New York City’s Plan to Help Charities Cope With the Recession
What It Has Done So Far Created NYC Service, a citywide program designed to make it easier for New Yorkers to volunteer. Made a revolving-loan program available to charities for the first time. Improved a hotline that charities can call for advice on managing their organizations. The city, for…
New York City Mayor Is a Force for Philanthropy in Tough Times
New program designed to spur volunteerism and efforts to help charities weather the recession could be a model for other cities, nonprofit observers sayWhat industry employs more people in New York City than finance, contributes $20-billion a year to the city’s economy, and numbers more than 40,000…
By Caroline Preston
Contributor
Planned Parenthood: Shasta-Diablo, which provides family planning and other services in Northern California, started getting i.o.u.'s from the state this month to pay for a program it offers to help screen low-income women for breast and cervical cancer. The i.o.u.'s, which California began using…
By SUZANNE PERRY
Contributor
Starting a Fund-Raising Roundtable: Tips From Charity Veterans
Fund raising has long been known as a stressful profession, and the recession is making life even more difficult for people charged with bringing in donations. But some development officials say they have fought burnout by getting together for regular “round table” meetings with peers. A group of…
By Caroline Preston
Contributor
President Obama Pledges to Seek Out Innovative Charities
President Obama announced last month that White House officials will travel the country to identify promising nonprofit groups, including “hidden gems that haven’t gotten the attention they deserve,” as part of the administration’s efforts to promote innovative social projects. Aides will be…
By SUZANNE PERRY
Contributor
Grant Makers Seek New Ways to Influence Obama’s Foreign Policy
Eric Schwartz and Nancy Soderberg first met decades ago when they both worked on Capitol Hill, he for Rep. Stephen J. Solarz and she for Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. Their careers have taken similar paths since. The two did stints at the United Nations and served on the National Security Council under…
By Caroline Preston
Contributor
‘Listening’ Is Key for New Jewish Federations Executive
NEW ON THE JOB As an executive of Stride Rite, a company that makes children’s shoes, Jerry Silverman would spend part of his weekends helping sometimes rowdy kids try on shoes — and gauging how moms and dads liked the store. “I would spend two or three hours on a Sunday on the floor getting spit…
By Ian Wilhelm
Contributor
A Lawyer Reaches Back to His Youthful Idealism
In law school, back in the early 1970s, my interests quickly gravitated to poverty law, public-interest law, and prisoners’ rights. This turn was driven by two events. As an undergraduate at Syracuse University, I had spent a semester studying in Italy. Seeing the United States from an outside…
By Alan Rosenthal
Contributor
Luke W. Cole, Environmental-Justice Leader
Age at death: 46 Major philanthropy job: Co-founder and executive director of the Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment, an organization that uses lawsuits and other tactics to help poor people and minorities fight pollution in their communities. He established the center shortly after…
By Caroline Bermudez
Contributor
Federal Agency Examines Reporting of Cash Gifts
The U.S. Government Accountability Office, Congress’s watchdog unit, has released a report on the “misreporting” of cash contributions to charities by individuals on their tax returns. In 2001, an estimated 46 percent of taxpayers who deducted cash contributions misreported their deductions, the…
By GRANT WILLIAMS
Contributor
The following awards have been presented for work in advocacy, fund raising, nonprofit leadership, philanthropy, and other areas: Marketing. The Cause Marketing Forum (Rye, N.Y.) has presented its 2009 Golden Halo Awards to Timberland (Stratham, N.H.) and Share Our Strength (Washington.) Timberland…
Cutting Travel for Meetings Takes a Toll, Says Study
In these belt-tightening times, trimming travel costs by holding meetings via phone, video, or the Internet has its appeal, but often comes at the expense of effective communication, concludes a new report by the Goodman Center. A survey of more than 1,200 nonprofit and government employees about…
By Paula Wasley
Contributor
Charities’ Social-Media Use Outpaces Companies’
Nonprofit organizations have long been labeled Luddites when it comes to adopting new technology. But a new study by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research shows nonprofit groups are actually well ahead of businesses in their use of online social-media tools such as…
By PETER PANEPENTO
Contributor
Layoffs and Cost Cutting Under Way at Charities Nationwide: a Sampling
American Heart Association (Dallas) The organization has laid off 371 staff members across its national affiliates, 10.5 percent of its work force, and will not fill 235 vacant positions. It has also reduced the pay of employees in its Dallas office by one day per month through September; employees…
Foundation Endowments Dropped by 26% in 2008
Grant makers’ endowments plunged by 26 percent last year as the stock market fell to levels not seen in years, according to a new study by the Commonfund Institute. That was a sharply different picture than in 2007, when endowments grew by 9.9 percent. But foundations’ returns still compared…
By Caroline Preston
Contributor
2 New Surveys Confirm Charity Leaders’ Perceptions: Recession’s Impact Runs Deep
Two studies released this week offer fresh evidence that the recession has created havoc for nonprofit groups: Ninety-two percent of the nearly 100 respondents in a survey conducted in May by the Bridgespan Group said they were feeling the effects of the downturn. Eighty percent of charity…
By Ben Gose and Caroline Preston