WEEKLY NEWS DIGEST (March 1-7, 2010)

March 8th, 2010

GENERAL

“‘The Empathic Civilization: The Race to Global Consciousness in a World in Crisis.” By Jeremy Rifkin. Huffington Post. March 1, 2010. While our radio talk shows and 24-hour cable TV news programs incessantly play off the political rift between conservative and liberal ideologies, the deeper conflict in America has always been the cultural divide between faith versus reason. At the dawn of the modern market economy and nation-state era, the philosophers of the Enlightenment challenged the Age of Faith that governed over the feudal economy with the Age of Reason. Theologians and philosophers have continued to battle over faith vs. reason ever since, their debates often spilling over into the cultural and political arenas, with profound consequences for society. Today, however, at the outset of a global economy and the biosphere era, a new generation of scientists, scholars, and social reformers are beginning to challenge some of the underlying assumptions of both the Age of Faith and the Age of Reason, taking us into the Age of Empathy.

U.S.: Grassroots Groups Get More Bang for Donors’ Bucks.” By William Fisher. Interpress Service (IPS). March 4, 2010. While “community organising” has become a punch line for late- night comedians since the election of Barack Obama as U.S. president, the activity “delivers enormous benefits to communities,” according to a new study conducted by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP). The report, based on research into nearly 70 nonprofits from New Mexico, North Carolina, Minnesota and Los Angeles County over a five-year period, concludes that “Americans receive extraordinary benefits from the policy advocacy and community organising efforts by nonprofit organisations in their area, funded by foundations and other donors.” It reports that these groups combined “generated nearly 14 billion dollars worth of benefits for their diverse communities, and many other non-monetary gains. The return for every dollar invested in these groups ranged from 89 dollars to a staggering 157 dollars.”

WEEKLY NEWS DIGEST (March 1-7, 2010)

March 8th, 2010

ARTS & CULTURE

How Smithsonian Selects, Rejects Donations.” All Things Considered. National Public Radio. March 4, 2010. The Smithsonian Institution announced this week it won’t accept a donation of the suit worn by O.J. Simpson on the day of his murder acquittal. Lonnie G. Bunch, director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, discusses how proposed donated objects are sorted though for acceptance and rejection at the institution.

WEEKLY NEWS DIGEST (March 1-7, 2010)

March 8th, 2010

CORPORATE PHILANTHROPY & SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Schools, Firms Gauge Social Impact.” By Aline Dizik. Wall Street Journal. March 4, 2010. When Stephanie Poole signed up for a mentor through her business school, she thought the person would be someone she could simply turn to for occasional advice. Instead, she was handed a semester-long project requiring her to assess the social impact of a nearby company. The Center for Sustainable Enterprise, a part of the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School, organized the mentor program and linked Ms. Poole with Kevin Trapani, president of the Redwoods Group, a Morrisville, N.C., insurance provider that works with YMCAs, Jewish community centers and resident camps throughout the country. Ms. Poole, 25 years old, spent last spring producing a 21-page social audit for Mr. Trapani and the Redwoods Group. Like a traditional financial audit, it focused on what the company is doing in the areas of the environment, ethics and its overall social impact. It’s an effort a growing number of companies are undertaking, as they look

WEEKLY NEWS DIGEST (March 1-7, 2010)

March 8th, 2010

EDUCATION

CHARTER SCHOOLS

In Harlem, Epicenter for Charter Schools, a Senator Wars Against Them.” By Jennifer Medina. New York Times. March 6, 2010. When hundreds of parents went to Albany last month to rally for charter schools, they were greeted by a parade of politicians offering encouragement and promises. But when Bill Perkins, the state senator from Harlem who represents many of the parents, took the stage, they drowned him out with boos. Some parents confronted him later in the vestibule outside the Senate chamber, demanding that he meet with them that afternoon and chanting “Move Bill, get out the way, get out the way,” before he could even speak. As advocates of charter schools, including the Bloomberg administration, try to persuade legislators to lift the limit on the number of such schools in the state, no one is as likely to stand in their way as Mr. Perkins, whose district encompasses nearly 20 charter schools. Several more are planned next year. Over the last decade, as charter schools have multiplied, Mr. Perkins has undergone a dramatic shift and emerged as their most outspoken critic in the Legislature, writing guest columns in newspapers and delivering impassioned speeches criticizing the “privatization” of public schools.

