PhilanTopic

Corporations Pledge Support for Sandy Relief and Recovery Efforts

As officials from North Carolina to New Hampshire continue to assess the damage left by Superstorm Sandy, a number of financial institutions have announced million-dollar grants to the American Red Cross and other organizations for relief and recovery efforts.

As of Wednesday afternoon, the Citi Foundation had announced a donation of $1 million to the American Red Cross for relief efforts, while TD Bank Group and the TD Charitable Foundation had pledged a total of $500,000. HSBC USA also announced a $1 million commitment for disaster recovery efforts, including $500,000 to the American Red Cross in Greater New York, and said it would match dollar-for-dollar all employee donations to relief efforts through its employee giving program and would work with community partners to provide emergency housing and financial assistance in affected communities. And the Bank of America Charitable Foundation announced its own donation of $1 million, including $500,000 to the American Red Cross Hurricanes 2012 fund. The remaining $500,000 will be directed to national, regional, and local nonprofits to support long-term recovery needs in affected communities.

Elsewhere, Wells Fargo & Company pledged $1 million for relief efforts, $250,000 of which will go to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund and $750,000 to grassroots nonprofits involved in relief and recovery efforts in affected areas. In addition, through November 13, Wells customers will be able to donate to the Red Cross at most of the bank's more than twelve thousand ATMs nationwide.

Non-financial companies making donations include energy company Phillips 66, which announced a $500,000 contribution to the Red Cross for local disaster relief operations and said it would match individual employee contributions through its matching gift program; the Kellogg Co., which, through its Corporate Citizenship Fund, announced a $250,000 cash contribution to the American Red Cross and $250,000 worth of food to Feeding America; and Chevrolet, which announced that it was donating fifty Silverado pickup trucks and Express cargo vans to the Red Cross for use in relief and recovery efforts.

As of Tuesday, the Red Cross, in a press release, said it had mobilized 1,700 disaster relief workers from across the country, served more than 25,000 meals and snacks at 250 shelters, activated 167 response vehicles, and shipped more than 230,000 ready-to-eat meals to affected areas.

Bank of America Provides Relief in Wake of Hurricane Sandy
Bank of America Press Release
10/30/12

Chevrolet Donates 50 Trucks to Red Cross for Storm Relief
Chevrolet Press Release
10/30/12

Citi and the Citi Foundation Donate $1 Million to American Red Cross
Citi Foundation Press Release
10/31/12

HSBC Supports Communities, Customers Recovering From Hurricane
HSBC Press Release
10/30/12

Kellogg Co. Donates $500K to Hurricane Relief Efforts
Battle Creek Enquirer
10/30/12

Phillips 66 Contributes to Hurricane Sandy Disaster Relief
Phillips 66 Press Release
10/30/12

Red Cross Continues Large Sandy Relief Operation
American Red Cross Press Release
10/30/12

TD to Donate 500K to American Red Cross to Support Hurricane Sandy Relief Efforts
TD Bank Press Release
10/31/12

Wells Fargo to Give $1 Million to Hurricane Sandy Relief Efforts
Wells Fargo Press Release
10/30/12

Related:

American Red Cross Receives $1 Million for Disaster Training, Preparedness Efforts (9/11/12)

Housing Partnership Network Receives $2.75 Million From Citi Foundation (10/03/11)

Joplin Tornado Relief Efforts Raise $39 Million (5/31/12)

American Red Cross Receives $3 Million for Online Volunteer Management System (4/27/12)

Hurricane Sandy Resource Page

Sandy, the largest storm ever observed in the Atlantic, has moved inland, and local, state, and federal officials are scrambling to assess the damage. The Jersey shore was devastated, as was a neighborhood in the beachfront Queens community of Breezy Point, where more than a hundred and ten homes were destroyed by fire Monday night.

Manhattan (where mass transit and a quarter of the power grid are down) got lucky; if the storm had continued to meander in a northwesterly direction, instead of speeding up and veering sharply to the west, the city would've taken an almost direct hit at high tide under a full moon -- a nightmare scenario.

Still, the damage in the storm's wake is enormous. Countless numbers of trees have been uprooted and millions of people are without power. In some neighborhoods, power won't be restored for weeks, and communities up and down the coast, especially in New Jersey, will be cleaning up for months. Bloomberg estimates that the economic toll from the storm could surpass $20 billion.

We've put together a list of resources for those affected by the storm and/or who are interested in contributing to clean up and recovery efforts. If you know of other resources that should be added, please e-mail us at mfn@foundationcenter.org.

Good luck and speedy recovery to all.

Updated: 10:30 p.m. EST, Friday, November 15

Shelter

To find a Red Cross shelter, download the Red Cross Hurricane app, visit the Red Cross Web site, call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767), text "**REDCROSS" (**73327677), or check their local media outlets.

From the USA.gov blog: To find a shelter near you, text “Shelter” and a zip code to 43362 (example: Shelter 01234). You can also download the FEMA mobile app, which includes a maps/shelter tab.

Donate

AARP Foundation Relief Fund
http://www.aarp.org/aarp-foundation/

American Red Cross
http://www.redcross.org/charitable-donations

Community Foundation for the National Capital Region - Neighbors in Need: Sandy Relief Fund
http://www.thecommunityfoundation.org/

Craigconnects
Using the Crowdrise platform, CraigsList founder Craig Newmark is matching the first $25,000 in donations to Sandy relief efforts. Update: Newmark's $25,000 was matched in a matter of days.

Daily News Hurricane Sandy Relief Fund
New York's "hometown newspaper" has started a Sandy relief fund and pledges that all funds raised will go directly to those in need. Make checks out to Daily News Charities, specify in the memo field or in a note that the donation is for the Hurricane Sandy Relief fund, and mail to:

New York Daily News
4 New York Plaza
New York, NY 10004

Feeding America
http://feedingamerica.org/

Global Giving - Hurricane Sandy Relief Fund
http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/hurricane-sandy-relief-fund/

Great Nonprofits
http://greatnonprofits.org/disaster-response/storm-sandy/

Hurricane Sandy Long Island Disaster Relief Fund
-- Donate online (http://www.newsday.com/sandyrelief), or make a check payable to:

Hurricane Sandy Disaster Relief Newsday Charities Processing Center
25257 Network Place
Chicago, IL 60673-1252

Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City
https://www.nyc.gov/html/fund/html/donate/donate.shtml

