GENERAL
“An Analysis Ranks Brands of Nonprofits.” By Stephanie Strom. New York Times. June 24, 2009. A study Americans to determine the top 100 most valuable nonprofit brand names among organizations providing social, environmental and animal-related services, conducted by the marketing firm Cone LLC and Intangible Business, a British brand-valuation company finds that brand recognition is closely tied to donor support. “Businesses support nonprofits as a way of enhancing their own brands, and nonprofits with the best brand names will have a greater halo effect,” according to its findings.
ARTS & CULTURE
“Metropolitan Museum Completes Cuts, Buyouts, Losing 357 Staff.” By Philip Boroff. Bloomberg.com. June 23, 2009. New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art completed job cuts announced in March and reduced staff by 14 percent, or 357 positions. The Met had said it would cut about 10 percent of its staff; about 40 percent of those offered early retirement packages accepted them and the museum was able to close down 15 of its 16 satellite shops. The museum said it fired 53 people at the shops around the country and another 74 at its merchandising operation. It has just one shop remaining in addition to its Fifth Avenue museum, at Rockefeller Center.
“Saving City Opera.” Editorial. New York Times. June 26, 2009. With a new general manager and artistic director, the Times hopes the city’s iconoclastic counterpart to the Metropolitan Opera will keep New York “a two opera town.”
“Exhibitionists.” By Amy Finnerty. New York Times. June 28, 2009. Review of Michael Gross’s The Secret History of the Moguls and the Money That Made the Metropolitan Museum (Broadway Books). A detailed and gossipy non-scholarly history of the Metropolitan Museum of Art from its founding in 1879 to the present. According to the reviewer, Gross treats the Met’s directors, curators, board members, and wealthy donors as “a blockbuster exhibition of human achievements and flaws and maintains that the place has bred in its stewards ‘arrogance, hauteur, hubris, vanity and even madness’.”
“Why Dances Disappear; Can Merce Cunningham save his work by killing his company?” By Terry Teachout. Wall Street Journal. June 28, 2009. The Journal’s drama critic ponders — and praises dancer Merce Cunningham’s plan to perpetuate his legacy through a foundation that will license his work to other performers.
EDUCATION
Charter Schools
“Education Chief to Warn Advocates That Inferior Charter Schools Harm the Effort.” By Sam Dillon. New York Times. June 22, 2009. The Obama administration has made opening more charter schools a priority in its plans the nation’s education system, but Education Secretary Arne Duncan warned advocates of the schools that low-quality institutions have harmed the movement and urged charter leaders to become more active in weeding out bad apples. Since 1991, when educators founded the first charter school in Minnesota, 4,600 have opened; they now educate some 1.4 million of the nation’s 50 million public school students. The schools are financed with taxpayer money but operate free of many curricular requirements and other regulations that apply to traditional public schools. According to a study by Stanford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes, 17 percent of charter schools provide superior education opportunities for their students, while nearly half have results that are no different from the local public school options, and 37 percent, deliver learning results “that are significantly worse than their students would have realized had they remained in traditional public schools.”
“A rising force in Hispanic Chicago; UNO works within system, gets $98 million for charter schools.” By Dan Mihalopoulos and Azam Ahmed. Chicago Tribune. June 22, 2009. The United Neighborhood Organization, Chicago’s largest Latino community group, is poised to become the biggest charter school manager in Illinois after scoring a $98 million state grant to build eight more schools — believed to be the largest-ever taxpayer windfall in the U.S. for a community-run charter group to build schools. The group began organizing in 1984 in the South Chicago neighborhood and soon spread to other heavily Latino areas, adopting the approach of noted Chicago community organizer Saul Alinsky, who sought to lift up the poor by working from within the existing power structure. As part of its strategy of empowering Latinos, UNO built close relationships to the city’s Democratic political machine. UNO first got involved in charter schools in the mid-1990s. With the new $98 million, the group plans to double its schools to 16, making it the largest charter operator and manager in the state. The organization’s schools serve 3,450 students, of which 91 percent are Hispanic.
“Special-Ed Problems Continue In District; Monitor Criticizes Public Charters, Evaluation Delays.” By Michael Birnbaum. Washington Post. June 27, 2009. Under a federal court order to improve the timeliness of their response to special-needs children D.C. schools, a court-appointed monitor of the school system’s compliance charged that some D.C. charter schools continue selective admissions practices that discourage special-needs students from enrolling, and students citywide with possible disabilities still face delays in special education evaluations. The report casts a harsh light on a fast-growing sector of public education in the city. Some charter schools explicitly limit the number of hours of special education they will provide and counsel parents to enroll their children at regular public schools or at private or other public charter schools that focus on students with disabilities.