PRIVATE SCHOOLS

Chicago Quaker school would be the state’s first; Emphasizing tolerance and charity, school is seen by some parents as a more nurturing alternative to public and private schools on the North Side.” By Whitney Woodward. Chicago Tribune. March 3, 2010.

SCHOOL REFORM

Scholar’s School Reform U-Turn Shakes Up Debate.” By Sam Dillon. New York Times. March 2, 2010. Diane Ravitch, the education historian who built her intellectual reputation battling progressive educators and served in the first Bush administration’s Education Department, is in the final stages of an astonishing, slow-motion about-face on almost every stand she once took on American schooling. Once outspoken about the power of standardized testing, charter schools and free markets to improve schools, Dr. Ravitch is now caustically critical. She underwent an intellectual crisis, she says, discovering that these strategies, which she now calls faddish trends, were undermining public education. She resigned last year from the boards of two conservative research groups. “School reform today is like a freight train, and I’m out on the tracks saying, ‘You’re going the wrong way!’ ” Dr. Ravitch said in an interview.

HIGHER EDUCATION

Endowment starting to recover.” By Vivian Yee. Yale Daily News. March 3, 2010. Though Princeton University has projected that its endowment will grow 10 percent this academic year, Yale administrators said they are leery of making any projections about Yale’s endowment return, though they said it is currently slightly up from its lowest point last June. Yale’s endowment, like Princeton’s, is largely invested in assets that are not easily valued, and financial markets could change by the end of the fiscal year on June 30, administrators said, making it difficult to speculate about where the endowment will stand. But in an interview with the News last month, Provost Peter Salovey and University President Richard Levin said they were “optimistic” that the endowment’s recovery this year would be enough to allow Yale to forgo future budget cuts.

The face behind Yale’s fundraising.” By Vivian Yee. Yale Daily News. March 4, 2010. Profile of Inge Reichenbach, Yale’s Vice-President for Development.

Southeastern U. acquired by another school in D.C.” By Daniel de Vise. Washington Post. March 6, 2010. The Graduate School, a private District institution that specializes in training government workers, announced Friday that it had completed a merger with nearby Southeastern University, which closed last year over accreditation problems. The acquisition is a happy ending of sorts for Southeastern, which lost its accreditation — essential to any college — in August and never reopened. “Our goal is to create a new institution which will provide accessible and practical public service education and continuing education,” Jerry Ice, president and chief executive officer of the Graduate School, said in a statement. The Graduate School, also known as GS Graduate School, provides continuing education to 150,000 students a year, most of them government workers, from a campus in Southwest Washington. The U.S. Department of Agriculture created the school in 1921. It operates now as an independent nonprofit institution. Southeastern, founded by the YMCA in 1879, long served a population of lower-income and international students, offering career-oriented programs such as criminal justice, public administration and allied health.

WEEKLY NEWS DIGEST (March 1-7, 2010)

March 8th, 2010

ENVIRONMENT

The Wrong Kind of Green.” By Johann Hari. The Nation. March 4, 2010. Why did America’s leading environmental groups jet to Copenhagen and lobby for policies that will lead to the faster death of the rainforests–and runaway global warming? Why are their lobbyists on Capitol Hill dismissing the only real solutions to climate change as “unworkable” and “unrealistic,” as though they were just another sooty tentacle of Big Coal?

WEEKLY NEWS DIGEST (March 1-7, 2010)

March 8th, 2010

FINANCE

Dwight Hall invests ‘responsibly’.” By Jordi Gasso. Yale Daily News. March 2, 2010. Dwight Hall is the Yale organization which serves as a platform for student social service. With its Socially Responsible Investment Fund, High Street (where it is located) may start to look a little more like Wall Street. Members of the SRI Fund team, a student-run project founded in 2007, advise the Dwight Hall Board of Trustees in the management of $50,000, 5 percent piece of Dwight Hall’s overall endowment of less than $5 million, the rest of which is managed with the Yale Investments Office.. After two years of research and preparation, the group invested $40,000 in various mutual funds and equities last month. Although this sum constitutes only a small fraction of Dwight Hall’s endowment, SRI Committee Chair Aaron Podolny ’12 said their investments are meant to abide by strict social responsibility guidelines and serve as an educational tool to promote values of socially responsible investment. The investment office has been criticized from the Responsible Endowment Project, a student advocacy group, for its secrecy about its holdings. Podolny, who is also a member of the Responsible Endowment Project, similarly said he could not reveal the details of SRI’s recent investments, saying the SRI committee has not yet established

Nonprofits ready to hire again.” By Miriam Kreinin Souccar. Crain’s New York. March 3, 2010. Despite the lingering effects of the recession, New York charities believe the worst of the economic downturn is over and are getting ready to start hiring again, according to an annual survey conducted by staffing firm Professionals for Nonprofits. Roughly 60% of the nonprofits said they plan to hire staffers in 2010, and more than half expected salaries to increase, according to the survey.