New Jersey Recovery Fund
http://cfnj.org/new-jersey-recovery/

Network for Good
http://www1.networkforgood.org/hurricanesandy

North Star Fund's Grassroots Hurricane Relief Fund
http://northstarfund.org/grassroots-hurricane-relief-fund.php

Salvation Army
https://donate.salvationarmyusa.org/disaster

Save the Children - Hurricane Sandy Children in Emergency Fund
http://savethechildren.org/

United Way Hurricane Sandy Recovery Fund
http://unitedwaynyc.org/

Virginia Disaster Relief Fund
https://payments.vi.virginia.gov/donatenow

Foodbanks

City Harvest
http://www.cityharvest.org/donate-funds/

Community Foodbank of New Jersey
http://www.njfoodbank.org/

Met Council
http://www.metcouncil.org

Food Bank for NYC
http://www.foodbanknyc.org/

Island Harvest
http://www.islandharvest.org/

Long Island Cares
http://www.licares.org/

Sustainable Long Island
http://sustainableli.org/

Funders

Center for Disaster Philanthropy
http://disasterphilanthropy.org/

Council on Foundations' Disaster Grantmaking page
http://www.cof.org/events/Disasters.cfm

Conrad N. Hilton Foundation - Philanthropic Grantmaking for Disasters
http://www.hiltonfoundation.org/images/stories/Impact/InPracticeRpts/In_Practice_Philanthropic_Grantmaking_for_Disaster_2011.pdf

Haiti Relief

Hurricane Sandy Emergency Outreach - Haiti
http://www.americares.org/

Mobile Donations

Text HUMANE to 80888 to donate $10 on behalf of the American Humane Association

Text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10 on behalf of the American Red Cross

Text SANDY to 80088 to donate $10 on behalf of Global Giving

Text STORM to 80888 to donate $10 on behalf of the Salvation Army

Text SUSTAIN to 20222 and reply YES to donate $10 on behalf of the Met Council

Text RECOVERY to 52000 to donate $10 on behalf of United Way Hurricane Sandy Recovery Fund

Text GIVEUSA to 777444 to donate $10 on behalf of World Vision

Volunteer Opportunities

NYC Service
https://www.facebook.com/nycservice

Other Resources, Disaster Assistance

Federal Emergency Management Agency
http://www.fema.gov/disasters

Brooklynites who sustained property damage in Hurricane Sandy can apply for funds from FEMA. To request federal aid, register at disasterassistance.gov, or call (800) 621–3362. The agency asks that applicants have their address, insurance information, and social security number ready. (Source: The Brooklyn Paper)

New Jersey Office of Emergency Management
http://www.state.nj.us/njoem/

New York City Mayor's Office
http://www.nyc.gov/

New York City Office of Emergency Management
http://www.nyc.gov/html/oem/

New York City Transit Tracker
http://transportationnation.org/2012/10/28/hurricane-sandy-what-you-need-to-know-for-transit-and-travel-in-nyc-area/

New York State Office of Emergency Management
http://www.dhses.ny.gov/oem/

Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management
http://oem.readyphiladelphia.org/RelId/606683/ISvars/default/Home.htm

Twitter's Hurricane Sandy Resource List
http://blog.twitter.com/2012/10/hurricane-sandy-resources-on-twitter.html

Weekend Link Roundup (October 27-28, 2012)

Our weekly roundup of new and noteworthy posts from and about the nonprofit sector....

Climate Change

Bridgespan Group manager Chris Addy says that if the federal government won't address climate change at the policy level, at-risk communities may need to rely on the generosity of private philanthropies like the San Diego Foundation for support. He goes on to list "five powerful pathways for philanthropic funders to invest in climate adaptation":

1. support local science and local scientists;
2. invest in neutral conveners;
3. build the field of climate adaptation;
4. re-frame adaptation around equity; and
5. support advocacy.

Leadership

On the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation blog, David Grant, who was president and CEO of the foundation from 1998 to 2010, writes about a board leadership training in which he put off using the "a-word" -- assessment -- and asked the participants to envision what success for their organizations would look like in progressively specific terms. The participants discussed their answers with one another, then repeated the exercise but this time described what success would look like at an even higher level. Grant writes:

I was talking about building an assessment culture. And without using the word "rubric," the teams from each organization had begun to build one, as they discussed...what criteria they would [use to] measure success and began to meld together their visions of what success would look like at various levels. They were beginning to create a clear, specific, shared vision they could plan backwards from -- and one they could use to give and receive feedback in time for the feedback to be useful.

My contention has always been that the word "assessment" needs to be rehabilitated. We have all experienced assessment so many times in our lives...as something that comes at the end and judges our past performance that we have trouble assuming it could be something that happens all along and improves our performance. But it can be. Coaches know that. Teachers of performing arts know that. And leaders of nonprofit organizations can know it, too, once they establish some basic principles and some new habits with their colleagues....

Philanthropy

"How we use data, how we control our own data, how we respect the rights of others regarding their data -- these are defining issues for our age," writes Lucy Bernholz on her Philanthropy 2173 blog. "They are fundamentally questions about rights and power. Which means, somewhat ironically, they are questions for civil society and philanthropy (as well as government and business)...."

In the first installment of a new Deep Social Impact blog series, the Philanthropic Initiative's Ellen Remmer outlines some of the positive aspects of a family foundation -- it creates a family legacy, strengthens family bonds, and connects and educates the family about the larger world -- while acknowledging that this type of giving is not for every family.

In a guest post on the Idealist blog, Christine Egger shares a few takeaways from the 2012 Social Capital Markets conference, which this year addressed how the philanthropic sector can be "a valued partner in seeding and strengthening a social market that has yet to realize its full potential."

Transparency

And on the Foundation Center's Transparency Talk blog, David Hall-Matthews of Publish What You Fund shares findings from the 2012 Aid Transparency Index, which found "a slow but steady improvement in global aid transparency."

That's it for now. What did we miss? Drop us a line at rnm@foundationcenter.org. And be safe!

-- The Editors

[Infographic] Nonprofits’ Impact on the Economy

Our infographic of the week, courtesy the Rebecca Gordon Group, delves into a topic that has been much-discussed this election season: nonprofits' impact on the economy.

 

According to the National Center for Charitable Statistics, the nonprofit sector contributes 5.5 percent of the nation's entire GDP, or $751 billion worth of output, and employed, as of 2009, 13.5 million individuals, or approximately 10 percent of the country's workforce.

(Independent Sector has a fact sheet on its Web site that lays out the sector's impact in much greater detail.)