“Charter Schools Win a High-Profile Convert; Boston’s mayor risks the ire of the teachers’ unions.” By Jon Keller. Wall Street Journal. June 27, 2009. Early this month, Boston Mayor Tom Menino stunned many in the city with a speech on education reform in which he criticized the poor performance of the city’s schools and, abandoning two decades of opposition to the idea, embraced charter schools as the solution. In doing so, he risked the ire of one of his staunchest sources of support — the city’s teachers’ unions. Key factors in his change of policy are said to be political pressure from the Obama administration, and the promise of access to $5 billion in new education reform funding. Nonprofit leaders, like the Boston Foundation’s Paul Grogan, have been in the forefront of those urging the Mayor to expand charters.
“Charter schools in Portland: Boon or bane?” By Kimberly Melton. Oregonian. June 27, 2009. Nowhere in Oregon does the natural tension set up by the state’s 10-year-old charter school law play out more starkly than in Portland. The district has more charter schools than any other place in the state, but it also has turned down more than any other place, including one that has a pending appeal before the state. As charter schools have proliferated across Oregon — with up to 95 by next fall — the competition has grown fierce between regular public schools and the charters for students and taxpayer dollars. That’s especially true in Portland, where enrollment has dropped by more than 8,000 kids in the past decade. Oregon is one of 40 states that allow charter schools. Since 1999, 108 charter schools have opened; 22 charter schools have closed (including four expected to close at the end of 2008-09). Charter schools typically are run by a group of parents, teachers or community members with their own board of directors and budget managers –at arm’s length to school districts. They operate free from many state regulations, but must meet the same state and federal academic performance standards as traditional schools.
“Charter vs. traditional: We can support both.” Editorial. Indianapolis Star. June 28, 2009. Arne Duncan, the U.S. secretary of education, sent a direct message to Indiana legislators last week: If you mess with charter schools, it will cost you. Is Duncan guilty of legislative extortion — support charters or else? Not at all. As education secretary, he’s responsible for helping to decide where federal dollars should be spent, and he’s justifiably pointing out that he and his boss (Obama) won’t view anti-charter states as fertile fields for investment. It’s not just federal dollars that are at risk, although that’s a lucrative incentive. Even more important, at stake is the educational future of thousands of students whose families want and need sound choices about where to send their children to school.
Colleges and Universities
“For Colleges Needing Cash, Summer’s No Longer a Quiet Season.” By Lisa W. Foderaro. New York Times. June 22, 2009. As colleges and universities face a fiscal squeeze, they are looking to their campuses as cash cows, filling the once quiet summer months with enrichment workshops, for-credit courses, day camps, conferences, private parties and film shoots. But even with these efforts, the recession is taking its toll, as many institutions report falling enrollments and diminished revenues.
“Tenure and Academic Freedom; College campuses display a striking uniformity of thought.” By Naomi Schaefer Riley. Op-ed. Wall Street Journal. June 23, 2009. The Journal’s Taste Editor criticizes a Colorado court decision which bars universities from laying off tenured faculty to cut costs. Faculty took the matter to court. In an amicus brief, the AAUP (American Association of University Professors) argued that “depriving the tenured faculty of a preference in retention places the tenured faculty at greater risk of being singled out” because of an administrator’s or trustee’s dislike for his teaching or research, or for positions taken on public issues. In its ruling, the Denver District Court
upheld the faculty, arguing that “the public interest is advanced more by tenure systems that favor academic freedom over tenure systems that favor flexibility in hiring or firing.” He also noted that “by its very nature, tenure promotes a system in which academic freedom is protected.” The editorialist disparages this reasoning, asserting that tenure has served as an instrument of conformity since tenure votes are often glorified popularity contests.
