Grants Roundup: Houston Endowment Awards $8.2 Million to Support Needy Students
Other awards include a pledge for $3 million from the Jerome L. Greene Foundation supporting a teen pregnancy-prevention program in the Bronx.
By Eden Stiffman
Senior Editor
Obituary: Kirk Kerkorian, Casino Mogul Who Gave $1 Billion to Armenia
Kirk Kerkorian, who donated money to rebuild Armenia after the 1988 earthquake and gave tens of millions of dollars to Southern Nevada charities, died of natural causes Monday, The Las Vegas Sun reports.
Activists: Walmart Used Charity to Buy Support for Stores
A coalition of community and labor groups filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service on Monday accusing the Walmart Foundation of using donations to win backing for its corporate parent’s entry into major urban markets, The Washington Post and The New York Times report.
Philanthropy Surges 5.4% to Record $358 Billion, Says ‘Giving USA’
The annual report, considered the most comprehensive source of data on Americans’ gifts to charity, showed donations rising in most categories.
By Eden Stiffman and Holly Hall
Gifts Roundup: Lottery Winners Give $7 Million for Hispanic Scholarships
Also included are big gifts to College of the Holy Cross and Texas Southwestern Medical Center.
By Maria Di Mento
Senior Editor
Big Gifts Top $4 Billion So Far This Year
Donors have given $700 million more than at this time last year, according to a Chronicle tally; the wealthiest people have been especially generous.
By Maria Di Mento
Senior Editor
Wisc. Philanthropy Has Close Ties to Potential Presidential Candidate Scott Walker
The conservative Bradley Foundation is overseen by Mr. Walker’s three-time campaign chairman, and most of its grants support public-policy efforts that are closely aligned with Mr. Walker’s agenda, according to the Associated Press.
Ford’s Sharpened Focus on Inequality and Operating Funds Draws Praise
The fund’s pledge to provide lots more administrative support has made many nonprofit leaders hope other foundations will do the same.
By Alex Daniels
Contributor
Social-Media Reactions to the Ford Foundation’s New Focus on Inequality
The nonprofit world was quick to react to the foundation’s announcement that it would shift its grant making to focus entirely on financial, racial, gender, and other inequities.
By Nidhi Singh and CODY SWITZER
Gates Foundation Gets Great Press, but Skeptics Have Emerged
While the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s work gets far less mainstream-media scrutiny than giving by the conservative Koch brothers, numerous researchers, academics, and development experts have raised questions in scholarly papers about the governance, transparency, and spending priorities of the world’s biggest philanthropy, Vox writes.
Ford Shifts Grant Making to Focus Entirely on Inequality
America’s second biggest grant maker will also double the share of grants it gives for operating support.
By Alex Daniels
Contributor
Detroit Looks to Draw More Foundations Into City’s Revival
The Detroit News profiles Ryan Friedrichs, the city’s newly installed chief development officer, and his work to keep philanthropic aid coming in the wake of the foundation-driven “grand bargain” that helped lift Detroit out of insolvency.
Grants Roundup: Wounded Warrior Project Awards $15.7 Million for Veterans Treatment at UCLA
Other awards include $10 million from the Nationwide Foundation supporting pediatrics genomic research.
By Eden Stiffman
Senior Editor
Kauffman Names 4th President in 4 Years
Citing her expertise in entrepreneurship, Kansas City leaders praise the choice of acting President Wendy Guillies, a 15-year veteran of the foundation, to be its leader.
By Alex Daniels
Senior Editor, Foundations
X Prize Launches $7 Million Contest to Find Ways to Teach More Adults to Read
The competition, started with the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy and the Dollar General Literacy Foundation, is seeking creative approaches using tablets and smartphones.
By Rebecca Koenig
Contributor
Gallup Owners Donate $30-Million to U. of Nebraska-Lincoln
The pledge from the family that heads research and management-consulting company Gallup will establish an institute devoted to the field of “strengths psychology” pioneered by their late patriarch, Don Clifton, reports the Lincoln Journal Star.