The recession has affected even the most reliable of nonprofit performers.
Compassionate Layoffs: Proceed with Care
Layoffs are never easy. But they can be less draconian if organizations abide by the golden rule.
Measuring Grantmaking Excellence: How Good Are Your Foundation Donors?
How can we raise the bar for foundations and improve their practices in the nonprofit sector?
Invisible Hand Crushes Fund for Economic Literacy
A slice of humble pie: the story of how Wall Street titans got schooled by eighth-graders.
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Sweat Equity: Housing Assistance in the Downturn
In an economic downturn that began with housing—the subprime mortgage foreclosure crisis—housing and community development groups have a special lens for these times.
Foundation Payout Depends on How You Average
Have you ever wondered how foundations determine how much they can and should spend in a particular year in grants, loans, and administrative costs? The current economic crisis is a case study on the intersection of endowment management practices, Internal Revenue Service Code requirements, and navigating potential penalties and excise taxes.
When the James Irvine Foundation announced its plan to maintain or increase its grantmaking in 2009, it offered a brief instructional on the practice of "using rolling averages to calculate its annual grantmaking." Like many other foundations, Irvine "bases its annual giving budget on the average size of its assets over a multiyear period rather than [on] … the size of its asset base at the end of the most recently completed fiscal year."
Foundation Grantmaking during Economic Collapse: Pollyanna or Cassandra at the Helm?
What will happen to foundation grantmaking in 2009 and 2010? The roots of the story are in the vicissitudes of the stock market, where foundations invest the bulk of their tax exempt assets.
Nonprofits Speaking for Themselves: The Impact of the National Economic Tailspin
What do we know statistically about the impact of the economy on the nonprofit sector?
With nearly two million registered tax exempt organizations ranging from mammoth universities to tiny neighborhood associations, their diversity makes generalizations nearly impossible. But there are some clear trends. Budgets are dipping into the red, reserves are being depleted, reductions in government and foundation funding are taking place, and nonprofit staff are signing up for unemployment benefits.
How Corporate Giving Will Fare in This Recession
Many nonprofits depend on corporate donors for critical philanthropic support. Can they depend on corporate donors through this economic turmoil? That is the question we explore here.
There has always been something counterintuitive about corporate philanthropic grantmaking during recessions. Although one would think that shrinking corporate bottom line would dampen their philanthropic spirits, the data has shown–at least in the past few recessions–that corporations did not deep-six their charitable instincts despite squeezed profit margins, especially compared with the bravado of endowed private foundations.
How will corporate philanthropy actually fare during this recession-closing-in-on-depression? Despite early indications of confidence, economic realities have begun to temper corporate philanthropic predictions.
Sector Can Avoid Bad Investments and Fulfill Obligations
None of us are experts on investments in the stock market, not even the stock market experts. Every day, foundation endowments, public pension plans, and your 401(k)s sink further toward oblivion.
As a run-of-the-mill investor, what you lose in the markets is your responsibility, the result of your risk-return calculus. But as a nonprofit manager or foundation director, your responsibility is different.
It’s not your money. Regardless of whether they’re in overnight sweep accounts or long-term investment funds, the funds you are investing are not yours. They are the funds meant for public benefit that the American taxpayer has entrusted to you for your stewardship.
Boards in Chaos
Powerful Beyond Measure
Over the past few weeks I have been talking on the phone to leaders of nonprofit organizations all over the country to find out what they are doing in the context of an economically and politically confusing environment.