“Harvard Cuts Risk, Loses Bond Managers; Endowment Now Favors Less-Volatile, More-Liquid Investments; Seidner Made $6.3 Million.” By Craig Karmin and Liz Rappaport. Wall Street Journal. June 23, 2009. In addition to losing more than a third of its value, Harvard endowment is shedding human assets as well. The latest departures are the fund managers who steered the university into substantial positions in such distressed assets as mortgage-backed bonds. In recent years Harvard followed an approach that became almost gospel among elite endowments: Place aggressive bets on the theory that as long-term investors they have time to make up losses while reaching for big gains. The departure of its bond managers comes as Harvard is forecasting one of its worst years and when other elite universities are struggling with how and when to take risk in the wake of the credit crisis. Although investments in toxic assets have paid substantial returns, they have also aggravated the university’s liquidity crisis, forcing it to issue bonds to meet short-term obligations. Harvard has lately been favoring safer, more-liquid securities in its domestic bond portfolio and mis considering several moves designed to improve its ability to stay liquid. It may increase the size of its internal trading operations, which currently represent about 30% of total assets versus money with outside managers, in part to maintain greater control in times of crisis.
“Harvard University loses another top investor; Fixed income manager is latest to leave endowment.” By Todd Wallack. Boston Globe. June 23, 2009.
“Harvard, Hit By Recession, Lays Off 275.” By Robert Tomsho. Wall Street Journal. June 24, 2009. Harvard University, its endowment battered by the recession, said it would lay off 275 employees and cut work hours for about 40 more. The layoffs, which won’t include any professors, are among the largest Harvard has ever made and will trim more than 1% of its 16,000 faculty and staff. About half the jobs are administrative and professional positions, and almost all the rest are clerical or technical.
“Harvard workers stunned by layoffs; Endowment loss cited; 275 jobs cut.” By Tracy Jan. Boston Globe. June 24, 2009
“Scholarships for College Dwindle as Providers Pull Back Their Support.” By Jonathan D. Glater. New York Times. June 27, 2009. The recession has led foundations, corporations, state governments and colleges themselves to reduce their support of providers of scholarships, and in recent months programs have been reduced or canceled outright. The cuts come as economic conditions make it harder for families to pay for college and as more unemployed people look for financing for retraining. The result will probably be a greater role for federal aid programs in supporting students, instead of private scholarship providers and state governments. At the same time, state grant programs are being forced to make major cutbacks in student aid.
Other
“Menino will seek gifts for school sports; Sets goal of $4 million, vows to create nonprofit.” By Bob Hohler. Boston Globe. June 28, 2009. Boston’s, aiming to curb chronic failings in Boston’s high school athletic programs, said he will create a nonprofit charitable foundation spearheaded by former athletes and business leaders to transform the troubled sports system into a source of urban pride. The foundation is the centerpiece of a series of changes Menino crafted in response to a Globe series that showed the city has severely shortchanged Boston’s high school athletes in funding, equipment, facilities, coaching, and oversight. He said he has received a preliminary commitment from one Boston professional sports team to help launch the foundation and is optimistic others will join the effort. The plan calls for the foundation to raise nearly $4 million over the next 18 months and provide substantial long-term funding.
GOVERNANCE
“Study Ties Madoff Loss to Charity’s Board Size.” By Stephanie Strom. New York Times. June 25, 2009. According to a study by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, a majority of more than 100 foundations that lost 30 percent to all of their assets in the Madoff scandal had four or fewer board members. The median size of the boards of foundations that are members of the Council on Foundations, a trade association, is 11. A survey of foundations with three or fewer staff members by the Association of Small Foundations found that they had a median of five board members.
HEALTH CARE
“2 flagship hospitals to upgrade accessibility; Millions pledged for improvements.” By Stephen Smith. Boston Globe. June 26, 2009. Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, two of the nation’s most prominent hospitals, are pledging to spend millions of dollars to resolve complaints that ill-suited equipment and sometimes-indifferent medical workers make disabled patients feel unwelcome. The commitment is an explicit recognition that the hospitals have failed to do enough to accommodate the region’s disabled children and adults, who now account for 15 percent of the state’s population. And it also means they are spared the humiliation and expense of lawsuits that activists elsewhere filed to force improved access to medical care.