WEEKLY NEWS DIGEST (March 1-7, 2010)

March 8th, 2010

FUNDRAISING

How to engage the next generation of non-profit donors? A new survey has answers.” No by-line. USA Today. March 4, 2010. How to engage the next generation of donors? That is the question for non-profits these days. Non-profits have already “optimized fundraising with seniors” over the last several decades through methods such as direct mail, Convio founder Vinay Bhagat says. What is less well understood is how to engage today’s youth — the millennials, Gen Y, or whatever term you use to define the group. “The industry needs guidance on how to market to different generations of donors in general,” Bhagat says. “It’s important to look beyond what young donors give you today. Catching people early is important to establishing long-term relationships that will grow over time.” To better understand what makes this younger generation tick, Convio, a non-profit technology provider in partnership with Edge Research, conducted a national survey of charitable donors one week after the earthquake in Haiti.

WEEKLY NEWS DIGEST (March 1-7, 2010)

March 8th, 2010

INTERNATIONAL

AUSTRALIA

Christian schools angry over ban on teaching creationism.” By Malcolm Brown. Sydney Morning Herald. March 3, 2010. Australian Christian schools will campaign against what they see as the thin end of the wedge – a decision by the South Australian Non-Government Schools Registration Board to effectively ban the teaching of creationism. Under policies published in December, the board said it required ”teaching of science as an empirical discipline, focusing on inquiry, hypothesis, investigation, experimentation, observation and evidential analysis”. The board said it ”does not accept as satisfactory a science curriculum in a non-government school which is based on, espouses or reflects the literal interpretation of a religious text in its treatment of either creationism or intelligent design”.

Sydney Uni seeks talent beyond affluent suburbs.” By Heath Gilmore. Sydney Morning Herald. March 6, 2010. THE University of Sydney has admitted it needs to address what it calls its ”financial vulnerability” and broaden its intake beyond elite independent and selective high schools to attract the most talented students. Unveiling a green paper outlining its future, its vice-chancellor said the student intake had to be extended beyond ”the relatively affluent eastern and northern suburbs of Sydney”. This was not a case of social engineering, Michael Spence said, but a recognition that the most talented and capable students were being excluded by the university.

GERMANY

German monastery raided over child sex abuse claims.” By Diana Magnay. CNN.com. March 3, 2010. Authorities have raided a monastery in southern Germany as part of a probe into allegations that priests sexually abused children there, prosecutors said. Eight former students at the Ettal Abbey boarding school have reported that they were abused in 1954 and in the 1970s and ’80s, the abbey has said in a statement. The head of the monastery and the school headmaster stepped down last week. Investigators with the Munich State Prosecutors Office visited the Benedictine Abbey of Ettal on Tuesday afternoon as part of their ongoing investigation into allegations of sexual abuse of underage children by priests there.
Related Stories:
Pope’s brother’s prominent boys’ choir faces abuse claims.USA Today. March 5, 2010.

HAITI RELIEF

“Flying Nun Leads Fund-Raising Drives for Haiti.” By Stephanie Raposo. Wall Street Journal. March 3, 2010. Haiti’s earthquake victims—already receiving aid from the U.S. military, international relief organizations and volunteers on the ground—are also getting a hand from kayaking preteens, pajama-wearing office workers and a parachuting nun. Sister Jane Meyer, principal at St. Agnes Academy in Houston and a Dominican sister for more than 50 years, pledged to take a 14,000-foot leap out of an airplane if her students raised $25,000 by Ash Wednesday—a little more than a month after the Jan. 12 earthquake. Sister Jane, who runs three-and-1/2 miles a day, said it would be her first-ever jump. By holding bake sales, T-shirt sales, talent shows, raffles and a student art auction, and by soliciting community donations, St. Agnes Academy blew past the goal ahead of the Feb. 17 deadline and raised $88,684.24.

