NPQ’s Week in Review
Good Morning! We hope you enjoyed the weekend. At NPQ, what moves you is what moves us. The Week in Review highlights what our readers nominate as their favorite content and what they share with us and the community in the form of tweets, comments, contributed articles, and newswires.
But first, take a look at what you might have missed last week in some of the major news stories covered in NPQ.
RESPONSIVE PHILANTHROPY ALL THE RAGE (WE HOPE) – One of our most popular newswires this week was about a simple yet innovative charity: come up with an awesome idea and Awesome Foundation will reward your creativity and jump-start your proposal with a mini-grant. NPQ loves the notion since we generally believe that far too much money is spent with foundations “strategically” thinking up stuff for the rest of us to do.
“HOMELESS BILLIONAIRE” MAKES WSJ HEADLINE WHILE REAL PEOPLE WITHOUT HOMES CAMP OUT AT GATES FOUNDATION: In an odd juxtaposition of stories, the richest foundation saw homeless individuals and advocates camp out on their doorstep to raise the issue of intensifying need right next door to the foundation’s campus even while this bizarre story about a “homeless billionaire” from the Wall Street Journal Magazinegot NPQ readers’ attention. Who is the philanthropist in this scenario? Nicolas Berggruen, a billionaire who acquired fortune from corporation stakes and hotel investments and is now dabbling in public system funding. Be scared…
PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES IN CAHOOTS WITH HATE GROUPS?: At the Value Voters Summit reports circulated exposing the anti-gay agenda of the Family Research Council (FRC) and the American Family Association (AFA). The two groups are some of the most influential conservative advocacy groups in the nation and behind the summit. Let’s hope the LGBT community brings this controversy to the surface come general elections time.
Readers’ Pick: THE Hottest article OF THE WEEK
Occupy Wall Street, the Tea Party…And Us
This week our readers were eager to get NPQ’s perspective on the Occupy Wall Street movement. Rick Cohen’s thorough analysis of Occupy Wall Street brings thought provoking comparisons to the Tea Party movement and the nonprofit sector into play. Like Tea Partiers, these protesters don’t think the American system is fair and want to see change. This article also looks at how much these large deemed “evil” corporations give to the nonprofit sector and asks if nonprofits will be willing to give up these beneficiaries to line up behind the Occupy movement. We are all trying to get to the bottom of what the Occupy Wall Street demands are and Cohen does an impressive excavation of getting to the root of the cause.
Conversation OF THE WEEK
Newark Parents Pushed Out of Decision Marking on Zuckerberg Donation
Although this article hasn’t gotten the comment attention NPQ has hoped for, this topic of billionaire philanthropy has begun to circulate. Ruth McCambridge focused this week’s eNewsletter on billionaire philanthropy and arose the question if these donations are good or bad for democracy. Looking at Zuckerberg’s $100 million donation and how the local parents have been excluded from the foundation’s board maybe billionaire philanthropists aren’t always the right way to go. Catherine Hartnell then wrote an article highlighting McCambridge’s message in Alliance Magazine’s philanthropy news blog entitled, “Do we really want to entrust our futures to a growing group of benevolent dictators? Just asking …” So now that this topic has caught wind across the pond we are asking to hear YOUR opinion; with billionaire philanthropy on the rise how much do we really trust them to improve communities?
Trending Tweets of the week
Thanks to all you tweeters out there. You help us spread the NPQ word and we’re grateful for your engagement. This week the Awesome Foundation’s generous mini-grants and Zuckerberg’s $100 million dollar donation leaving parents out of the planning blew up on the twittersphere. Thanks to our community for surfacing and circulating what interests you! And if you don’t already, follow us on Twitter at @npquarterly.
NPQ’s READER Contributor of the week
John Hoffman
NPQ is happy to introduce our newest Newswire writers to the mix, John Hoffman. We first noticed John Hoffman because of his exceptional insights via commenting (yes we do read your comments and consider them as we do our own writing) on articles and asked him if he’d be interested in contributing to NPQ and he quickly agreed. He joins a growing group of lay journalists from around the country working on the NPQ’s Nonprofit Newswires. John Hoffman is Director of New Markets at ZeroDivide, a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization. John’s editorial contributions focus on the intersection of technology, philanthropy, and social justice. He has more than 15 years of experience in marketing and development within the high-tech and nonprofit sectors. John also holds an MBA from the Foster School of Business at the University of Washington.You can read Hoffman’s perceptive pieces on FCC’s innovative program aiming to bridge the digital divide and Occupy Wall Street’s viral imagery from this week, and we look forward to more to come.
NOW IT’S YOUR TURN! GIVE IT TO US.
Got a Tip for Us? We Need Your Voice Here
Did we miss something this week? What do you want to see us cover next week? Be our eyes and ears on the ground. Don’t hold back. Let us have it. And we’ll put it right here. Just let us know if you want it to be confidential.