“Caritas ends joint venture; Was at odds with insurer on abortion.” By Michael Paulson and Kay Lazar. Boston Globe. June 27, 2009. Caritas Christi Health Care, the financially challenged Catholic hospital system founded by the Archdiocese of Boston, is abruptly ending its joint venture with a Missouri-based health insurer at the insistence of Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley, who has decided that the relationship represented too much of an entanglement between Catholic hospitals and abortion providers. This is a setback for Caritas because it represents the undoing of one of the steps its new chief executive, Dr. Ralph de la Torre, had announced as part of his effort to turn around the hospital system’s finances. It was not immediately clear last night what the financial impact of the change is on Caritas, but the decision is a stark and public reminder from O’Malley to de la Torre and the general public that moral concerns will trump monetary issues at Catholic hospitals. Four months ago, Caritas had announced plans with Centene to create a new company, now named CeltiCare, to provide health insurance to thousands of low-income Massachusetts residents under Commonwealth Care. Until Caritas withdrew yesterday, CeltiCare was 49 percent owned by the Catholic hospital system, and 51 percent owned by a Centene subsidiary. The controversy over the Caritas-Centene venture reflects the tension inherent in balancing those concerns in the heavily regulated healthcare industry.
“Grant System Leads Cancer Researchers to Play It Safe.” By Gina Kolata. New York Times. June 28, 2009. Although the nation declared a “war on cancer” in 1971 and has spent billions of public and private money on research, little progress has been made on reducing the death rate from the disease. One major reason, scientists agree, is the grant system itself, which has become a sort of jobs program, keeping research laboratories going year after year with the understanding that the focus will be on small projects unlikely to take significant steps toward curing cancer. The government’s National Cancer Institute, which lacks the resources to support most proposals, avoids risk by funding projects least likely to fail. While private funders like the American Cancer Society and the Ludwig Fund are somewhat more imaginative in their grant making, their impact is limited by their relatively small size, compared to public funds.
INTERNATIONAL
“Red Cross marks battle anniversary.” By Imogen Foulkes. BBC NEWS. The Red Cross is marking the 150th anniversary of the battle which inspired the founding of the world’s best known humanitarian movement. At the end of June 1859, the armies of France and Sardinia, led by Napoleon III, confronted the Austrians at Solferino in northern Italy. Henri Dunant, a Geneva businessman, witnessed the event. At the end of the battle, the Austrians were defeated and 40,000 men lay dead or dying. Dunant was shocked by how little was done to care for the wounded. What he saw inspired him to develop an organization — the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) — dedicated to helping war wounded. In 1864, the first Geneva Convention was signed by 16 nations, establishing the immunity from attack of all hospitals and medical personnel treating the wounded requiring that wounded combatants be treated impartially, and introducing the red cross on a white background as the official symbol for humanitarian work. Today, the ICRC, together with the Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies, has become a worldwide movement with tens of thousands of workers and volunteers.
Australia
“Robbing private schools of public funding makes everyone poorer.” Op-ed. By Sam Molloy. Sydney Morning Herald. June 24, 2009. Student op-ed contributor defends government aid to private schools, arguing that the policy sustains diversity and choice in education.
France
“LinkedIn v freemasons: Joining the club; Networking websites are booming, but they have not supplanted more traditional business networks.” No by-line. The Economist. Jun 25th 2009. Every country has networks of influentials based on education, social background or spiritual beliefs. In Spain, Italy and Latin America as well as France, Opus Dei, a conservative Catholic lay order which supports a number of business schools is powerful. The U.S. has its Ivy League alumni groups and service clubs. Chinese businesspeople often rely on guanxi, or personal connections. Are globalization and technology undermining these networks? According to the founder of LinkedIn, a cyber community, active, open online networks are “far more competitive in today’s globalised business environment than local, closed networks such as alumni groups or freemasonry.” Online networks’ most compelling advantage, in addition to openness and efficiency, “is the chance they offer to connect across borders and among different sorts of people. Traditional networks, by contrast, tend to be strongest in domestic industries, such as construction. About two-fifths of LinkedIn’s members are female, whereas offline networks are usually dominated by men. And online networks include more entrepreneurs than traditional groups.” While the influence of interpersonal networks has diminished in some places, in others they remain strong. Evidence suggests that online networks often reinforce the power of offline ones.
India
“Plan panel favours IIT, IIM offshore campuses.” By Mahendra Kumar Singh. Times of India. June 22, 2009. Indian universities and government-run institutions like IIMs and IITs may be permitted to set up campuses abroad to cross-subsidize higher education for vulnerable sections of society. The government is formulating guidelines to allow Indian universities and government-run institutions to run business abroad to fund higher education for the poor back home and to expand the educational infrastructure in the country. The move has come at the time when India is wooing foreign universities to set up campuses in the country. Currently, there are no rules and regulations to permit government-run institutions to set up offshore campuses; only private educational institutions were free to explore education opportunities abroad.
Peru
“The Bagua Movement.” By Kelly Hearn. The Nation. June 26, 2009.
Amazonian Indians in Peru have been putting up violent resistance to laws enacted by the country’s pro-business president as part of a free-trade pact with the United States. One decree, known as “the law of the jungle,” changed Peru’s forest management system in ways that would have given big biofuels companies access to millions of hectares of forestland. Protesters say the law violated their right (given by Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization) to be consulted about the such enactments. Having grown used to seeing oil companies do what they please in the jungle, the protesters worried that the law would allow big biofuels companies simply to take whatever land they wanted. NGOs like Centre for the Development of the Amazonian Indigenous People are playing an important role in organizing the protests.
LAW & REGULATION
“Private Clubs That Aren’t Private Under the Law; Courts Might Deem Groups Public if They Have Broad Admissions Policies but Discriminate Based on Gender or Race.” By Nathan Koppel. Wall Street Journal. June 25, 2009. What constitutes discrimination in organizations that consider themselves private? Some golf courses, country clubs and social groups long have discriminated against certain types of people, usually women and minorities. Private organizations sometimes presume that they can exclude whomever they want, no questions asked. But clubs that presume they are private frequently turn out not to be in the eyes of the law in some states. “Over the last 20 years, societal pressures have led to a steady narrowing of what qualifies as a private organization, free from antidiscrimination laws,” according to one expert in antidiscrimination law. In determining whether a club is public or private, courts are now taking into account the use of facilities by non-members, selectiveness in membership, and size, which affect whether a group is a “place of public accommodation.”
“Texas Adopts Law on Stewardship of Trusts After Founders Die.” By Stephanie Strom. New York Times. June 28, 2009. Texas has adopted a law intended to ensure that so-called orphan trusts, which are left under the stewardship of lawyers or banks after their founders have died, continue to comply with the founders’ wishes. The law, bars trustees from moving a trust or foundation out of Texas without court approval. In many orphan trust cases, the local banks originally selected as trustees have been acquired by multinational financial institutions based out of state. The law further directs the courts to determine whether moving a trust out of Texas would interfere with the trustee’s ability to comply with the donor’s intentions. State charity regulators, nonprofit leaders and others complain that with no family members to encourage compliance with the original donors’ wishes, banks and lawyers have wide latitude to change the way trusts operate and decide which charities will receive grants. Jack Siegel, a charity governance expert, said the law “seems to take a good step in the right direction.”
MEDIA
“Will Philanthropy And Media Team Up To Create An Investigative-News Network?” No by-line. Reuters. June 25, 2009. Next week, a group of about 26 online news startups, newspapers, broadcasters and academics will gather at Pocantico, a former Rockefeller family estate, to discuss funding an investigative news network. As news staffs have been cut, a number of nonprofits have been helping to fill the void. Over the last four years, about $128 million in grants have flowed to roughly 115 news projects, with the largest share, $65 million, going to “investigative” projects. Major foundations—some that have previously considered ‘news and information’ to be fairly far afield from their philanthropic mandates—are now talking about the large sums of money that may be needed to fill the gaps left by cratering dailies in big metro markets.
MISCELLANEOUS
“U.S. economy suspends festival fun; Life will be a little less lively this year in communities where festivals are being suspended because of the lousy economy.” By Judy Keen. USA Today. June 22, 2009. Throughout the country, festivals (like Boston’s Tall Ships and San Francisco’s Blues Festival events), which are both major activities of and sources of revenue for nonprofits, are being canceled because of difficulties in raising needed funds.
PHILANTHROPY
“Young Patrons Hit Web to Tap Yalies, Wall St. Pals for Charity.” By Patrick Cole. Bloomberg.com. June 23, 2009. This year, as many nonprofits have seen individual donations drop, young patron groups of New York-based nonprofits are defying the recession by harnessing the power of Facebook and Twitter to find first-time donors and those looking for a cause to support while having a good time.
“Gates Can’t Match NBC’s Playboy, Snake-Bit ‘Philanthropist’: TV.” Review by Rick Warner. Bloomberg.com. June 23, 2009. NBC has launched an eight-part summer series, “The Philanthropist,” which features fellow billionaire Teddy Rist (played by James Purefoy) as a jet-setting playboy who dedicates his life to helping the less fortunate. The series was inspired by a real person, Bobby Sager, former president of Gordon Brothers Group, a Boston-based liquidation specialist. Sager left the executive suite to become a full-time philanthropist who travels the world supporting charitable activities through his foundation. The show is broadcast Wednesdays, 10-11.
“Taking Stock of ‘The Philanthropist’; An Embarrassment Of Riches Marks NBC Series Debut.” By Tom Shales. Washington Post. June 24, 2009.
“Ford Ahead: The Foundation Tightens Its Belt.” By Mark Hemingway. Wall Street Journal. June 26, 2009. The Ford Foundation has announced that it will be offering buyouts to one-third of its 550 employees. After losing nearly a third of its endowment in the past year, the $9 billion is seeking to streamline its operations under the leadership of its new president, Luis Ubinas, who was recruited from the management consulting firm, McKinsey. The article offers an account of Ford’s sometimes turbulent history as seen through conservative lenses.
“Hoop Dreams Comes To the End of Its Run; Nonprofit a Victim of Soured Economy.” By Martin Ricard. Washington Post. June 27, 2009. Hoop Dreams, a nonprofit which over the past 13 years has distributed millions of dollars in college scholarships and helped about 1,000 D.C. students go to college and realize their own dreams, will terminate its operations at the end of this year because of its inability to raise funds in the current economic climate.
RELIGION
“The Political Enclave That Dare Not Speak Its Name; The Sanford and Ensign Scandals Open a Door On Previously Secretive ‘C Street’ Spiritual Haven.” By Manuel Roig-Franzia. Washington Post. June 26, 2009. “The Fellowship,” an obsessively secretive Arlington spiritual group that organizes the National Day of Prayer breakfast, an event routinely attended by legions of top government officials, also offers housing to spiritually-troubled politicians, as well as group spirituality sessions, prayer meetings. The group’s $1.84 million property is owned by a little-known organization called Youth With a Mission of Washington DC. According to the article, “the house’s residents mostly adhere to a code of silence about the place, seldom discussing it publicly, lending an aura of mystery to what happens inside and a hint of conspiratorial speculation.”
“‘Forgiven and free’; The Twelve Tribes, a religious group, opens up its tall ship to visitors.” By David Filipov. Boston Globe. June 28, 2009. Scattered in small clusters throughout the United States and eight other countries, members of the Twelve Tribes operate successful businesses and hold frequent open houses and discussion sessions. The movement, formed in the early 1970s by Elbert Eugene Spriggs, believes that society has drifted away from a standard of morality and that relationships among humans have been degraded. Members of the Twelve Tribes interact more with the modern world than their quaint appearance and strict interpretation of Scripture would suggest. They have cellphones and e-mail accounts. They have thriving businesses everywhere their communities are located – including a popular bakery and general store in Plymouth, where the group recently purchased two additional Main Street properties valued at over $2 million. There, the community hopes to open a plaza with retail and office space, connected by a stairway up to the historic Burial Hill and its view of the Mayflower and Plymouth Rock.
SCANDAL
“Madoff Client Jeffry Picower Netted $5 Billion—Likely More Than Madoff Himself.” By Jake Bernstein. ProPublica. June 23, 2009. Bernard Madoff’s client, billionaire Jeffry M. Picower was no victim. Over the years, he drew out $5 billion more than he invested with the disgraced financier. Picower and Madoff’ were close friends: Madoff managed the Picower Foundation’s investments and sat on the board of Picower Institute for Medical Research. Though noted for his philanthropy, the article alleges that Picower used his foundations to gain control of a potentially lucrative medical discovery for PharmaSciences, a drug company he controlled. A 2006 IRS investigation cleared the foundation of wrongdoing.
“Cornerstone Ministries betrayed them by straying from mission, investors say.” By Christopher Quinn. Atlanta Journal-Constitution. June 23, 2009. Georgia authorities are investigating Cornerstone Ministries Investment which last year filed for bankruptcy. Originally organized by the Presbyterian Church in America, to finance new church buildings through the sale of bonds, the company “morphed into financing general developments under ‘a tangled web of non-profit and for-profit corporations and limited liability companies,’ where the ministers made “substantial income over and above the salaries disclosed in the … filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission,’” according to investigators.