Now, some would argue that statistics like these overstate the sector's impact, in that they fail to capture the extent to which the sector relies on tax-advantaged wealth transfers and the difference, in terms of the multiplier effect, between transfer payments and earned income. What's your take on that distinction? And, as we head into an election that could significantly reset the way the nonprofit sector is treated in the federal tax code, how would you characterize the sector's impact on the economy?

Share your thoughts in the comments section below...

Give Us Your Tired, Your Poor…Your Grants Data

(Jeff Falkenstein is vice president of data architecture at the Foundation Center.)

To say that Jeff Raikes' announcement of the launch of Markets for Good was big news is an understatement. Raikes' call to improve the philanthropic information infrastructure and support the quality of and access to data speaks to the core of the Foundation Center's mission and vision. The center, along with fifteen partner foundations, recently made a big announcement of its own when it launched the Reporting Commitment, a movement to improve the transparency of, and reduce duplication among, foundations through the adoption of common reporting standards and a consistent geographic taxonomy. Needless to say, these two developments have the potential to significantly impact the future of the philanthropic sector.

For over fifty years, the Foundation Center has aggregated information on U.S. foundations pulled from publicly available 990-PF tax returns, annual reports, press releases, foundation Web sites, and other information sources. In addition to offering this data through the Foundation Directory Online, the center features it in its many research reports and issue-based portals, and has taken steps to incorporate it into grants management software as well as reports and portals developed with a number of foundations and other partners. Much of the value the center adds to the information we collect comes from an intensive review of hundreds of thousands of grants made by foundations from around the world. The center also identifies the recipients of those grants: who they are, what they do, where they (generally) work, and which populations they (generally) serve. Additional analysis is done to understand the purpose of the grant, the subject area funded, the type of support provided, the specific population and geographic area served by the grant, and the strategy behind it.

One of the biggest challenges of our work -- and the critique of our products and services we hear most often -- is directly related to the fact that it's difficult to get our hands on foundation data quickly enough to make these tools as useful as they need to be for program officers, researchers, academics, grantseekers, and others. Our response to this criticism has been to encourage foundations to report their grants data directly to us. In 1998, the center established its eGrant Reporting program, a set of standards for foundations to report data electronically to us via participating grants management software systems or through a self-created Excel file. Using the grants management software of their choice, foundations can generate Excel spreadsheets of their grants in a standardized format and e-mail them directly to us. Receiving grants information electronically in a consistent format enables us to process and publish the data in a more timely fashion, while giving foundations more control over how we represent their grantmaking and communicate their work to the world. The nearly seven hundred and fifty foundations currently participating in the program are able to report their grants in near-real-time and have that data uploaded to all the Foundation Center products and platforms where the data is featured. But while the program has been an important first step toward greater transparency in the sector, we’ve only scratched the surface.

Over the last few years, the center has been working with its foundation and grant management software partners to make it easier for foundations to report their data to us in a more timely fashion. In 2010, the center acquired Grantsfire and hGrant, an HTML-based micro-format grant reporting system, and adapted it to fully complement our existing eGrant reporting program. Grant feeds published by any foundation using the hGrant Reporting program are available to the public, for free, at Glasspockets.org, our transparency-focused Web site. Indeed, the hGrant system is at the heart of the Reporting Commitment initiative announced by the center and its fifteen foundation partners.

But the hGrant system is only a start. In the coming months, we will be developing xGrant, an XML-based machine-readable version of our eGrant Reporting standard that will allow for a more flexible and easily adapted standard beyond the current hGrant micro-format. We also will be surveying our software vendor partners about their preferred export method. Why offer three ways to report grants data? Because we recognize that foundations do things differently and have varying degrees of capacity, and we want to give them every opportunity to report their grants data in the most convenient way possible.

What's more, we are working to refine the eGrant reporting standard to align with other global reporting standards, including those developed by the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Why is this important? Because in order to get a holistic picture of how and where philanthropy complements international aid/bilateral organization/donor government financial flows, our standard needs to align with existing standards. To that end, we invite any and all standard-setting organizations and bodies to share their standards and taxonomies with us so we can map them to the eGrant standard. Creating "crosswalks" between standards will allow for deeper analysis of the full spectrum of development flows and contribute to greater collaboration among public, private, and philanthropic actors.

To demonstrate the usefulness of submitting data to the center in a standard format, we have been providing participating foundations with free maps of their grants -- maps that can be shared with their boards, staff, or deployed on their Web sites. Maps aside, we firmly believe that foundations which share their grants data via the eGrant Reporting program are also joining a larger conversation around transparency and open data, are putting themselves in a position to teach and learn from each other, and, as articulated by my colleague Larry McGill in the latest issue of Alliance magazine, are taking a significant step toward working more collaboratively and effectively.

New and powerful tools like WASHfunders, a Web portal for funders working to address the world's water crisis, and Philanthropy In/Sight Human Rights, an interactive mapping tool that displays grant funding for human rights issues, as well as studies like European Funding for Women and Girls are just a few examples of the ways in which foundations and funder coalitions are harnessing taxonomies and standards to forge a shared understanding of their work. The Foundation Center is delighted to contribute to this effort by offering products and services that can help funders and funder coalitions achieve their goals in this area. We encourage you to join us.

-- Jeff Falkenstein

Interested in becoming part of the eGrant Reporting community? Leave a comment below or contact Jeff at eGrants@foundationcenter.org.

Young Black Males and the Urgency of Now

(John H. Jackson is president and CEO of the Schott Foundation for Public Education, a grantmaking public charity that works to develop and strengthen a broad-based movement to achieve fully resourced quality public education. Before joining Schott, Jackson served as the NAACP's chief policy officer and national director of education and, during the Clinton administration, as senior policy advisor in the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education.)

In April 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King reminded the country that "We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now....Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity....Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words, 'Too late'." Forty-five years later, after reviewing the data on graduation rates for black and Latino males and in the spirit of Dr. King’s warning, the Schott Foundation for Public Education titled the 2012 edition of its biennial fifty-state report on public education and black males The Urgency of Now.

The report indicates that nationally 52 percent of black males, 58 percent of Latino males, and 78 percent of white males graduate from high school in four years. To place this data in context, it is predicted that nearly two-thirds of all new jobs will require some college education -- yet just over half of black male students complete high school. And the graduation gap has closed only three percentage points in the last decade. At the current rate of progress, it would take nearly fifty years for black males in the United States to graduate at the same rate as their white male peers.

