Each month, Family Giving News highlights new articles, studies, and research on emerging trends in family philanthropy. These articles explore options for giving as a family, effective grantmaking strategies, and a variety of key issues and challenges facing today's family philanthropists. If you have a suggestion for a future edition of FGN, please email Sarah Trzepacz or contact the National Center at 202.293.3424.
Philanthropic Foundations of Canada Publishes
Foundations: Seeing the World Differently:
Great Grant Stories
November 2003,
PFC (Montreal, Canada)
Montreal-based Philanthropic Foundations of Canada (PFC) introduces a 52-page collection containing the stories of eleven of its member foundations. The stories detail the divergent paths that lead these foundations to enlightenment and novel grantmaking strategies. To download or view a copy of the Foundations: Seeing the World Differently: Great Grant Stories, visit the link above.
Useful But Limited: What Donors Need to Know About Rating
Services
January/February 2004,
Philanthropy (Washington, D.C.)
Philanthropy magazine looks at the various
nonprofit "rating services":
what they offer, the challenges they face, and their usefulness to foundations
and individual donors. Paul D. Nelson reports on the three different types of evaluation
groups: ratings organizations, seal of approval or accreditation groups,
and informational organizations, exploring their similarities and differences,
strengths and weaknesses. Although these organizations can offer a wealth of
information to funders, the author notes that a lack of unified evaluation standards, limits their
usefulness. According to Nelson these services are no substitute for donor intuition,
experience, or "practical wisdom."
Building Value Together: Independent Sector Endorses Guidelines for
Funding Nonprofit Organizations
January 29, 2004, The Independent Sector (Washington, D.C.)
The Independent Sector comes out in support of the Building Value Together initiative, which is designed to encourage the use of more efficient practices in nonprofits and foundations. The initiative, headed up by Paul Brest—president and CEO of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation—and a working group of family foundations and nonprofits, endorses the use of "core support" to accomplish funder goals as opposed to "project support." The initiative's statement encourages funders to increase the number of multi-year grants supporting the general operating procedures of organizations whose goals are similar to their own.
Senator Grassley Discusses Stricter Legislation for Nonprofits
March 9, 2004, National Public Radio Morning Edition (Washington,
D.C.)
National Public Radio's Bob Edwards talks to Republican Iowa Senator Charles Grassley about proposed legislation to curtail dubious spending practices of some nonprofits and private foundations. Grassley hopes that the proposed legislation—meant to mirror the Sarbanes-Oxley Act—will encourage "voluntary transparency" among tax-exempt charitable organizations. He believes that nonprofits and private foundations are capable of self-regulation and refutes the claim that the legislation will necessarily over-burden these organizations with expensive bureaucratic procedures.
Georgetown's Center for Democracy and Third Sector Sponsor Panel on Homeland
Security, Grantmaking and Charitable Giving
March 11, 2004, Center for Democracy (Washington, D.C.)
In response to the
events of September 11th, the U.S. Government has issued legislation and broad
new guidelines on grant making and charitable giving. The intent of the
regulations is to prevent the financing of terrorist networks and activities.
Yet they have significant implications for the work of foundations, and for
communities whose charitable activities are now subject to new levels of
scrutiny, if not suspicion. In March, Georgetown University's Center for
Democracy and the Third Sector sponsored a panel discussion at the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace. The session's goal was to bring together
scholars, community activists, and former government officials from the U.S. and
the U.K. to discuss how homeland security policies are affecting philanthropy
and charitable giving.
Visit the Council on Foundations' web site for more information on the Treasury Guidelines and how they are affecting foundations.
Driven to Do Good, Youths Help Out in Rising Numbers
March 27, 2004, The Arizona Republic (Phoenix, AZ)
An increase in the number of adolescent and young-adult volunteers forecasts
good things to come as children learn to give back to their communities at a
young age. According to a 2001 study by the Independent Sector, sixty percent of
charitable adults worked as youth volunteers, and experts look forward to the
coming of age of more than 13 million students currently volunteering. Says Sue Kriz,
volunteer coordinator of St. Mary's Food Bank in Phoenix, Arizona: "When I see these
high-school volunteers, I look at them as five or six years away from being
adult volunteers."
Donors Giving a Good Account
March 28, 2004, Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, NY)
New giving options, such as fee-free "charitable checking
accounts" and older stand-bys like donor-advised funds offer donors the chance
to begin a charitable tradition and reap tax benefits well before they retire.
The Rochester Community Foundation reports holding more than 300 charitable
checking accounts, each with a minimum value of $5000. Jennifer Leonard,
president and executive director of the Foundation, has
high hopes for these new charitable vehicles as the economy improves and baby
boomers retire: "Especially with the market coming back up, these are wonderful
vehicles to know about. . .They are very 'no fuss, no muss.'"
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