Foundation Officials Criticize Report on Criteria for Philanthropy
The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy is under fire for a report it published last month that set several standards for foundations, including that they should give at least 50 percent of their grant dollars to help the poor and other disadvantaged people. The California Wellness…
By Ian Wilhelm
Contributor
Obama Defends Proposal to Limit Charity Breaks for the Wealthy
President Obama stood by his proposal to limit tax breaks for charitable deductions for wealthy people at a prime-time news conference last month, but its fate in Congress remains murky. The president said his proposal would help equalize the federal tax code, which now gives bigger tax breaks to…
By SUZANNE PERRY
Contributor
Muslim Charities and Donors Make Efforts to Improve Giving
Muslim charities and philanthropists meeting here last month took steps to improve their charitable efforts, saying that, while Muslims give billions of dollars every year to humanitarian causes, their giving is poorly coordinated and inefficient. The second World Congress of Muslim Philanthropists…
By Andrew Mills
Contributor
Amid the difficult environment for charities, groups that focus on causes like human rights, criminal justice, and reproductive health are enduring an especially grim period, as two of the biggest grant makers to such causes were forced out of business by the Bernard L. Madoff fraud. The JEHT and…
By Ben Gose
Senior Editor
Decline in Giving Expected to Follow Drop of $150-Billion in Foundation Assets in 2008
The nation’s grant makers lost $150-billion in assets last year, a figure comparable to their total giving over the last four years, according to a study released last week. The report, by the Foundation Center, in New York, examined giving by private, corporate, and community foundations. Total…
By Noelle Barton
Contributor
Senators Seek to Spur More Foundation Giving
A new bill pending in the Senate is designed to simplify the tax code for private foundations and encourage them to give more money to charity as the recession continues. The bill, S. 676, would change the way foundations pay excise tax on their net investment income. “By eliminating a simple…
By Ian Wilhelm
Contributor
Northwestern Foundation Leaders Find a Warmer Climate on Capitol Hill
More than 260 leaders of foundations came to Washington last month to meet with members of Congress — and grant makers say they found a receptive audience. In previous years, lawmakers had asked mostly about abuses in the nonprofit world, wondering whether foundations were elaborate tax dodges,…
By Ian Wilhelm
Contributor
Grant Makers Pour More Than $1-Billion Into Climate-Change Crusade
Some of America’s largest grant makers are pouring more than $1-billion into efforts to slow climate change and reduce the damage it is already causing. Most are pledging to keep those commitments despite the recession’s toll on their assets, citing the urgency of the global environmental crisis.…
By MARTY MICHAELS
Contributor
Stock-market volatility has led to a sharp decline in the assets of big foundations, and many grant makers expect to decrease their giving in 2009, a new Chronicle survey finds. However, a small but significant number of grant makers said they are doing more to help charities and Americans hit hard…
By Ian Wilhelm
Contributor
(Photograph by Lawrence K. Ho/Los Angeles Times) South Central Los Angeles, an area long associated with violence and blight, is gaining a different kind of recognition by becoming a hot spot for classical music. The Expo Center Youth Orchestra, which began in October 2007, is the first of several…
By CANDIE JONES
Contributor
How The Chronicle Conducted Its Survey of America’s Largest Grant Makers
The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s annual survey of the nation’s largest private foundations is based on information from 187 grant makers. Much of the information in the survey was compiled from a Chronicle questionnaire, completed by 112 of those foundations. Data on the other foundations come from…
By Noelle Barton
Contributor
Former American Diplomat Chosen to Lead MacArthur Foundation
Robert L. Gallucci, a former American diplomat and weapons inspector, has been chosen to be the next president of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, one of the nation’s largest foundations. He will replace Jonathan F. Fanton, who has served two five-years terms and under the Chicago…
By Ian Wilhelm
Contributor
Majority of Donors Say Economic Woes Won’t Affect Their Giving
Their investment portfolios may be slumping and their jobs less secure, but a majority of Americans who give to charity still plan to donate as much this year as they have in the past, according to a new survey. More than 52 percent of donors said their gifts would be at least as large as in 2008,…
By Caroline Preston
Contributor
A Call to Aid the World’s Poor
A growing number of politicians, foundation watchdogs, and people in the nonprofit world have been making the case of late that not all philanthropy produces equal value to society. Now Peter Singer, a prominent philosopher, asks Americans to consider just how far even small contributions to fight…
By Caroline Preston
Contributor
Al Pina is a fighter. The former U.S. Air Force sergeant is dedicated to helping families who live in poor neighborhoods dominated by minority groups. Since 2004 he has gone up against banks and other businesses here to get them to support these families, even going on a 16-day hunger strike to…
By Ian Wilhelm
Contributor