Gates Foundation Unveils New Approach Designed to Improve American Education
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation reaffirmed its commitment to education at a conference here this month, announcing a revamped strategy for improving high-school education and a new effort to help more young adults earn a college degree or certificate. The foundation will shift its…
By Ben Gose
Senior Editor
Nonprofit Endowments Consider Suing Investors in Response to Poor Market Returns
As many as five colleges or charitable foundations whose endowments have suffered significant investment losses or were unable to access money in their accounts in recent months are considering legal action against their brokers or investment managers, alleging mismanagement or misrepresentation of…
By Kathryn Masterson
Contributor
New York Philanthropy Paved Path for ‘Mission Investing’
When foundation officials talk about using investments to advance their grant-making goals, they almost always mention the example set by the F.B. Heron Foundation. A little more than a decade ago, the New York philanthropy began to look for ways to harness its investment portfolio to further…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Couple’s Commitment to Mission Investing Pays Off for Their Foundation
When Charly Kleissner, a Silicon Valley technology executive, and his wife, Lisa, an architect, set up their foundation, they knew they wanted to focus on rural development, social entrepreneurship, and social investing — and they wanted the philanthropy’s endowment investments to support those…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Investing Foundation Assets to Achieve Social Goals: Useful Resources
“Aggregating Impact: A Funder’s Guide to Mission Investment Intermediaries”
Foundations Make Investments to Spur Economic Growth In Regions Where They Make Grants
As foundations seek to bolster economic growth in the regions where they make their grants, some of them are channeling money from their investment portfolios into projects that strive to improve the quality of life for local residents. In 2004, the Northwest Area Foundation took $10-million,…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Like many grant makers, the F.B. Heron Foundation’s assets have taken a big hit from the global financial crisis. By the end of October, the value of its endowment had dropped roughly 20 percent for the year. But the New York philanthropy has an unexpected bright spot in its portfolio — the…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
(Photograph by Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post) It started with a simple pair of canvas tennis shoes that an American missionary gave to a 9-year-old Nigerian boy in the early 1970s. As luck would have it, they fit. More than 30 years later, that boy had become a software executive in…
By Noelle Barton
Contributor
Few Legal Barriers Prevent Mission-Related Investments, Study Finds
By Nicole WallaceFoundations have considerable freedom under the law to make investments that further their charitable missions, even if those investments carry greater risk or offer lower returns than more conventional investments, according to a new study. FSG Social Impact Advisors, a nonprofit…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Co-Founder of Nike and His Wife Pledge $100-Million to Cancer Institute
Philip H. Knight, a co-founder of Nike, and his wife, Penny, have pledged $100-million to the Oregon Health & Science University Foundation for the university’s cancer institute. Mr. and Ms. Knight have made several other big gifts in recent years. They ranked No. 17 on The Chronicle of…
By Maria Di Mento
Senior Editor
Kellogg Foundation Suspends a Grant-Making Program After Alleged Thefts
One of the nation’s largest foundations, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, has announced that it is suspending its grant making in southern Africa after discovering “financial irregularities” in its operations there. The foundation is investigating financial problems at its office in Pretoria, South…
By Ian Wilhelm
Contributor
New Gift Bolsters Oklahoma State After Risky Bet Sinks Original Donation
T. Boone Pickens gave $63-million to Oklahoma State University athletics last month to allow the university to complete renovations to its football stadium, after a prior gift he had made for that purpose dropped sharply while invested in his own hedge fund. Oklahoma State University officials…
By Ben Gose
Senior Editor
The Silicon Valley Community Foundation was just finishing its first plan for grant making this fall as the area’s teetering economy started to unravel. The foundation will focus grants primarily on five causes, but Emmett D. Carson, its president, says the foundation decided to “frontload” its…
By Ben Gose
Senior Editor
Identifying Effective Charity Services
Steve Butz, a charity employee turned software entrepreneur, wants to provide donors with a better way to identify effective social-service organizations. Through an informal group known as the Alliance for Effective Social Investing, Mr. Butz and David E.K. Hunter, who previously worked at the…
Making a Measurable Difference
Creator of rating tool seeks to improve charity effectiveness When the Latin American Youth Center started a program two years ago to combat domestic violence, it had high expectations. For 10 weeks, men in the program heard from charity employees who advised them that violence wasn’t an…
By Caroline Preston
Contributor
MacArthur Foundation Devotes $68-Million to Foreclosure Fix
By Suzanne PerryThe John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has announced that it plans to spend $68-million in grants and low-interest loans through 2009 to help prevent Chicago neighborhoods from being devastated by the national foreclosure crisis. The Chicago grant maker, saying its…
By SUZANNE PERRY
Contributor