“Espada’s Health Clinics Draw Wide Support Among Bronx Constituents.” By Anemona Hartocollis. New York Times. June 24, 2009. Controversial Bronx state senator Pedro Espada Jr., currently under investigation for shenanigans involving agencies he controls, has a long history of involvement with health-related nonprofits, which are part and parcel of his political machine. According to this account, “the state attorney general and the Bronx district attorney are looking into whether public money from the health centers was used for campaign functions, and into whether Mr. Espada lives in the Bronx or in Mamaroneck, in Westchester County. Mr. Espada said Soundview was like a “candy store” for prosecutors because of the large volume of Medicaid transactions it handled.”
“Ex-Grady CEOs dueling in court; He says job was stolen; she says she’s been slandered.” By Craig Schneider. Atlanta Journal-Constitution. June 23, 2009. Georgia’s largest hospital, which recently converted from public to nonprofit ownership is torn by a bitter feud between two former CEOs. Otis Story, who headed the hospital until early 2008, charges that his successor, Pamela Stephenson, who was then chair of the hospital’s board, orchestrated his dismissal in order to take his $600,000-a-year job. Stephenson countersued, asserting that Story slandered her by telling others that she was a ‘lewd and immoral woman.’”
“Ex-Grady CEO denies calling Stephenson ‘immoral woman’.” By Craig Schneider. Atlanta Journal-Constitution. June 25, 2009.
“Authorities pose no obstacle to aids charity’s aggressive fundraising.” By Christopher Weaver. Pro Publica. June 24, 2009. Report on investigation of the Center for AIDS Prevention, a California, charity that “wages high-profile fundraising campaigns, spreads inaccurate health information and dodges questions about how it spends donations.” Despite its high-visibility campaigns, the Center has not registered with state officials, a minimum requirement for fundraising, nor do its filings disclose its expenditures. Although its activities have aroused suspicions at city offices in Los Angeles, where the charity does business now, with the Attorney General of Illinois, where it is incorporated, and with the federal Food and Drug Administration, authorities have been slow to act. The IRS claims that such matters are usually left to state officials.
VOLUNTEERS
“First lady launches summer service initiative.” By Lorrie Lynch. USA Today. June 22, 2009. Michelle Obama addressed 4,500 members of the National Conference on Volunteering and Service, asking members to join the United We Serve initiative. The program will run through Sept. 11, a new national day of service and remembrance of those who died in the 2001 terrorist attacks. The summer of service, the first lady said, “is really just a preview of what’s to come — a new era of civic engagement,” calling on those in attendance to lead the nation into the new era. Obama also announced the administration’s new Serve.gov website to bring together information about service opportunities and job possibilities, making it easier for individuals and groups to find places in their communities to serve. She also announced the Entertainment Industry Foundation’s plans to work with the four major television networks for a week of service and volunteerism themes and plots in some favorite series starting Oct. 19.
“United Way survey finds nonprofits have fewer volunteers.” No by-line. Indianapolis Star. June 22, 2009. With the economy in recession and unemployment continuing to rise, some of Indiana’s nonprofits are having trouble finding willing and able volunteers, according to a recent survey by the United Way of Central Indiana. More than half of the 71 nonprofits surveyed said they were relying more on volunteers than last year. At the same time, more than a third reported that their volunteer pool is shrinking. Moreover, returning volunteers aren’t putting in as many hours. The survey also found that some organizations’ board members have lost their jobs, which hurts their ability to help raise funds. Volunteers are needed more than ever because many groups have seen contributions and government grants fall off. That has forced them to trim staff and change how volunteers are used. Almost 40 percent of nonprofits in the United Way survey have used volunteers in roles previously filled by staffers.
“How Boomers Can Change the World (Again).” By Rosabeth Moss Kanter. Bloomberg.com. June 23, 2009. Touting Harvard’s Advanced Leadership Initiative — a coalition of 15 faculty from Harvard Business School, Law School, Kennedy School, School of Public Health, and Graduate School of Education — Harvard management Kanter scholar predicts that retiring Boomers will comprise a tidal wave of volunteers and skilled managers for nonprofit and public enterprise. “The generation that marched in Washington in the 1960s is marching into elementary schools, high schools, hospitals, and homeless shelters seeking opportunities to serve. Activists in civil rights and women’s movements four decades ago now want to eradicate diseases, transform education, reform health care, or alleviate global poverty. Americans of all ages express their desire to perform some sort of service to their communities and nation.” Those who came of age in the 1960s lead the charge, according to recent surveys. The Harvard program hope to help retiring Boomers to retool for public service careers.
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