Many nonprofit groups have stepped up their disaster planning, but experts say more need to do soWhen the power went out in New York last month, Joan Mintz, executive director of United Neighbors of ALSO SEE:Assisting Terrorism’s Other VictimsHard Times for ImmigrantsSimple Steps Can Help Charities…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Human-Rights Activists Have Source on Internet
A new Web site offers practical information for human-rights activists in English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish. The Human Rights Connection provides advice and case studies on how to work with the news media, plan an advocacy campaign, and use technology. The site is operated by three New York…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Newspapers Read on Public Television
The Reading Service of the Redwoods, an all-volunteer organization in Eureka, Calif., that uses television to make local newspapers accessible to area residents with vision problems or other disabilities that make reading difficult, has started broadcasting live. Since 1998, Eureka’s public…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Online Donation Site Starts Charging Fees
Network for Good -- an Internet site that allows donors to contribute to any charity in the United States -- has made a significant change in its operation: Instead of passing the entire donation to the nonprofit group, it has started to deduct a 3-percent processing fee from contributions it…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Volunteer Network Gets $1.1-Million Grant
CityCares, a network of 31 charities that organize short-term volunteer projects, has received a $1.1-million grant from the Omidyar Foundation, a fund in Palo Alto, Calif., created by the founder of the eBay online auction site and his wife. More than $600,000 of the grant will go toward the…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Foundation Offers Grants for Charity Software
The Open Society Institute, in New York, is accepting proposals for the development of software designed to help nonprofit organizations carry out their missions. The grant program is for software designed specifically for charities doing work in the following areas: human rights, legal services,…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Internet ‘Blogathon’ Raises Money for Charity
With bleary eyes and more than a little coffee, bloggers stayed up all night on July 26 to raise money for charity. A Web log -- often shortened to blog -- is an online journal that is frequently updated with news, opinion, photographs, or other content. Last month, more than 400 people who run…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
A Look at Investments, Borrowing Trends, and Charity Views on Finances
Investments held by private and community foundations performed better than two major stock-market indicators last year, but still declined nearly 9 percent in value, according to a new study by the Commonfund Institute, an organization in Wilton, Conn., that provides financial information to grant…
By NICOLE WALLACE, Michael Anft and Brad Wolverton
Study of Charity Businesses Finds That Many Earn Profits
A new survey of 72 nonprofit organizations that run 105 business ventures found that more than two-thirds of the ventures make a profit or break even. Of the profitable ventures, 45 percent made money within their first year of operation, and 12 percent did so within two years. Another 12 percent…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Bits: A Technology Leader to Head AmeriCorps, Gates’s Grants, and Grants for Grass-Roots Advocacy
President Bush has nominated David Eisner to be the new head of the Corporation for National and Community Service, the agency that oversees AmeriCorps. A longtime proponent of nonprofit technology, Mr. Eisner was until recently senior vice president of the AOL Time Warner Foundation, then in…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor