach Success to Hispanic YoungstersHow ‘Charter’ Schools Are Run: a Primer elementary school that could serve…
By Meg Sommerfeld
Contributor
‘American Prospect’: Concern About Bush Plan
The American Prospect magazine’s Internet edition criticizes a terrorism-prevention program included in the Bush administration’s proposed volunteerism effort, the USA Freedom Corps. “Carefully tucked away among innocuous sounding proposals, such as tutoring inner-city children,” the article says,…
By Meg Sommerfeld
Contributor
‘New York’: Museum Board; Celebrity Charity
The Whitney Museum of American Art thought it had “landed the richest prize in town” when Tyco International’s chief executive, Dennis Kozlowski, joined its board in 2001, New York magazine reports (August 19). But one year and one corporate-accounting scandal later, museum officials are wondering…
By Meg Sommerfeld
Contributor
Veteran fund raiser works to raise the field’s professionalism New York When Naomi Levine was making weekly visits in the 1980s to see her mother at a retirement home in the Bronx, ALSO SEE: Reading Is Fundamental to NYU Fund Raiser she could count on getting a special request just before they…
By Meg Sommerfeld
Contributor
Reading Is Fundamental to NYU Fund Raiser
Karen Smith, New York University’s director of major gifts, calls herself one of Naomi Levine’s ALSO SEE: The Secrets of Her Success “fund-raising children,” and says she learned several major lessons from her mentor, the university’s chief fund raiser for more than two decades. The first: Read The…
By Meg Sommerfeld
Contributor
Annenberg Schools Program Yields Millions, but Gets Mixed Results
The $500-million that the philanthropist Walter Annenberg committed to helping public schools in 1993 produced more than $600-million in matching funds from foundations, businesses, governments, and other sources, says a report released by the Annenberg Foundation this month. The report, which was…
By Meg Sommerfeld
Contributor
Fund Raisers Say Donations Good in 2001
St. Louis More than two-thirds of charity officials surveyed by the Association of Fundraising Professionals said their organizations raised the same or more in 2001 as they did in 2000, despite the economic downturn and last fall’s terrorist attacks, according to results the association released…
By HEATHER JOSLYN and Meg Sommerfeld
Recommendations on How to Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth
Eileen Heisman, president of the National Philanthropic Trust, has fielded lots of calls from donors who wanted to give real estate, art, and other items to charities -- including unusual ones like a surfboard collection and a World War II–era Army tank. “Over time, I have gotten really smart at…
By Meg Sommerfeld
Contributor
Nonprofit groups look for appropriate ways to showcase, or politely rebuff, oddball giftsA giant blue topaz. A collection of scripts from the Charlie’s Angels television show. A parade float. A ski center. Such items are ALSO SEE:Charities Find Perfect Place for Odd Donations: Online…
By Meg Sommerfeld
Contributor