Donors Leery of Supporting Grassroots Organizing Need to Rethink How They Approach Such Work
The perceived messy work of building movements often scares away grant makers, but these efforts are critical to creating equitable societies. Donors need to adopt new practices and strategies to measure and support them.
By Ben Naimark-Rowse
Contributor
The End of AmazonSmile Is an Opportunity for Nonprofits to Revisit Their Values
Its free money for nonprofits came with a cost. It led groups to push aside fundamental beliefs to accept easy cash from a corporate behemoth whose business model harms the very communities they aim to protect.
By Christopher Hammett
Contributor
Americans Are Volunteering Less. What Can Nonprofits Do to Bring Them Back?
Recent surveys showing a decrease in volunteering largely blame the pandemic, but the problem isn’t new. Nonprofits need to figure out how to turn Americans’ desire to lend a hand to neighbors into more formal commitments to help their communities.
By Leslie Lenkowsky
Contributor
I Know Trusting Grantees Works Because It Propelled My Own Successful Career
When others doubted me, one man showed his faith in my ambition to become a business leader. Today, I’m putting that same trust in the grantees and low-income mothers my foundation supports.
By Holly Fogle
Contributor
The Rule of Law Faces Threats in the U.S. and Abroad. Philanthropy Needs to Pay More Attention.
Addressing myriad societal problems depends on a strong rule of law. Unfortunately, developing, promoting, and enforcing this fundamental component of healthy democracies isn’t on most donor radars.
By William H. Neukom
Contributor
Lloyd Morrisett’s Philanthropic Legacy Is Bigger Than Big Bird
The man who co-created “Sesame Street” also presided for decades over a foundation that has left a lasting mark on the entire field of communications and mass media.
By Lee D. Mitgang
Contributor
Refugees Like Me Know What Our Communities Need, but Donors and Large Nonprofits Aren’t Listening
Despite growing philanthropic recognition that the most successful movements are led by oppressed groups themselves, organizations that aid refugees remains mired in their colonial roots and a continued reliance on white so-called experts.
By Sana Ali Mustafa
Contributor
Charities Too Often Mislead With Impressive-Sounding Data. Donors Must Learn to See Past the Facade.
Relying on simple metrics to demonstrate a nonprofit’s effectiveness to potential donors creates a false narrative about how sustainable change happens.
By Robin Pierro
Contributor
Jeff Bezos Says Giving Is Hard. That Trope Goes Back to Andrew Carnegie
When invoked too zealously, it can deflect attention from what grantee leaders often find most difficult about philanthropy: a lack of urgency, a failure to deliver resources expeditiously, and the imposition of burdensome restrictions.
By Benjamin Soskis
Contributor
End the Charitable Tax Exemption and Remove the Conflict of Interest Baked Into Big Philanthropy
At a time of growing distrust in philanthropy and stagnant or declining giving, it’s no longer tenable to maintain a system that allows donors to reap rewards through the nonprofits they fund.
By Jeff Cain
Contributor