There Are Many Ways to Recycle Goods
To the Editor: In their article “Growth in Donated-Goods Programs Worries Some Long-Time Recipients,” Stephen G. Greene and Grant Williams apparently take a dim view of any charity that raises money by selling recyclables to a profit-making company with established retail channels. The article…
Most In-Kind Programs Are Not ‘Charity Hustlers’
To the Editor: Your March 26 issue pointed to an alarming trend in private companies running automobile and other in-kind contributions programs for non-profit organizations (“Donated Cars: a License for Abuse?”). Many companies are profiting by abusing the tax-exempt status of legitimate…
Want to Attack True Poverty? Look Overseas
For too long, a kind of America-first mindset has dominated our giving and prevented a fair share of the U.S. charitable dollar from going to the poor of the rest of the world. It is not hard to understand why. Helping those “at home” is a natural instinct reinforced by seeing the homeless and…
By Philip D. Harvey
Contributor
‘Governing’: Philanthropy Comes Under Attack
Foundations are increasingly coming under attack for promoting government policies at the state and local levels that are “more liberal than either the legislature or majority opinion in the state would feel comfortable with,” according to a cover story in Governing magazine (April). The article…
By Stephen G. Greene and Paul Demko
Abstinence programs and those for boys, prepubescent girls on rise At the Brotherhood Program in Indianapolis, teen-age boys from many of the city’s roughest neighborhoods meet three times a week to talk, among other things, about sex and sexuality. And to reinforce their sense of self-discipline,…
By DOMENICA MARCHETTI
Contributor
Group Did Assist Young Philanthropists
To the Editor: In your article on the Pine Crest Community Foundation (“Young and Philanthropic,” February 26), you reported that the Council on Foundations turned down Pine Crest’s request for membership because it is not a free-standing tax-exempt organization. I would like to clarify that.…
Kerner Update Used Scientific Evidence
To the Editor: The excellent article by Domenica Marchetti on the Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation’s 30-year update of the report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, commonly known as the Kerner Riot Commission (“Charities Must Work to Build on Successes in Fight Against Poverty,…
Charity Innovation Has Many Rewards
To the Editor: As Paul C. Light noted in his commentary (“Charities Must Make Innovation an Ordinary Act,” March 12), by erecting needless barriers to new ideas, many non-profits “become towering monuments to the status quo they once sought to challenge.” How sadly true that is. Rather than…
Making Charities’ For-Profit Arms More Accountable
State attorneys general have labored for years to find effective ways to regulate fund raising. Meanwhile, real money is rushing out charities’ back doors through their for-profit subsidiaries. So far, relatively few charities have for-profit arms. Although abuse is not believed to be rampant,…
By HENRY GOLDSTEIN
Contributor
NAACP’s Troubles Must Be Put in Context
To the Editor: Several points raised in Paul Demko’s March 12 article on the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (“Controversy Follows Election of New N.A.A.C.P. Chairman”) merit additional comment. Any past, current, or future controversies regarding a few members of the…