Residents of Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley,” parts of which have cancer incidence rates that reach 700 times national norms, are fighting against the petrochemical plant they say is poisoning their friends and families.
In East Baton Rouge, a local school board facing a shortage of funds to pay teachers opts out of a tax-abatement deal for ExxonMobil that would have cost local school coffers $2.9 million over 10 years.
The practice of paying boards of nonprofits is relatively rare, and it raises serious questions about whose interests are being considered in decision-making of all kinds.
In Louisiana, a state bill seeks to increase funding for public defenders, but only by cutting support for the nonprofits who support public defenders in their work. The amount at play? A paltry $1.7 million.
In Louisiana, a parish commission uses public deposits to encourage banks and credit unions to open branches in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color, thereby reducing dependence on payday loans.
Financial stress is reducing worker productivity. In both Louisiana and New York, nonprofits are focusing on at-work financial education programs to help workers stay afloat in an economy that has eroded social safety net protections.
The key to low-income communities and communities of color weathering climate change in the US South is tied to building ownership of resources, especially land and power, according to a new National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy report.
IberiaBank’s commitment of $6.72 billion for community development lending is precedent-setting in terms of the percentage of bank assets invested and speaks to the essential value of the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act for nonprofits.
More Native American tribes are losing their lands to climate change—another example of marginalized communities who pay the price of sharing the planet with carbon-consuming giants.
When does a state need to preempt local government action, and when is it a power grab disenfranchising local citizens?
