Watchdog Group Says Bush Administration Is Trying to Silence Charities
As debate heated up last spring over the Bush administration’s plans to overhaul the federal Head Start preschool program for needy children, an official at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services sent a letter to local Head Start centers warning that they could get in trouble with the law…
By GRANT WILLIAMS
Contributor
Checking Up on Credit Charities
Debt-advice groups sparking new government scrutinyFollowing a divorce, a series of moves to pick up acting work, and a string of temporary jobs that dried up when the economy soured in 2001, Alyssa Polacsek owed $20,000 to two credit-card companies. Looking for help, she turned to Debticated, a…
By Debra E. Blum
Contributor
New Reporting Guidelines Issued for Colleges, Schools
In an attempt to help colleges and private schools improve the accuracy of the fund-raising figures they report to the public, the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, in Washington, has revised its guidelines for institutions. Chief among the reasons for the changes was the need for…
By nicole lewis
Contributor
Public schools raise millions with sophisticated techniquesIn Los Gatos, Calif., a wealthy town near San Jose, residents banded together to quickly raise $1-million through an aggressive “Save Our Schools” campaign to avoid teacher layoffs. The Los Gatos Education Foundation rallied supporters by…
By nicole lewis
Contributor
Foundation Giving in 2003 Likely to Drop, Report Says
In reaction to three years of stock-market declines, the amount of grant dollars awarded by American ALSO SEE:Foundation Trends foundations dropped slightly last year, declining to an estimated $30.3-billion in 2002 from $30.5-billion in 2001, according to a new report from the Foundation Center,…
By Leah Kerkman
Contributor
U.S. Naval Academy Fund Wins $10-Million; Other Gifts
By Julia Green The United States Naval Academy Foundation, in Annapolis, Md., has received a $10-million gift from Jackson T. Stephens, chairman of the Stephens Group, a Little Rock, Ark., investment-banking firm. Mr. Stephens, who graduated from the academy in 1947, earmarked the funds for…
Japanese Charities Urged to Do More to Spur Giving
Japanese nonprofit organizations should do more to improve the country’s “culture of giving,” says a new report. The average dollar amount donated by Japanese is far less than the figure for their U.S. counterparts, says the report by the Coalition for Legislation to Support Citizens’…
By Ian Wilhelm
Contributor
Cornering a Franchise on Giving
Social Venture Partners spreads far beyond SeattleSeattle As technology companies soared in value in the late 1990s, Mary Jalonick struggled to figure out how to ALSO SEE:A Revolution Was Ventured, But What Did It Gain? persuade Texas technology executives to contribute to the Dallas Foundation,…
By Ben Gose
Senior Editor
A Revolution Was Ventured, But What Did It Gain?
‘Venture philanthropy’ was all the rage during the technology boom. It went through a transformation after the market bust, but its ideals live onIn the late 1990s, proponents of “venture philanthropy” vowed that it would revolutionize the ALSO SEE:Cornering a Franchise on Giving charitable world.…
By Ben Gose
Senior Editor
Photograph by Penny RambacherAs flight attendants travel the world, they see plenty of impoverished people. Nancy Rivard, an American Airlines flight attendant, decided she wanted to find a way to help those people. Her brainchild was Airline Ambassadors, which coordinates 4,000 volunteers who help…