Aid groups enlist Google to help in Haiti effort.Independent (UK). March 3, 2010. Aid workers, with the help of Google Earth, are uploading key information onto the Web to illustrate the needs of hundreds of thousands of people left homeless by Haiti’s earthquake – an innovation that could significantly boost the ability to respond to future disasters. The idea is new and relatively simple: U.N. and non-governmental aid officials can log onto Google Earth from makeshift settlements housing more than 600,000 people in Haiti and provide real-time details about the population and its global positioning. Although there have been some teething problems, officials believe the tool could greatly speed relief efforts.

In Haiti, O’Malley offers aid, healing.” By Lisa Wangsness. Boston Globe. March 3, 2010. – Cardinal Sean O’Malley picked his way through the ruins of the Notre Dame Cathedral here, his sandaled feet carefully negotiating concrete rubble and sharp splinters of wood. O’Malley’s visit was a gesture of condolence and a whirlwind fact-finding mission to help decide how to distribute some $35 million in aid from a special collection of US Catholic churches, including $2 million from the Boston Archdiocese. He and several other US bishops will also help sketch out a plan for rebuilding Haitian Catholic institutions and ministries, which lost dozens of churches and almost 70 priests, nuns, and seminarians in the quake.

HAITI: Experts Urge Sea Change in ‘Culture of Aid’.” By William Fisher. Interpress Service (IPS). March 5, 2010. A delegation of human rights experts is preparing to visit Haiti to assess the human rights and aid situation in the earthquake-crippled nation and to urge the international community to follow a series of guidelines they have prepared to help donors’ to “overcome the mistakes of the past.” The team will be conducting its assessments through interviews and onsite visits both inside and outside of Port-au-Prince, focusing on towns that have received a high volume of internally displaced persons since the earthquake. The trip, scheduled for Mar. 9-12, comes in advance of the Mar. 23 hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, where members of the delegation will provide testimony aimed at encouraging the commission to formally investigate the human rights impacts of post-earthquake aid on behalf of the Organisation of American States. It also precedes the much-anticipated Mar. 31 Haiti Donors’ Conference at the United Nations headquarters in New York, where future aid to Haiti will be discussed. The groups recently issued a list of recommendations outlining a rights-based approach to aid delivery in advance of that conference, and have a long history of working on aid and human rights issues in Haiti.

Employees at VTA donate $10,000 for Haitian earthquake relief.” By Lisa Fernandez. San Jose Mercury-News. March 6, 2010. About 170 employees from the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority privately raised and donated $10,000 to the American Red Cross and UNICEF for their Haitian earthquake relief efforts.

IRELAND

Catholic diocese seeks cash to pay Irish victims.” By Shawn Pogachnik. Washington Post/Associated Press. March 2, 2010. A Roman Catholic diocese at the center of Ireland’s child-abuse scandals appealed Tuesday to its parishioners to cover some of its more than euro10 million ($14 million) in bills to victims and lawyers. Bishop Denis Brennan of Ferns, the southeast Irish diocese that was first to face state investigations into decades of cover-ups involving pedophile priests, spelled out its abuse-related costs Tuesday in a rare admission. Brennan said the diocese has already paid euro8 million to settle lawsuits from 48 abuse victims. But it has yet to settle 13 pending cases, and also has remortgaged the bishop’s residence to cover euro2 million in its own lawyers’ bills for defending the church. The diocese’s chief financial officer, Eugene Doyle, said the church had no option but to ask its faithful to help foot the bill. He estimated that the diocese’s 100,000 members in 80 parishes would be asked to contribute euro60,000 ($85,000) annually for the next 20 years, or euro1.2 million total – but stressed that no money would be taken from normal weekly collections.

ITALY

Vatican Enmeshed in Gay Sex Allegations.” By Rachel Donadio. New York Times. March 4, 2010. A singer in an elite Vatican choir and a jailed Italian public works executive who served as a papal usher were let go by the Vatican this week amid allegations that they were involved in what prosecutors believe was an organized network of gay prostitution, Italian news media reported. The reports emerged as part of a sweeping investigation into corruption in the awarding of public works contracts by Italy’s Civil Protection Agency. Mr. Balducci, a consultant to the Vatican on major construction projects, is one of four people to be jailed in the inquiry, which has dealt a serious blow to the well-respected director of the Civil Protection Agency, Guido Bertolaso.

