John Oliver and Charity Team to Undo Millions in Medical Debt
In connection with a segment on his satire show Last Week Tonight that skewered debt-acquisition companies, the comedian partnered with nonprofit group RIP Medical Debt to buy and forgive nearly $15 million owed by patients for hospital treatment, The Guardian and the Associated Press write.
Malaria Campaigners Push Ambitious Goal to Eradicate Disease
The Thompson Reuters Foundation reports on the donor-led effort to eliminate malaria, focusing on a campaign in Tanzania fronted by the African nation’s former president, Jakaya Kikwete.
N.Y. Contests Company’s Plan to Buy Nonprofit Nursing Homes
The state attorney general’s office is seeking to block the purchase by a commercial firm that is already under investigation over a transaction that led to another nonprofit health-care facility being turned into luxury apartments, reports The Wall Street Journal.
Amid Board Turmoil, Hershey Trust Puts Top Lawyer on Leave
The $12 billion organization, which is under pressure from Pennsylvania officials to unseat three long-serving board members, is weighing the employment status of its leading in-house lawyer, who authored memos detailing rancor and dysfunction among trustees, The Philadelphia Inquirer and PennLive report.
Charles Koch’s Giving for Research Fuels Academic Debate
The billionaire industrialist has donated more than $200 million to colleges and universities and plans to accelerate such giving in the coming years, The Washington Post writes in an article examining Mr. Koch’s funding of academic research, thinkers who have shaped his approach, and the controversy over his intentions.
Financial Woes Beset ‘Panama Papers’ Journalism Nonprofit
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which dramatically raised its profile this year by shepherding the release of documents showing how the world’s wealthy and powerful conceal their assets, is cutting back in the face of a financial pinch that is escalating tensions with its nonprofit parent, the Center for Public Integrity, writes The New York Times.
Abuse Claimants Seek Access to Minn. Diocese’s Charity Assets
The federal judge overseeing the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’s bankruptcy is weighing a call by victims of clergy sexual abuse to include hundreds of millions of dollars from church-affiliated charities among its assets, reports The Wall Street Journal.
Gifts Roundup: $10 Million for University of La Verne, $9 Million for Rose-Hulman Institute
Other notable donations included $5 million to Temple University and a $2.9-million bequest to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
By Maria Di Mento
Senior Editor
How Nonprofits Should Comply With New Federal Overtime Rules
The Department of Labor is offering a free webinar Tuesday to help organizations confused about the new rules, which cover any employee who earns less than about $47,500.
By Rebecca Koenig
Contributor
Financier Named Carnegie Hall’s First Black Board Chair
Robert Smith, a private-equity billionaire who joined the Carnegie board in 2013, has recently begun raising his philanthropic profile, writes The New York Times.