Tech Mogul Ellison Gives $200 Million for USC Cancer Center
The donation from Oracle Corporation co-founder Larry Ellison will establish an institute where physicists, mathematicians, engineers, and other researchers will address fundamental questions about the disease, according to Bloomberg.
Foundations’ Flint Pledge Fuels Debate on Philanthropy’s Role
The Christian Science Monitor looks at this week’s commitment by 10 foundations to pump $125 million into Flint, Mich., and what it portends about philanthropy’s role in responding to crises to which governments contribute or are slow to address.
Outgoing Chair Gives Philadelphia Music School $55 Million
The donation to buttress the Curtis Institute of Music’s endowment comes as Nina von Maltzahn ends a two-year term leading the prestigious, tuition-free conservatory’s Board of Trustees, writes The Philadelphia Inquirer.
N.Y. Arts Charity Whose Leader Suffered Lye Attack to Close
Days after firing an executive director who was assaulted last year with caustic drain cleaner, the Healing Arts Initiative abruptly shut down Wednesday and is likely to declare bankruptcy, according to The New York Times.
30% of Nonprofits File Tax Forms on Paper, Hampering Transparency
Nearly 87,000 charities filed federal tax information on paper last year, delaying public disclosure and hindering attempts at broader analysis of the nonprofit sphere.
By Peter Olsen-Phillips
Contributor
GuideStar Unveils New Tool to Share How Charities Measure Results
A new seal that appears on some charities’ profiles is intended to help nonprofits move beyond weighing overhead costs too heavily.
By Eden Stiffman
Senior Editor
Obama Urged to Rescind Memo Allowing Bias by Faith Groups
A group of prominent constitutional lawyers is calling on the White House to withdraw a George W. Bush-era legal memo that allows religious nonprofits to discriminate in hiring for federally funded programs, ProPublica writes.
Global Charities Say More Relief Aid Should Go to Local Groups
Major international aid organizations say humanitarian crisis response could be drastically improved if more relief money from governments and the United Nations went directly to nonprofits based in the conflict and disaster zones, according to a survey by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Supreme Court Decision Undoing Cities’ Anti-Panhandling Laws
A free-speech ruling that allowed a pastor in Arizona to put up signs directing people to church services is having a ripple effect on communities’ efforts to clamp down on begging on the street, Bloomberg reports.
Homegrown Giving Blooms Among Growing Ranks of Rich Africans
Economic growth in Africa is fostering a cohort of wealthy moguls and a concurrent jump in large-scale philanthropy, leading online news and culture magazine Ozy to posit that the next Bill Gates could come from the continent.