For decades, community leaders and policy makers have celebrated the victories of those who beat the odds while too often ignoring the fact that the odds are still overwhelmingly stacked against nearly half our nation's black males. The data in the report are not chance facts of life; they are the results, if we are totally honest, of the willful neglect of decision-makers at all levels, from governors to legislators, from mayors to boards of education.

Let me be clear. I am highlighting these sobering statistics not merely to be critical of past actions, but to draw attention to the fact that much more in the way of providing systemic supports for young black males needs to be done.

The Schott Foundation firmly believes that all students can achieve when given a fair and substantive opportunity to learn. And philanthropy can help change the trajectory for students whom the system is failing. While it should not, and does not have the capacity to, replace local, state, and federal agencies in providing every student with equal access to educational opportunity, philanthropy can and must play a leading role in investing resources in advocacy; in ensuring that public resources are appropriately leveraged and equitably distributed; and in helping to sustain grassroots organizations working to forge a public and political consensus around giving every child an opportunity to learn.

Perhaps uniquely, foundations, especially regional foundations, can convene grassroots organizers, elected officials, educators, administrators, and community members to spotlight educational disparities in their states and communities. They can support the research needed to persuade state legislatures to equalize funding across districts. And they can act to buttress the public resolve needed to end discriminatory practices in schools, in the criminal justice system, and in our tax code.

It is time for a supports-centered reform agenda focused on providing every student with equal access to the resources they need to succeed, including high-quality extended learning time, early education, and challenging personalized educational plans for every child that is performing a year or more below grade level. We also must do more to recruit and retain effective teachers, particularly in high-need classrooms; implement college and career preparatory curricula in underresourced schools; and end "push out" tactics such as the routine and discriminatory use of out-of-school suspensions, as well as the practice of "locking out" black students from selective high schools and gifted and talented and Advanced Placement programs.

The Urgency of Now calls for the adoption of "game-changer" narratives and policy proposals. Setting standards and supporting existing programs are not game-changers. For our children and nation to win the education race, all students must be able to compete on a level playing field, with access to the resources and student-centered learning approaches they need to succeed, regardless of their starting point. Philanthropy can and must do more to make that a reality. And its commitment to the issue must be sustained. As Shawn Dove, director of the Open Society Foundation's Campaign for Black Male Achievement says, "Philanthropy can't seek to solve generational problems within one grant cycle." Foundations must provide unrestricted grants that enable the organizational capacity building needed to sustain advocacy work until the problem is fixed. And we need more systems-focused work -- work like the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Grade Level Reading Campaign, the Ford Foundation's Time to Succeed Coalition, and the Lumina Foundation's Goal 2025 Campaign.

We all know that the way out of poverty runs through the schoolhouse door, but today for too many black students those doors only serve as a barrier. Here at the Schott Foundation, it is our hope that philanthropy, the media, policy makers, and advocates will not only take notice of the alarming data in The Urgency of Now, but will seek to integrate the proposals offered in the report to provide every student with the critical resources they need to succeed in school and in life. Before it's too late.

-- John Jackson

On 'Networked Nonprofits' and Measurement: A 'Flip' Chat With Beth Kanter

(The short videos below were recorded as part of our "Flip" chat series of conversations with thought leaders in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors. You can check out other videos in the series here, including our previous chat with Dr. Michael Durnil, president and CEO of the Simon Youth Foundation.)

At a recent Foundation Center event, Beth Kanter, the "Queen of Nonprofits," explained to a full house that "if you want to create change, you have to be networked, use data, and [work to] make sense of your data." Indeed, that's the message of her most recent book, Measuring the Networked Nonprofit: Using Data to Change the World, which she co-wrote with Katie Delahaye Paine, the "Goddess of Measurement."

Before the event got under way, I had a chance to chat with Kanter about the new book as well as The Networked Nonprofit: Connecting With Social Media to Drive Change, the earlier book she co-wrote with Allison Fine. (Click here for our 2010 "Flip" chat with Fine. )

In part one of a two-part conversation, we asked Kanter to describe the hallmarks of a "networked nonprofit" and share the seven steps of measurement for a networked organization. In the video, she also explains why she feels the "measure everything" approach is misguided and what internal advocates for more measurement can do to get their skeptical colleagues on board.

(If you're reading this in an e-mail, click here.)

  

(Running time: 6 minutes, 24 seconds)

In part two, Kanter talks about how nonprofits can deepen their relationships with constituents; the theory-of-change method to network measurement and how it can help an organization communicate the value of its social media efforts; and some of the tools time-constrained nonprofit leaders can use to do measurement more effectively.

  

(Running time: 5 minutes, 34 seconds)

Does your nonprofit measure its social networking activities? If not, why not? And if you are, how do you communicate the value of that activity to staff, constituents, and stakeholders? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

-- Regina Mahone

Weekend Link Roundup (October 20-21, 2012)

Our weekly roundup of new and noteworthy posts from and about the nonprofit sector....

Communications/Marketing

Network for Good's Katya Andresen offers "five tectonic technology shifts changing our world, our work, and our potential," including the "messenger shift," in which one's peers are now the most influential and amplified messengers in a person's life; the "social action shift"; and the "message shift," where a single message for everyone is no longer enough.

Diversity

On her BlackGivesBack blog, Tracey Webb announces the most recent winners of the D5 coalition's Insights on Diversity grants.

Health

How is "big data" changing health and health care? Steve Downs, chief technology and information officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, chats with a colleague about the latest trends in the use of health-related data at both the personal and population level and the promise these innovations hold for the future.

Higher Education

Guest blogging on the James Irvine Foundation blog, Lisa García Bedolla, an associate professor at UC Berkeley, argues that trends in college completion rates in "Latino heavy" California have "important economic consequences for California and the United States as a whole." Unfortunately, "at a time when the state needs to be investing more in the education of its children," writes Garcia Bedolla,

California is caught in the worst budget crisis it has faced since the Great Depression, resulting in unprecedented disinvestment in the social safety net needed to address these structural disparities. That is where private philanthropy, like the James Irvine Foundation, may be able to step in. In an era of dysfunction within public institutions, perhaps the future lies in public-private partnerships geared towards addressing the cumulative disadvantage that lies at the heart of these inequalities. Children in poverty face a number of developmental challenges, rooted in inadequate prenatal care, nutrition, access to health care, quality housing and early-learning opportunities, before they even enter kindergarten. Institutions like the James Irvine Foundation have the ability to address those many structures of inequality by supporting holistic solutions that bridge the traditional silos and focus resources in the places where youth live, simultaneously addressing the numerous cumulative inequalities that negatively affect youths life chances....

