Security and other concerns hamper the rebuilding of IraqBasra, Iraq About 20 miles south of Basra, Iraq’s second-largest city, the landscape changes from dense, lush palm groves ALSO SEE:U.S. Nonprofit Groups Report Sluggish Donations for Iraqi Relief Efforts and brackish canals to vast expanses…
By Daniel del Castillo
Contributor
Pushing the Boundaries of Learning
Photograph by Paul PrescottShackleton Schools, named after the famous Antarctic explorer, uses educational expeditions to tap the potential of young people who have failed to thrive in traditional high schools and to teach them to be leaders. Since the organization opened a school in 1998, students…
KRESGE FOUNDATION 3215 West Big Beaver RoadP.O. Box 3151Troy, Mich. 48007-3151(248) 643-9630http://www.kresge.org Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2002. Finances (in millions) 2001 2002 Assets $2,416.0 $2,164.5 Net investment income 37.7 30.8 Net realized losseson investments - 59.7 - 83.3…
$30-Million to Ohio State U.; Other Gifts
Ohio State University will benefit from a real-estate gift worth $30-million from a philanthropist who attracted public attention last month when he donated a kidney to a woman he didn’t know. Zell Kravinsky, a real-estate developer in Jenkintown, Pa., and his wife, Emily, said they wanted the…
By Julia Green
Contributor
Study Links Religious Faith and Acts of Charity
Religious beliefs and altruistic acts are strongly linked, according to a new study by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. Researchers found that people who said they attend church weekly and participate in other religious activities reported an average of 128 “acts…
By Leah Kerkman
Contributor
Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Against Minnesota Foundation
A U.S. District Court judge last month dismissed a $1.25-million lawsuit that accused the Northwest Area Foundation, in St. Paul, of reneging on a promise to pay to help a county in eastern Washington State develop a plan to reduce poverty. Residents of the county said they planned to appeal the…
By Ian Wilhelm
Contributor
Donations to Hospitals Fell Sharply in 2002, New Figures Show
The economic downturn caused donations to hospitals to drop sharply last year, according to new fund-raising estimates released by the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy, in Falls Church, Va. The association said hospitals received $3.64-billion in cash gifts last year, down from $4.89-billion…
By Leah Kerkman
Contributor
A Window to the Botanical World
Photograph by Kevin J. FrestOn a cool December night in 1995, a ferocious windstorm ripped through San Francisco, felling 400 mature trees in Golden Gate Park and seriously damaging the park’s Conservatory of Flowers, a national historic landmark that houses more than 15,000 tropical plants from…
Foundation Giving in 2003 Likely to Drop, Report Says
In reaction to three years of stock-market declines, the amount of grant dollars awarded by American ALSO SEE:Foundation Trends foundations dropped slightly last year, declining to an estimated $30.3-billion in 2002 from $30.5-billion in 2001, according to a new report from the Foundation Center,…
By Leah Kerkman
Contributor
U.S. Naval Academy Fund Wins $10-Million; Other Gifts
By Julia Green The United States Naval Academy Foundation, in Annapolis, Md., has received a $10-million gift from Jackson T. Stephens, chairman of the Stephens Group, a Little Rock, Ark., investment-banking firm. Mr. Stephens, who graduated from the academy in 1947, earmarked the funds for…
Japanese Charities Urged to Do More to Spur Giving
Japanese nonprofit organizations should do more to improve the country’s “culture of giving,” says a new report. The average dollar amount donated by Japanese is far less than the figure for their U.S. counterparts, says the report by the Coalition for Legislation to Support Citizens’…
By Ian Wilhelm
Contributor
Cornering a Franchise on Giving
Social Venture Partners spreads far beyond SeattleSeattle As technology companies soared in value in the late 1990s, Mary Jalonick struggled to figure out how to ALSO SEE:A Revolution Was Ventured, But What Did It Gain? persuade Texas technology executives to contribute to the Dallas Foundation,…
By Ben Gose
Senior Editor
A Revolution Was Ventured, But What Did It Gain?
‘Venture philanthropy’ was all the rage during the technology boom. It went through a transformation after the market bust, but its ideals live onIn the late 1990s, proponents of “venture philanthropy” vowed that it would revolutionize the ALSO SEE:Cornering a Franchise on Giving charitable world.…
By Ben Gose
Senior Editor
Photograph by Penny RambacherAs flight attendants travel the world, they see plenty of impoverished people. Nancy Rivard, an American Airlines flight attendant, decided she wanted to find a way to help those people. Her brainchild was Airline Ambassadors, which coordinates 4,000 volunteers who help…