Congress cut a last-minute deal on the FY2012 budget to keep the doors of government open, but there are some policy kickers in the text that should discomfit many nonprofits.
NPQ’s Week in Review | December 12 – December 16, 2011
NPQ‘s Week in Review not only summarizes last week’s most significant happenings in and around the sector but also points you to the buzz our readers are engaged in. Last week Lowes and Home Depot were influenced by an evangelical nonprofit to pull advertising from TLC’s new show “All-American Muslim” and the social media site reddit showed the real influence of “good without god” when hordes of athiests flocked to Doctors Without Border’s largest fundraiser yet. The “protestor” was also honored as Time Magazine’s person of 2011. All this and more here in the Week in Review.
Boston Foundation Absorbs The Philanthropic Initiative (TPI)
The Philanthropic Initiative has been one of the nation’s most respected and admired advisors to philanthropic donors. It is big news that TPI is now being consolidated into The Boston Foundation, one of the leaders in the nation’s community foundation sector.
Anonymous Donor of $100,000 Says He Doesn’t Need It to Live
We think we are seeing an awful lot of stories of extraordinary generosity this year. Send us any we may have missed!
Of Oregon’s 20 Worst Charities, Only One Is Actually from Oregon
Oregon has some seemingly shady charities fundraising within its borders. But wait! The groups are not from Oregon. Could they be fundraising in your state as well?
May the Nonprofit Force Be With You! Star Wars Museum in Petaluma Goes Nonprofit
Near the Sonoma County wine country, Rancho Obi-Wan is a museum of more than 200,000 pieces of Star Wars memorabilia. As of this fall, Steve Sansweet’s private collection is now a nonprofit.
The University of Miami Gets Ranked as Nation’s Most Fiscally Responsible Nonprofit. Come Again?
Somehow, despite one of the worst sports-boosterism scandals in recent history, the University of Miami found itself ranked as the nation’s most fiscally responsible nonprofit. It’s hard to imagine that being true, given what we all remember as the specifics of jailed University of Miami charitable donor and booster Nevin Shapiro.
West Palm Beach Nonprofit Being Investigated for Misuse of HOME Funds
The nonprofit community development arm of the Redemptive Life Fellowship Church in West Palm Beach, Florida, built 22 units of affordable housing between 2003 and 2009 with financial support the group received from the city’s HOME program allocation. Now Redemptive Life is being investigated for having violated HUD regulations, but it might be no more culpable than its less than impressively performing partners—the City of West Palm Beach and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Stakeholder Abandonment in the Nonprofit Sector—Proceed at your Own Risk
I am including here a great article “The Voice from Outside: Stakeholder Resistance in Nonprofit Organizations” from our SPECIAL DOUBLE ISSUE of the Nonprofit Quarterly, which is now at the printers. The article is written by Sean Buchanan and Pat Bradshaw, who writes a lot about the face of governance as if it actually matters. And by “the face of governance”, I mean—who is included and excluded from the realms of important decision making in nonprofits.
Seven Predictions for Philanthropy in 2012
With great trepidation, the Cohen Report ventures forth with on-the-ledge predictions for 2012 concerning mostly the behaviors of and context for foundation grantmakers. We remind readers to take these ideas appropriately, remembering Albert Einstein’s observation, “When the number of factors coming into play in a phenomenological complex is too large scientific method in most cases fails. One need only think of the weather, in which case the prediction even for a few days ahead is impossible.”
Avoid a Legal Mess—Who Owns Employee Social Media Accounts?
When employees tweet or blog on a nonprofit employer’s behalf, it is their personalities and sometimes even personal relationships that might be at play. They may even be using twitter or other online accounts that were created and registered by the employees (or contractors) and used by them after the employees move on, but who actually owns the accounts, who controls how they might be used?
Voices from the Field: The Penultimate Word: Overthinking Philanthropy
NPQ noticed this column in The Houghton Star by Elisa Shearer, a student at Houghton College. We thought it was an interesting reflection on giving in the midst of a lot of noise about what constitutes good giving.