How Two Major Cancer Charities Are Spending Their Money; Plus More: Wednesday’s Roundup
By Maria Di Mento
Senior Editor
May 19, 2010 | Read Time: 1 minute
- Elie Hassenfeld, a co-founder of the nonprofit evaluation group GiveWell, examines how two big cancer charities—the American Cancer Society and Susan G. Komen for the Cure—spend their money. He says he does not know enough yet to determine if the groups are effective, but it seems clear that little of their money finances research for new cures or treatments and both spend a lot of money on “raising awareness” activities.
- Susan Goldenberg, of the Toronto Star, reviews the new book A Year of Living Dangerously: Dispatches From the Front Lines of Philanthropy, in which the author and the community-service activist Lawrence Scanlan writes about his experience as a volunteer for 12 Canadian nonprofit groups.
- The greatest myth surrounding foundations’ public-policy work is that it requires lobbying and interacting with politicians, writes Chris Murakami Noonan, communications associate at Minnesota Council on Foundations. On the blog Philanthropy Potluck, Mr. Murakami says that foundations should finance charities’ efforts to use social media to influence how legislation is drafted, as well as to build coalitions and develop public-service announcements.
- Square, a new service that allows anyone with a smart phone or an iPad to accept credit-card payments, could be an important fund-raising tool, Bryan Miller, a fund-raising consultant in Britain, writes on his blog, Giving in a Digital World.
- Beth’s Blog—the closely followed site where Beth Kanter discusses how nonprofit organizations are using social media—has moved to a new address, http://www.bethkanter.org.
