Community Development Finance Institutions fill a gap in the loan landscape, and the Nonprofit Assistance Fund is one excellent example.

Last week’s convening of the White House’s Joining Forces initiative with foundations committed to serving veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan represents an important statement for the no-longer-new leadership of the Council on Foundations, a perspective on what the role of the national trade association should be. However, despite pledges of funding and the announcement of a new online platform for a “community of practice” for foundations in the veterans space, the proof is in the pudding to see if this really turns into a productive direction for philanthropic grantmakers.

An Indiana University report found that, at least in Indiana, membership organizations like trade unions and business associations appear to be shedding staff faster than charitable nonprofits after a period of growth pre-recession.

While cultural institutions in the Western Hemisphere scramble to adjust to the “new normal” and have learned to move slowly when considering construction projects, China is in the midst of an intentional and aggressive museum-building boom, fueled by both the government and private investors. But if you build it, will they come? And does it matter?

Some of the families who lost children in the Sandy Hook shooting are making the trip to New Jersey to support a bill in the legislature that would put limits on the amount of bullets a gun’s magazine can hold. But the ED of an NRA affiliate group thinks their journey is a traveling show.

If Purdue University’s plan for their Day of Giving was to increase the number of givers via a “netroots” effort, then the event succeeded wildly—the $7.5 million raised came from 6,500 donors, practically tripling the target goal of the event.

The United Way of the Greater Triangle in North Carolina is offering a $50,000 grant to the person or organization with the best idea for reducing childhood hunger.

A pediatrician from Chicago working at a CURE Hospital in Kabul was killed by a member of the facility’s own security force. It is another example of the risks NGO workers face in conflict zones that cannot be rationalized away.

The Phoenix Community Toolbank is opening its doors later this year. The nonprofit aims to make local nonprofits and charities more effective by giving them the right equipment.

The botched execution by lethal injection of Oklahoma inmate Clayton Lockett provides a chance for sober reexamination of the death penalty in the U.S. The drug cocktails used in the absence of the components that once came from Europe may constitute “cruel and unusual punishment.”

We, of all sectors, should stand firmly behind the idea of a Living Wage. But although the headline of a statement from the Independent Sector seemed to promise a bolder stance, the text walked it back considerably, offering numerous caveats and outs for nonprofit exemptions.

Good prospects can be hard to find. If you know what to look for, it helps.