Marathon Programs Make Everyone Winners
To the Editor: I ran the Chicago marathon -- my first -- last fall for Team In Training, the Leukemia Society’s training program (“Raising Funds Over the Long Run,” February 11). As a runner, I had a long-held goal of finishing a marathon, a daunting task. The program gave me a coach, a team,…
Charity Evaluation: More of a Luxury Than Many People Care to Admit
To the Editor: Allison Fine, in her opinion piece “Charity Evaluation: a Necessity, Not a Luxury” (My View, January 28), comments on how the "[evaluation] movement that started as a whisper has built into a crescendo of action, winning the support of charities and foundations.” For some years now,…
Donors: Share the ‘Warm Glow’ With Others
Too often in philanthropy today, grant makers and donors are happy to pay for blankets, but not for the shelves to store them until the winter storms strike. They willingly donate toward the stew, but refuse to cover the wages of the bookkeeper who writes the check for the dumplings. Organizational…
By PUTNAM BARBER
Contributor
Converting Patients Into Hospital Donors
To the Editor: Henry Goldstein has it right (“Hospitals Need an Extra Dose of Philanthropy,” Opinion, February 11) when he contends that philanthropy has become peripheral to much of health care, especially since what he calls the “berserk system” has indeed been taken over by a vast for-profit…
Don’t Overlook ‘Poverty of Love,’ Isolation Among the Elderly
To the Editor: As the national director of an organization that provides services to isolated senior citizens, I was happy to hear that more grant makers are becoming concerned about our growing older population (“A New Focus on Aging,” January 28). However, in your list of issues that society and…
Relief Groups and the Press: a Delicate Balance
At the turn of the millennium, information has become a more powerful -- and more volatile -- tool for humanitarian organizations than a sack of rice or flour ever was. Those who work for charitable relief organizations need to understand that the handling of information is as central to any…
By Susan Moeller
Contributor
Study Says Business and Charity Mix
A growing number of consumers consider joint-marketing arrangements between companies and charities to be a good business practice, according to a new report. The report, released this week by Cone Communications, a Boston marketing company, is based on surveys conducted in 1993 and 1998 to gauge…
New Chapter at a Storied Foundation
Carnegie’s Vartan Gregorian aims to put his stamp on philanthropy Vartan Gregorian first learned about Andrew Carnegie in Iran, where, as a 14-year-old boy, he read -- and relished -- a short biography of the controversial Scottish-born steel magnate. ALSO SEE:Carnegie Foundation Announces New…
By MARINA DUNDJERSKI
Contributor
Adventures in Joint Fund Raising
More charities are working together, but approach has limits, experts say One day each September, visitors to the Sacramento (Cal.) Zoo are treated to the spectacle of dancing animals. ALSO SEE:Philip Morris Program Encourages Arts Patrons to Help Food Banks The “animals” are members of the…
By Marilyn Dickey
Senior Editor, Copy
‘Core Funding’ Is Key to Charities’ Success
To the Editor: I would like to make a plea that foundations change their (usually negative) attitudes to core funding -- that is, general operating support. Over the last 15 years, I have served on the boards of eight non-profits that solicit and receive grants from foundations. I have also served…