Beyond the Box Office: Arts Groups Find New Ways to Generate Income
In recent years, leaders of non-profit arts groups have heard a constant refrain from their supporters in the business and foundation worlds: Become more self-reliant by becoming more entrepreneurial. For some groups that have answered the call, the experience has been profitable. But others have…
By Vince Stehle
Contributor
Turning a Field Into a Profession
To the Editor: As a graduate of one of the universities in your list of “Universities That Offer Graduate Programs in Non-Profit Studies” (November 27), I was pleased to see the proliferation of these programs across the country. Unfortunately, as I discovered upon receiving my master’s degree in…
Money for ‘Premiums’ Could Be Better Spent
To the Editor: I am quite offended by the practice of using premiums to attract donations (“Give a Little, Get a Lot?,” December 11) and by the practice of non-profit organizations’ selling my name to other organizations, which also send out such items. Each week I am inundated with address labels,…
Pipeline Exhibition Strikes Proper Balance
To the Editor: As a museum very much interested in the history of technology, we believed that the building of the Trans-Alaska pipeline was an important project for us to examine (“Pipeline Company’s Role in Smithsonian’s Alaska Exhibit Fuels Criticism,” November 27). Our exhibition, “Oil From the…
Trading Expertise for Stock: a Capital Idea
In an era when small but growing businesses represent the major economic strength of America and the world, many endowed non-profit organizations shy away from investment in entrepreneurial ventures. Endowment, most charity managers rightly reason, is too precious to jeopardize on potentially…
By Sandy Weinberg
Contributor
The Poor Need More Than What Government Can Provide
To the Editor: In a recent editorial (“Solutions to Poverty Must Be Based on More Than Faith,” My View, December 11), Thomas J. Harvey, former president of Catholic Charities USA, makes some remarkable statements regarding charity and poverty alleviation. Mr. Harvey claims that real solutions to…
Giving to Get Power: Wrong-Headed Philanthropy
When the Colorado billionaire Philip Anschutz bought into the Los Angeles Kings hockey franchise, his co-owner, Edward Roski, took him around Los Angeles to meet some of the people he would have to please in the months and years that lay ahead. Between handshakes, Mr. Roski advised his new partner…
By Mark Dowie
Contributor
Pope’s Visit to Cuba Raises Hopes of Relief Groups and Other Charities
The historic visit to Cuba last week by Pope John Paul II has produced a new wave of hope among humanitarian relief groups, foundations, and other non-profit organizations that want to establish or expand programs in the Communist island nation. In Washington and Miami, foundations and non-profit…
By Vince Stehle
Contributor
With billions in new assets, foundation branches out while staying true to its roots In the 1960s, when David and Lucile Packard held the first board meetings of their charitable foundation, they weren’t sitting in the spacious, redwood-paneled offices that house their Silicon Valley philanthropy…
By Holly Hall
Contributor
Broad Religious Support for Faith-Based Charities
To the Editor: Thank you for Paul Demko’s informative article (“Faith-Based Charities to the Rescue?”) and Thomas J. Harvey’s insightful commentary (“Solutions to Poverty Must Be Based on More Than Faith,” My View) in the December 11 issue of The Chronicle. Our “Waste Not Want Not” research in…