Girl Scouts Expand Use of Tech to Boost Flagging Membership
The youth organization is expanding its digital efforts, including a year-old program enabling cookie sales through mobile apps, in hopes of reversing a long-term decline in membership, writes the Associated Press.
Volunteerism Rate Inches Downward to New Low
One in four Americans volunteered with an organization last year, but the percentage has been declining for the past decade.
By Megan O’Neil
Contributor
Microsoft Co-Founder Backs Contest to Find Traffic Solutions
The tech billionaire Paul Allen is supporting a multimillion-dollar prize announced by the U.S. government to encourage innovative solutions to traffic and transportation problems, reports Seattle TV station KOMO.
Del. Nonprofit Sues State Over Use of Bank-Settlement Money
A suit filed on Monday accuses Gov. Jack Markell and other top officials in Delaware of misusing tens of millions of dollars from a settlement with big financial institutions by using the money to balance the budget rather than for programs to help victims of the financial crisis, the Associated Press and The News Journal of Wilmington report.
Gates Sees Low Oil Prices Hampering Anti-Poverty Efforts in the Gulf
Traveling in the Gulf states to raise money for a $2.5 billion fund to tackle poverty in the Muslim world, Bill Gates said the global plunge in oil prices is having an impact on the effort, Reuters reports. But he said a growing culture of giving in the region could counter the impact of the oil decline.
Zuckerberg-Chan Plan: ‘The Prize’ Author and Others Weigh In
Journalist Dale Russakoff, whose book dissected the missteps that followed Mark Zuckerberg’s $100 million donation to the Newark, N.J., school district, writes in The Washington Post that the Facebook chief executive’s new $45 billion philanthropic plan shows he learned important lessons from that controversial earlier project.
Duluth Diocese in Bankruptcy After $4.8 Million Abuse Award
The Minnesota city’s Catholic diocese filed for Chapter 11 protection on Monday after being ordered by a jury last month to pay millions of dollars to a man who was sexually abused by a local priest in the 1970s, reports The Wall Street Journal.
Pay-for-Success Financing: An Overview
In the first of three video briefings, experts share their learnings and advice on pay-for-success financing.
Opinion: Yale Economist Urges ‘Impact Audits’ to Guide Giving
A Yale University professor who established a new organization to assess the efficacy of nonprofits through analysis modeled on financial audits describes the endeavor in The Wall Street Journal.
Median Pay for Private-College Leaders Rose 5.6% in 2013
Thirty-two presidents of private colleges and universities were paid more than $1 million in 2013, with median pay for campus leaders increasing by 5.6 percent to about $436,000, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education’s annual compensation survey.
Land Trust Alliance and LA84 Foundation Get New Leaders
Other personnel changes include a new fundraiser at Sesame Workshop.
By ANAIS STRICKLAND
Contributor
To Strengthen the Nonprofit World, Independent Sector and the Council on Foundations Should Merge
With a single voice, the merged group could get policy makers and the public to pay more attention to how charities and grant makers can best help the neediest.
By Emmett D. Carson
Contributor
Zuckerberg Responds to Criticism of New Philanthropy Vehicle
In a Facebook post Thursday, Mark Zuckerberg defended the corporate structure he and his wife, Priscilla Chan, plan to use to put almost all of their wealth into achieving social ends and funding community projects, The New York Times writes.
Senate Obamacare Repeal Also Strips Planned Parenthood Money
The 52-47 vote Thursday sends to the House legislation that would accomplish long-sought conservative goals to eliminate federal funding for Planned Parenthood and roll back most of the Affordable Care Act, CNN and The Washington Post report.
U. of Massachusetts Fund Manager to Divest Coal Holdings
The foundation that oversees the state university system’s $770 million endowment said Thursday that it will cease direct investment in coal companies to send a message about climate change, public radio station WBUR and The Boston Globe report.
Deal to Rescue Strapped Calif. Hospital Chain Gets State OK
California Attorney General Kamala Harris gave her approval Thursday to a deal that would infuse $280 million in private capital into the financially struggling nonprofit medical network Daughters of Charity, the San Francisco Chronicle writes.