We found the contents of the draft explanatory report accompanying H.R.1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 useful to see what appropriations and spending made it and what didn't.
The Future of the NAACP at a Pivotal Moment in History: An Interview with NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous
How will changes in the civil rights movement–changes in leadership, strategy, and program–affect the future of the nonprofit sector? News coverage of the turbulent recent history of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People led to a spate of newspaper articles questioning whether the NAACP had a future or whether the civil rights movement itself was a historic anachronism. Coinciding with the presidential campaign and subsequent election of Barack Obama, the NAACP has embarked on a course to challenge reports of its obsolescence with a new, young leader, Benjamin Jealous, at its helm. How will the NAACP under Jealous's leadership transform itself at this pivotal historic intersection of Obama’s presidency and its own 100th anniversary?
Paul Light’s Four Nonprofit Futures
Among nonprofits of all types and sizes we are already hearing about the impact of state and local budget cuts and precipitous asset declines among foundations. Will it be bad news for all nonprofits or will some be hit worse than others?
Lessons for Charities and Foundations from Bernie Madoff
Is there anyone left in the nonprofit sector who hasn't come across a bevy of articles listing the foundations and charities that have been ripped off by Bernie Madoff and his $50 billion pyramid scheme? The press has been tallying the losses to investors, operating charities, and foundations, but there has been precious little analysis of what this means for the needed monitoring and oversight of how some foundations handle their–our–tax exempt dollars.
What can we learn from Madoff's horrific financial shenanigans? What does it all mean for the nonprofit sector? There are some important lessons here for every nonprofit in the U.S., whether victimized by losing the bulk of their resources or simply outraged by the cozy relationships of investors and foundations–playing fast and loose with tax exempt moneys.
New Lows in Public Corruption: Gov. Blagojevich Tries His Hand at Philanthropy
Are there lessons for foundations and nonprofits from the corruption cesspool seeping out of the Illinois governor’s office? When political corruption puts its arm around charity and philanthropy, teachable moments emerge and we should all pay attention.
Prospective replacements for Barack Obama’s Illinois senate seat are running as fast and as far as they can from the recently arrested governor of the state, Rod Blagojevich. Nonprofits, foundations, and labor unions might be well advised to join the Illinois pols in creating yardage between them and the pay-to-play state executive.
In a Successful Campaign: Lessons for Nonprofits
In such challenging times, nonprofits need to identify the most cutting edge organizational tools, technologies, and behaviors that engage constituents and achieve results. To that end, I would draw our attention to the campaign organization built by President-elect Barack Obama.
An Era of Powerful Possibility
Nonprofits whose work focuses on communities need to recognize that they are the keepers of knowledge and wisdom about community engagement and community development, the very skills most needed today. And community is the crucible of our major challenges—job loss, failing schools, home foreclosures, violence, fear—as well as where the answers for the future will be found.
Four Futures
During these troubled times, what lies in store for the nonprofit sector, and what do we need to do about it? Along with every family in America, the nonprofit sector is wondering about its future. Will we miraculously survive as we largely do today? Will we starve our organizations to the core or emerge from the current economic calamity mostly intact? Will we fight the prevailing downturn on behalf of our individual institutions and leave others to defend themselves, or instead will we join forces to shore up the sector as a whole? In the aftermath of this financial crisis, will we have real options and choices?
Nonprofits and Philanthropy: Scenario I – An Interview with Kelvin Taketa and Chris Van Bergeijk
Even before the financial crisis began to unfold, the Hawaii Community Foundation realized that it had lapsed into philanthropic habits that might be counterproductive. So it opted to try a different way. The attached interview describes its experiment — which is still ongoing — in building grantmaking from the collective intelligence of community activists.
One Step Removed: The U.S. Nonprofit Sector and the World
In other countries, the kind of innovation that is vital for the future of U.S. nonprofit abounds.
Stoking the Nonprofit Advocacy Engine
Advocacy suffers from an inadequate conceptual frame and inconsistent messages. We are mired in the same old debates about what constitutes advocacy, where the line is drawn between advocacy and civic engagement, and whether we should proudly proclaim lobbying as our constitutionally given right “to petition government” and our public-interest responsibility or should instead avoid the L word for fear of scaring nonprofits and funders away.
Welcome to Winter 2008