In the U.K., homeless men die at an average age of 47 and homeless women at 43, compared to the general population, who die at an average of 77. It is almost unthinkable that hundreds of thousands of people in one of the richest developed nations of the world should have a life expectancy comparable to the population of the Congo, but policies of underfunding and neglect create the conditions for just this outcome.
In this holiday edition, we explore what happens when someone refuses to accept the idea of a “lost cause” and instead gets down to the work of transforming a troubled life.
A documentarian turns to the crowd to raise funds for her efforts to shed light on the injustice suffered by lesbian and gay couples.
With a massive $350 million gift from duty free shops billionaire Charles Feeney, Cornell University won free land plus $100 million infrastructure improvements to build a new campus on New York City’s Roosevelt Island. While it’s great for New York City to “land” Cornell, is this just another example of the wealthiest nonprofits scooping up the lion’s share of our nation’s charitable generosity?
It is remarkable how little the West knows about North Korea, even to the point of not being able to pinpoint the age of Kim Jong Il’s successor, Kim Jong Un. Nonprofits in the United States and elsewhere have an important role to play in gathering information about North Korea and maintaining whatever flimsy contacts are possible with its people, who are far away from experiencing anything like an “Arab Spring.”
The new report on the National Rural Assembly’s 2011 gathering contains important policy and organizing directions for improving conditions in rural America—or, in the words of chair of the Assembly’s steering committee, Dee Davis, “to create a new story about what is possible in this country and to pursue those possibilities.” But the powerful narrative in this National Rural Assembly report feels a bit muted when it comes to speaking to institutional philanthropy.
Who is sneaking $1,000 donations into Salvation Army kettles?
MIT is experimenting with a new approach to study breaks, and what could relieve student anxiety and lift spirits better than the power of puppies?
As food activists and small farmers rally to take on the upcoming Farm Bill amendment, they ponder their potential alignment with OWS.
Spurred by the annual census of Boston’s homeless population, the Boston Globe has published a powerful photo essay of people without shelter around the world. Don’t look away.
Social media can eat up a lot of energy to little effect, and may even open us up to public criticism. So not only is the return on investment in question, but we may actually lose support. The authors here acknowledge these concerns, but also proffer some excellent reasons to use social media and a short, logical model for how to use these tools and methods.
Social media can eat up a lot of energy to little effect, and may even open us up to public criticism. So not only is the return on investment in question, but we may actually lose support. The authors here acknowledge these concerns, but also proffer some excellent reasons to use social media and a short, logical model for how to use these tools and methods.