MEXICO

RELIGION-MEXICO: Legion of Christ Scandal Escalates.” By Emilio Godoy. Interpress Service (IPS). March 6, 2010. A new scandal has increased the pressure on the conservative religious order Legion of Christ, one of the most influential in the Catholic Church, to compensate the victims of alleged sexual abuse by its founder, Mexican priest Marcial Maciel, and carry out internal reforms. Maciel (1920-2008) led a double life, maintaining relationships with at least two women and fathering up to six children. And according to new allegations, he sexually abused one of his biological sons and an adopted son. But despite allegations that he abused numerous young seminarians in the order’s schools in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s and several investigations conducted over the years, he was never held accountable for any case of sex abuse.

UK

HSBC boss Geoghegan to give £4m bonus to charity; Money to be given to charities between now and 2013; Bank reports 24% fall in pretax profit for 2009 to $7bn. ” By Jill Treanor. Guardian (UK). March 1, 2010. HSBC’s (Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation) chief executive Michael Geoghegan intends to hand his £4m bonus to charity in an attempt to deflect public criticism surrounding payouts to bank bosses. As the bank reported a 24% fall in pretax profit for 2009 to $7bn, Geoghegan said that the money would be given to charities around the world between now and 2013, the period when the bonus is due. The bank faces a total bill for salaries and bonuses of $18.5bn, down 11%, and will pay $335m to the Treasury for the one-off tax on bankers’ bonuses over £25,000. The shares fell 2.5% to 702p after the figures were announced.
Related Story:
Bankers’ donations should pave the way for charitable giving; We need more examples of generous donors at a time when big value donations are falling, says Martin Brookes.” No by-line. Guardian (UK). March 5, 2010.

What are the challenges facing the third sector? Charity Effectiveness.” Interactive podcast. Guardian (UK). March 2, 2010. Over the next few months Society Guardian will be looking into the issues facing the charity and voluntary sectors as we tackle challenging times economically, as well as facing uncertain times politically. We’ll be hearing from leading figures in the not-for-profit sector as well as some lesser known organisations with stories to tell. For our first podcast we brought together a respected panel to discuss issues around the identity of the not-for-profit world, and the challenges ahead. We also look at the key challenges of funding, capacity – skills and leadership; contract culture; and image and public perception. The panel:
-David Brindle, public services editor, Guardian
-Stuart Etherington, Chief Executive of NCVO;
-Dame Mary Marsh, Director, Clore Social Leadership Programme;
-Paul Palmer, Associate Dean – Ethics, Sustainability and Engagement, Charity
Effectiveness
-Nirjay Mahindru, Chief Executive, InterAct Reading Service
If you have views on what we have discussed, and want to contribute to the debate please e-mail us at charityeffectiveness@guardian.co.uk

WEEKLY NEWS DIGEST (March 1-7, 2010)

March 7th, 2010

LAW & POLICY

Church that feeds needy faces court after neighbors complain.” By Matt York. USA Today/Associated Press. March 3, 2010. On Saturday mornings, crowds of homeless gather with other needy people at picnic tables outside a church in an upscale Phoenix, Arizona neighborhood, listen to sermons and settle in for sausage, pancakes and scrambled eggs.The pastor says it’s the Lord’s work. Neighbors say it should be done elsewhere. Residents say the homeless create blight and pose a danger to them, pointing to the case of a homeless felon caught with child pornography in the neighborhood. A complaint prompted city officials to order the year-old breakfast halted, saying it violated zoning laws. Now, the dispute is in federal court in Phoenix, with the church saying the city is violating its treasured American rights to freedom of religion, as well as a federal law passed in 2000 that protects religious groups from city zoning rules.

WEEKLY NEWS DIGEST (March 1-7, 2010)

March 7th, 2010

PHILANTHROPY

Amazing Grace: Lake Forest secret millionaire donates fortune to college; Woman who lived frugally donates $7 million to alma mater.” By John Keilman. Chicago Tribune. March 4, 2010. Like many people who lived through the Great Depression, Grace Groner was exceptionally restrained with her money. She got her clothes from rummage sales. She walked everywhere rather than buy a car. And her one-bedroom house in Lake Forest held little more than a few plain pieces of furniture, some mismatched dishes and a hulking TV set that appeared left over from the Johnson administration. Her one splurge was a small scholarship program she had created for Lake Forest College, her alma mater. She planned to contribute more upon her death, and when she passed away in January, at the age of 100, her attorney informed the college president what that gift added up to. Groner’s estate, which stemmed from a $180 stock purchase she made in 1935, was worth $7 million. The money is going into a foundation that will enable many of Lake Forest’s 1,300 students to pursue internships and study-abroad programs they otherwise might have had to forgo. It will be an appropriate memorial to a woman whose life was a testament to the higher possibilities of wealth.