Impact Investing

Writing in Alliance magazine, Sarah Gelfand, director of the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to increasing the scale and effectiveness of impact investing, shares some thoughts about the role that data can play in mobilizing additional resources for the solution of social and environmental problems.

Manhattan borough president Scott Stringer has floated a proposal to create a social impact bond to pay for expanded access to the Early Head Start program, and the implication, says the Nonprofit Quarterly's Rick Cohen, is that the approach will protect "the wallets of hard-pressed taxpayers." Is this "smart policy," asks Cohen, or just the "latest positioning of social enterprise...as an approach to governing that is less costly than the old-fashioned notion of taxpayer-funded government programs"? Good question, Rick.

Philanthropy

In a post on her Philanthropy 2173 blog, Lucy Bernholz shares a list of things we can no longer assume -- no one in the room has a video camera, every American wants to own a car, we will work until we retire, among them -- as a way to "help us see how different the world we live in now is from the world for which we created many of our institutional philanthropic and nonprofit practices, purposes, and regulations."

Social Media

"[Y]ou can no longer truly separate your personal life from your professional life on social media," writes Rosetta Thurman in a recent post on her blog. "We are...definitely in the era of online integrity. And no matter how scary it seems, this is a very good thing." Do you agree?

Volunteerism

And on the Idealist.org blog, Allison Jones has some advice for people who have surveyed the nonprofit landscape and are interested in creating their own volunteer opportunity.

That's it for now. What did we miss? Drop us a line at rnm@foundationcenter.org. And have a great week!

-- The Editors

'Funding for the Arts' Month: Arts and Community Engagement

(Kyoko Uchida is features editor at Philanthropy News Digest. In her last post, she provided some background on the deteriorating situation in Syria through the lens of half a dozen foundation-sponsored publications.)

In a commentary piece on Philanthropy News Digest earlier this month, Sharon DeMark, a program officer for the arts at Minnesota Philanthropy Partners, argued for expanding the definition of arts engagement in grantmaking. While citing examples of arts institutions that are experimenting with new ways to attract younger and more diverse audiences, DeMark also noted that the lion's share of grant dollars goes to a handful of large, established organizations, and that there is ample opportunity for funders to identify and support smaller, lesser-known groups and individual artists.

One example mentioned by DeMark that elicited comment was the Walker Arts Center's recent Internet Cat Video Festival, which showcased short videos curated by an online community from among more than ten thousand submissions. "Think expansively, yes," one comment on DeMark's piece read. "Pander to the lowest common denominators and call it the arts, no." Fair enough, but if the subject hadn't been cat videos, would this kind of crowdsourcing be considered "pandering"? Whatever your view of cat videos, there are any number of contests in which the public are invited to vote for their favorite arts organization to receive funding; for example, five South Florida nonprofit arts groups currently are competing for votes via text message to win $20,000 in the first Knight Arts Challenge People's Choice Awards. While it goes without saying that online popularity contests are in many ways a flawed mechanism for awarding philanthropic support, they have been shown to engage more diverse audiences in the arts by giving them a say in directing support to less established groups and artists.

I believe in art for art's sake, but isn't support for broad participation in the arts important because it sustains us, not only as individuals but as a community? In other words, active engagement in the arts by more diverse audiences not only is a way to ensure the long-term sustainability of arts organizations, it also serves to strengthen community and social cohesion by enabling different segments of society to experience together how various cultures define, make, and enjoy art. To wit, the James Irvine Foundation's new arts funding strategy aims "to promote engagement in the arts for all Californians -- the kind that embraces and advances the diverse ways that we experience the arts, and that strengthens our ability to thrive together in a dynamic and complex social environment." Specifically, the foundation seeks to grow and deepen arts engagement among low-income and/or ethnically diverse populations that have been traditionally underserved by arts nonprofits; support new ways of creating or curating art, including via digital technology; and encourage the use of non-traditional spaces in art making.

As DeMark noted in her commentary, more grantmakers also are coming to recognize the role the arts play in economic development and community revitalization. As documented by Americans for the Arts in its Arts & Economic Prosperity series, the nonprofit arts sector generates significant revenues, both direct and indirect, for communities in which those activities take place. But it also contributes to a stronger sense of social cohesion. Indeed, according to Civic Health and Unemployment II: The Case Builds, a report from the National Conference on Citizenship, communities with a robust ecosystem of nonprofit organizations that engage directly with residents tend to have lower unemployment rates.

In exploring how a broader definition of arts engagement can help strengthen communities, we should also consider how arts participation affects educational outcomes. According to The Arts and Achievement in At-Risk Youth: Findings From Four Longitudinal Studies, a report from the National Endowment for the Arts, socially and economically disadvantaged youth who are exposed to and involved in the arts earn better grades, graduate from college at higher rates, and are more likely to volunteer, vote, and participate in politics as adults than their peers with little exposure to the arts. Given that budgets for arts education in public schools are under pressure, support for broad participation at the community level in non-traditional venues and formats -- including inviting the public to submit art, curate the work of others, and vote for funding online -- is an essential element of philanthropic efforts to bolster community vitality and economic development.

What do you think about expanding participation in the arts as a way to strengthen broader engagement in the community? Does engagement in the arts foster economic resilience in local communities? And if it does, are private funders doing enough to make it happen? Use the comments section below to share your thoughts....

-- Kyoko Uchida

(Image: Irrigate, a partnership between the City of Saint Paul, Twin Cities Local Initiatives Support Corporation, and Springboard for the Arts)

 

Preparing Students for College and Careers

(Jessica Pliska is the founder and executive director of The Opportunity Network, an intensive, six-year program designed to equal the playing field for high-achieving underserved high school and college students on the road to college and career success.)

The son of a mail courier and a homemaker, Eric Santiago is the first generation in his family to go to college. He grew up in a low-income family in the Fordham section of the Bronx. When his acceptance letter to Columbia University arrived, Eric made history, becoming the first student from his high school to ever gain admission to the Ivy League.

At Columbia, Eric was unprepared for the academic rigor. "I didn't even know what office hours were, let alone how to use them," he remembers. Assigned The Odyssey in freshman English, he found that many of his classmates had already read it -- in sixth grade. He learned to hold his own with students from tony prep schools who wore designer clothing to class while his blue jeans were stapled together. In his last semester, a financial aid snafu almost prevented him from registering for classes. Less resilient students drop out in the face of similar challenges.

