October 7, 2009 | Read Time: 1 minute
- The Case Foundation kicks off its second annual America’s Giving Challenge today. From now until November 6, participants will compete to see who can raise the largest number of donations for their favorite charity using the Causes application on Facebook. Daily and overall cash awards total $170,000.
- Nonprofit groups that oppose a reduction in the charitable deduction for wealthy Americans as a way to pay for a health-care overhaul “lack the vision to see the big picture,” argues Trista Harris, executive director of the Headwaters Foundation for Justice, in Minneapolis, on the New Voices of Philanthropy blog.
- David Roodman writes on his Center for Global Development blog that Kiva.org, the Web site that connects donors with entrepreneurs in poor countries, doesn’t work the way many people think it does. Mr. Roodman, a research fellow with the think tank, says that few people probably realize that Kiva raises money to support intermediaries that have already made loans described on its site, rather than connecting donors directly with the entrepreneurs. But he is hardly a critic of the microlending site: He defends its model and discusses the implications of its success on how people think about generosity.
- How can volunteer managers motivate “achievers,” “affiliators,” and other personality types? In her About.com blog, Joanne Fritz, a former fund raiser with the Girl Scout Council of Greater St. Louis, discusses this question, referencing a 2008 book, Visionary Leadership in Volunteer Programs.
- Getting people to be counted in the forthcoming census is crucial to democracy and fighting poverty, says Larry James, executive director of the Central Dallas Ministries. On his blog, he lists the political ramifications of the census count and the decisions it affects.
