Grant Makers Must Beware of Easy Fixes
LETTERS TO THE EDITORTo the Editor: I want to add my resounding “yes” to Mark Kramer’s opinion piece (“Grant Makers Must Stop Looking for an ‘Exit Strategy’,” August 4). I am grateful to Mr. Kramer for putting in print what so many of us think -- and I include not just the grantees, but also…
Young People Want Nonprofit Work
LETTERS TO THE EDITORTo the Editor: The July 21 opinion article “Building Tomorrow’s Nonprofit Work Force,” by Paul Schmitz and Kala Stroup, presents a compelling statement of the challenges facing the sector during this time of management turnover. I could not agree more with their statement that…
New Membership Rules Not Needed
LETTERS TO THE EDITORTo the Editor: Peter Panepento’s article on how groups define “members” (“Behind the Numbers,” August 4) raised some interesting issues, but failed to acknowledge that the law already provides definitions of membership with which organizations must comply. For example, tax law…
LETTERS TO THE EDITORTo the Editor: Milton Friedman once wrote “there is one and only one social responsibility of business -- to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits.” Yet Caroline Williams of the Nathan Cummings Foundation (“A Focus on Corporate…
Charities Should Stop Seeking Earmarks
LETTERS TO THE EDITORTo the Editor: The ever-growing practice of “earmarks” of federal funds to specific nonprofit organizations by members of Congress is nothing less than an insidious form of corruption (“Manna or Pork?: a Special Report,” July 21). I find it especially despicable that supposedly…
What It Takes to Make Charities Effective
Five years ago, I began a long-term project designed to help improve nonprofit performance. At the time, nonprofit organizations seemed to face at least three plausible futures. They could wither together as donations and other resources dwindled. Or they might all rise together as they worked in…
By PAUL LIGHT
Contributor
Philanthropy Must Challenge Corporate America
The United States has long depended on its nonprofit groups to serve as a watchdog, an independent force to hold other parts of society accountable and ensure that they are honest and productive. Nonprofit activism has led to changes in rural policy, the creation of Social Security, improvements in…
By PABLO EISENBERG
Contributor
A New Way to Look at Foundation Giving
For years, the philanthropic world has debated whether private foundations distribute a big enough portion of their assets every year for good works, but the discussion has tended to stall over a single issue: whether the federal minimum payout requirement of 5 percent of investment assets should…
By Thomas J. Billitteri
Contributor
Investment Policies Are Not Optional
Database: How endowment investments fared at 210 nonprofit groupsArticles: All of the advice and commentary from this special supplement on endowments Supplement in print: Order print copies of the Endowments supplements from August 2005 and May 2004