Eric negotiated these situations, graduated in May, and recently landed his first job. But this makes him unusual -- only 10 percent of low-income students graduate college. This number is even more staggering when you consider how many more low-income students are starting college.

It's easy to blame academic unpreparedness or lack of financial resources, both critical issues. But according to a recent study by the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education, "even after taking their demographic backgrounds, enrollment characteristics, and academic preparation into consideration, low-income and first-generation students are still at greater risk of failure" – an indication that "the problem is as much the result of [their] experiences during college as it is attributable to the experiences they have before they enroll." Indeed, while a student's academic or financial problems may seem trivial, the smallest of mishaps can spiral into debilitating problems, no matter how much the student wants to succeed.

That's why, in addition to academic preparation and financial aid, these students need a set of skills not taught in urban public schools, skills like problem-solving and self-advocacy. They need to build professional networks, cultivate mentors, and learn to manage the diversity of their new environments. Sounds simple, right? It isn't.

But it is only by teaching these skills that we will move beyond an episodic approach to education reform in which educators, funders, and policy makers focus sequentially on reducing high school dropout rates, then on improving college access, and finally on boosting college completion rates. Because, let's remember: College is not the final destination.

We need to prepare students with the skills they need not only for educational success but also for achieving their end goals -- including productive and rewarding careers.

That's why innovative new initiatives are working to ensure both college and career success. The Opportunity Network levels the playing field for high-achieving underserved high school and college students by creating access for them to career opportunities, professional networks, and competitive colleges. Our students have a 100 percent college graduation rate within six years, and 85 percent within four.

At the Opportunity Network, we make a six-year investment in our students' success. From the summer after a high school student's sophomore year through college graduation, Opportunity Network students receive comprehensive training in our "Career Fluency" curriculum, which includes career content, professional etiquette, college access and transition, and networks and social capital. That last piece ensures that they graduate with an extraordinary early network of influential people across a broad spectrum of industries.

To prepare for the transition to college, high school seniors go through an experiential college transition curriculum filled with problem scenarios in which they experience the frustrations and fears they are likely to encounter in college and work with their peers to find solutions to those problems. So when they feel that frustration, fear, or isolation on campus, they are able to recognize and work through it, rather than shut down and allow the problem to escalate beyond solution.

Many foundations are overhauling their strategies to figure out the best way to transition from support for college access to college and career success. Here are some approaches they should consider:

Expose students to the college environment as early as possible so they build self-confidence. Help them navigate a mock college campus. Have them learn through trial and error that a problem with their college credits is not handled at the credit union, or to ask the bursar's office for help if their registration is blocked because their government grant "hasn't come through," rather than miss three weeks of class waiting for a check to come in.

Relationships, and the social capital they create, can be game-changers. Eighty percent of job seekers find their jobs through a "hidden job market" —i.e., word of mouth. We need to help students at the high school level cultivate skills to create, sustain, and leverage personal and professional networks, and it starts with summer jobs or internships. Make no mistake: Learning how to build a network is a critical asset in college, one that students can use to find people to join a study group, pursue summer internships, or simply ask for help when they need it.

Encourage engagement and build communities on campus, both of which correlate to college success. Low-income students can feel disoriented at elite colleges and universities. They may feel uncomfortable making friends and getting involved in campus activities. We force our students to confront stereotypes of all kinds. We examine, discuss, and debate issues of race and class on campus, and the curriculum design spurs those conversations to be intense and personal, just as they will be on campus.

This approach requires educators to build the skills that young people need not only for college completion but also for career success. If funders invest in programs that teach students to solve real-world problems, build communities and social capital, and gain the confidence to advocate for themselves, many more low-income students like Eric will graduate and move on to rewarding careers.

And where is Eric today? He's the college success program assistant at the Opportunity Network, where he advises students on how to manage the transition to college.

-- Jessica Pliska

Whither Livestrong? 5 Questions for...Leslie Lenkowsky

After years in the public eye, first as a world-famous athlete who won the grueling Tour de France, the crown jewel of international cycling, a record seven consecutive times, and subsequently for his central role in a still-unfolding doping scandal, American Lance Armstrong, a cancer survivor, resigned on Wednesday as chairman of Livestrong, the cancer charity he founded some fifteen years ago. Hours later, Nike, one of Armstrong's biggest sponsors, dropped him as a spokesperson -- and was soon joined by half a dozen other Armstrong sponsors.

Earlier today, PND spoke with Leslie Lenkowsky, professor of public affairs and philanthropic studies at the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs, about the Armstrong scandal and its likely effect on Livestrong. Lenkowsky, who writes and speaks frequently about nonprofit management and governance issues, has served as a researcher at the American Enterprise Institute, as president of the Hudson Institute and the Philanthropy Roundtable, and as CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service.

Philanthropy News Digest: Which surprises you more: Lance Armstrong's decision to step down as chair of Livestrong, formerly known as the Lance Armstrong Foundation, or the fact he waited till now?

Leslie Lenkowsky: That he waited until now. In fact, leadership of the organization has been passing from him to others for quite a long time. Stepping down now inevitably makes his decision look like it's related to the doping accusations. Since he is planning to stay on the board, he would have done better to make the transition earlier. But in many nonprofits, founders have a way of staying a bit too long.

PND: Close association with a celebrity can be a slippery slope for an organization, especially when the celebrity's name is on the letterhead. Do you think Livestrong's efforts to broaden its appeal beyond Armstrong will be enough to keep it from seeing a significant drop in its revenues?

LL: Yes. Livestrong has a very diversified base of support, lots of members and chapters, good national partners, and, most importantly, a well-developed set of programs. It has long since outgrown its association with Armstrong, and while his troubles may weaken his value for the organization's events and in other ways, they won't produce a significant drop in revenues.

PND: What does Livestrong need to do to minimize the damage from its association with Armstrong?

LL: Continue doing what it has been doing: creating a strong nonprofit organization. Strong and clearly independent board leadership is especially important right now.

PND: This year, we've seen two major funders of cancer research, Livestrong and Susan G. Komen for the Cure, take very public hits in the media. Will the negative publicity around Livestrong and Komen affect the work and reputations of other cancer-related organizations?

LL: No. Cancer is a serious problem that affects large numbers of Americans. The problems of Komen were very different from those Livestrong has faced, and the organizations themselves operate differently from others in the field. So, I don't see a spillover effect.

PND: Will Lance Armstrong ever again be an effective spokesperson for Livestrong and cancer research more generally?

LL: Yes. Despite the accusations of his using performance-enhancing drugs, Armstrong did, in fact, survive cancer -- remember, at the time he was diagnosed his treatment was very experimental -- and he has gone on to live a productive life. Even if his victories are now tainted, having competed in the Tour de France at all is no small accomplishment for a cancer survivor. That is Livestrong's core message, and he still embodies it.

-- Matt Sinclair

A 'Retail' Solution to the Dropout Crisis: A 'Flip' Chat With Dr. Michael Durnil, President/CEO, Simon Youth Foundation

(This video was recorded as part of our "Flip" chat series of conversations with thought leaders in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors. You can check out other videos in the series here, including our previous chat with Jake Porway, founder and executive director of DataKind.)

In 1983, a blue-ribbon commission tasked with assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the American educational system arrived at the following conclusion: "Knowledge, learning, information, and skilled intelligence are the new raw materials of international commerce and are today spreading throughout the world as vigorously as miracle drugs, synthetic fertilizers, and blue jeans did earlier. If only to keep and improve on the slim competitive edge we still retain in world markets, we must dedicate ourselves to the reform of our educational system for the benefit of all -- old and young alike, affluent and poor, majority and minority. Learning is the indispensable investment required for success in the 'information age' we are entering...."

Three decades after A Nation at Risk, the report based on the commission's work, was released to the public, the American educational system is struggling to keep pace with a variety of powerfully disruptive trends, from globalization and rapid technological change, to growing inequality and the country's changing demographics. One thing everyone agrees on, however, is that the system fails far too many kids. How we address that failure and create an educational system that is more equitable, flexible, and affordable is the great challenge of our time. There are no easy answers. But one thing is clear: innovation and experimentation will be on the test.

Recently, PND spoke with Dr. Michael Durnil, president and CEO of the Indianapolis-based Simon Youth Foundation, a national nonprofit that works to reduce the school dropout rate and increase college access, about Simon Youth Academies, the foundation's signature program. Located primarily in malls owned by Simon Property Group, Simon Youth Academies are non-traditional high schools that give at-risk students the same education they would receive in a traditional classroom but in a flexible environment.

(If you're reading this in an e-mail, click here.)

 

(Running time: 6 minutes, 10 seconds)

Have you seen a Simon Youth Academy or similar educational model in action? What was your impression? And what are some of the other promising educational experiments out there? Use the comments section below to share your thoughts....

-- Mitch Nauffts

Of Fire Trucks, Obama, Romney and Philanthropy

(Bradford K. Smith is president of the Foundation Center. In his last post, he announced the launch of the Reporting Commitment, an effort initiated by a group of the largest U.S. foundations to develop more timely, accurate, and precise reporting on the flow of philanthropic dollars.)

"I live in a rural community where the Tea Party dominates, no new taxes can be passed without a super majority, and government is cutting back on everything. The other day someone asked me how I can help the fire station find money to buy a new fire truck. What do I tell him?"

I was recently asked that question by a librarian at "Network Days," an annual live/virtual gathering of the librarians, nonprofit resource center administrators, and community foundation leaders that are the human face of the Foundation Center's Cooperating Collection Network. In all fifty states and fourteen countries around the world, CCs help struggling nonprofits, those who want to create nonprofits, and people who want to work in nonprofits connect with the resources they need. Except when there are no resources to be found.

Despite being president of the Foundation Center, the world's largest source of information on organized philanthropy, my response to that librarian's question was pretty feeble. All I could really muster is a few words to the effect that, around the country, there are small, local foundations which, on occasion, are willing to contribute to the purchase of a fire truck, an ambulance, emergency medical equipment, and the like. You can find some of them through the Foundation Directory Online or by searching 990-PF tax returns. Most of them don't have Web sites.

Another librarian asked me what she could say to the five hundred people who will lose their jobs next year when a factory in town closes. On that one I was able to muster a slightly less feeble answer, in that there are more foundations willing to fund job training, enterprise creation, and advocacy than there are foundations willing to contribute to the purchase of a fire truck.

Every day, these librarians ask people, "How can I help you?" And in return, they get questions like these. Of course, they listen, they empathize, and they struggle to come up with good answers. But good answers are increasingly difficult to come by. My job is all about philanthropy, not about business or government. I know foundations are concerned about government continuing to retreat from education, health care, and social services, and that legislators and many others expect philanthropy to pick up the tab. On the face of it, that's preposterous: the resources of even the largest American foundations are a rounding error in the federal budget. And channeling foundation dollars into basic service provision would kill off the independence, creativity, and risk taking that makes philanthropy so valuable to society.

But as much as I would love to see the fire truck question put to President Obama and Governor Romney in one of the next two debates, that ain't gonna happen. No matter which candidate wins in November, he will be faced with deciding what government will not fund, as an over-leveraged economy struggles through an anemic recovery. Meanwhile, the private sector will continue to shutter factories, locate them overseas, or create new ones at home that are heavy on technology but light on workers.

So that leaves philanthropy. The good news is that philanthropy, in the U.S. and around the globe, is a growth industry. The world economy is manufacturing billionaires at a record pace, and thanks to efforts like the Giving Pledge, more of them are embracing the notion of giving back. But those of us who work in philanthropy need to do more than just wring our hands over concerns that government may start telling foundations what to do with their money.

What, you ask?

First, foundations can fund more advocacy. Great Recession notwithstanding, there is still a lot of money sloshing around the public sector, and every year some of it goes to pork and some of it flows to organizations and causes championed by special interests. As Bill Clinton was fond of saying, politics is a contact sport, and advocates interested in public support for vital community services need resources to stay in the game.

Second, foundations can support and even lead efforts to foster broad public dialogue about how best to piece together a social safety net that works and is sustainable. Until the paralyzing rhetorical divide between the ideologies of "big government" and the "magic of the market" is bridged, families and communities will continue to crash through growing gaps in the frayed social safety net.

Third, foundations can support sustained social innovation. Now, innovation alone will not solve all the large-scale societal challenges we face, but it has the potential to create breakthroughs that lead to entirely new and less expensive ways of addressing those challenges.

Fourth, foundations can be more forthcoming with data and information about the good work they do. If nothing else, this will make it much easier for a rural librarian in Idaho or Arkansas or Wyoming to help the local volunteer fire department locate resources to buy that fire truck. And it will also make it easier for foundations to see what others are doing so that there can be a lot less duplication than exists today and a bit more impact.

Fifth, foundations can support local libraries. Libraries have been the information backbone of this country for more than a hundred years, and librarians, the original data scientists, take their responsibilities seriously. America is filled with people who still believe that hard work, optimism, and cooperation can save and improve their communities. When librarians have the courage to ask them, "How can I help you?" we need to be sure they have good answers at hand.

-- Brad Smith

Weekend Link Roundup (October 13-14, 2012)

Our weekly roundup of new and noteworthy posts from and about the nonprofit sector....

Communications/Marketing

In a guest post on the Communication Network blog, Hattaway Communication's Doug Hattaway shares a couple of insights based on psychology and neuroscience into how people make decisions:

Insight 1: Two mental systems work together to drive decision-making and behavior. Effective communications influence both intuition and cognition -- encouraging instant intuitive judgments and enabling fluent cognitive reasoning.

Insight 2: People are more likely to trust information that they easily understand. "Fluency" theory holds that if people readily comprehend an idea or information, they are more likely to believe it. Being easy-to-understand obviously doesn't mean the information is more reliable, but people are more likely to perceive it as true. Hattaway's advice for nonprofit communicators: "It's smart to dumb things down."

In a post on her Non-Profit Marketing blog, Network for Good's Katya Andresen shares seven tips designed to improve the stories that nonprofits tell about their impact, the people they help, and their generous supporters.

Disaster Relief

Eye-opening article by Deborah Sontag in the New York Times about Yéle Haiti, the charity created by Haitian-American hip hop artist Wyclef Jean in the wake of the January 2010 earthquake to help the people of that impoverished country.

Journalism/Media

Fasten your seat belts. With funding from the Open Society Foundations, the Reuters Institute for Journalism has released a report, "Ten Years That Shook the Media World," which shows "that even after more than a decade of often dramatic turmoil in the media sector, we are only at the beginning of a longer transitional period."

Philanthropy

Over at the Nonprofit Quarterly, Simone Joyaux looks at what has changed -- and mostly what hasn't -- about social justice philanthropy in the eight years since she first addressed the topic in her newsletter.

Regulation

While open to the "notion that non-charitable tax-exempt organizations should have to pay property taxes," The Nonprofiteer takes issue with the city council in Scranton (PA), which threatened to withhold approval of zoning changes from tax-exempt property owners unless they made "voluntary" payments in lieu of taxation (PILOTS). "Let's not torture the concept of 'voluntary'," she writes, "by suggesting that a payment extorted in return for rezoning is somehow a free-will contribution to the public fisc."

And on her Philanthropy 2173 blog, Lucy Bernholz asks readers to answer the following question: "What would affect donors' behavior more, changes in the tax deductions associated with their giving or rules requiring greater transparency about their giving?" What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Social Entrepreneurship

Earlier in the week, serial social entrepreneur Robert Egger, the founder of DC Central Kitchen, Fresh Start Catering, the Campus Kitchen Project, and CForward, announced that after twenty-five years at the helm of DCCK, he was "moving on." To retirement? Not likely. No, Egger is "returning to the city of my roots -- Los Angeles -- to launch the L.A. Kitchen in 2013." As the always enthusiastic Egger writes on his personal blog, the new endeavor

will roar into an incredible vacuum in America. Our first goal is to recover millions of pounds of California’s abundant fruits and vegetables. The traditional model moves perishable foods through the system (from farm to food bank/kitchens to pantry to people) at a brisk pace to avoid spoilage. We want and use these precious commodities to fuel a job training program that will produce nutritionally dense salads, snacks and vegetarian/vegan meals. But we also want to develop inter-generational volunteer opportunities so that, working side by side, we can prep, package and freeze millions of pounds of produce and fruit, which will allow our partners to distribute portion controlled product that can be used in a more purposeful way, at a more focused pace.

We will also explore social enterprise through a new business we will launch named Strong Food. Like the name says, it isn't about sustenance, it's about helping people stay strong, vital and engaged.

We will also explore large scale urban composting, showing how every part of a plant can be used to build stronger bodies and healthier communities.

Most of all, I want to delve deeply into the issue of aging in America. L.A. Kitchen will be at the very forefront of supporting a new era of inclusion and health for our elders. I don't want to feed to old; I want to help redefine aging in America. And I want to show the role that food and a dynamic nonprofit organization can play in keeping our elders engaged, healthy, vital and active....

We wish Bob the best of luck in these, and all future, endeavors!

Social Media

In the most recent installment of her Social Good podcast series, Allison Fine chats with filmmaker Marc Erlbaum about his use of crowdfunding platform Indiegogo to raise $150,000 and crowdsource stories about the meaning of life for his next film project.

On LinkedIn, Charles Best, founder and CEO of DonorsChoose.org, asks for help in developing a mobile strategy for his organization. "We know that mobile is important," writes Best. "We agree that mobile devices are becoming many people's primary way to connect to the Internet. We see that the percentage of site visitors coming to us from mobile devices is steadily increasing. We know we have to do something, but we're not sure what." Has your organization had success with mobile? Share your experience with Best and others in the comments section below.

Women & Girls

Thursday was International Day of the Girl, and, as Beth Kanter notes on her blog, the launch of the "Because I Am a Girl" campaign by the Plan, one of oldest and largest children's development organizations in the world. Why a campaign to raise awareness about the importance of educating girls? Because, as Kanter writes, "Globally, one in three girls around the world is denied an education by the daily realities of poverty, violence and discrimination. Every day, girls are taken out of school, married far too young, and subjected to violence in school. Not only is this unjust, it's also a huge waste of potential with serious global consequences...."

That's it for now. What did we miss? Drop us a line at rnm@foundationcenter.org. And have a great week!

-- The Editors

 

Hunger in America: A Q&A With Julie Gehrki, Walmart Foundation

In 2010, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation launched a five-year, $2 billion effort to help end hunger in America. In partnership with Feeding America and five of the country’s largest food companies -- ConAgra Foods, General Mills, Kellogg Company, Kraft Foods, and Unilever -- Walmart has since launched a variety of initiatives to encourage its customers to join the fight against hunger. Earlier this fall, Philanthropy News Digest spoke with Walmart Foundation senior director Julie Gehrki about the company's Fighting Hunger Together campaign and what the foundation is doing to address hunger in America.

Philanthropy News Digest: What effect has the sluggish economic recovery and the drought in the Midwest had on hunger and food insecurity in the United States?

Julie Gehrki: In early September, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released the results of its most recent survey, which found that more than fifty million Americans are suffering from food insecurity. And a recent survey conducted by Feeding America found that 65 percent of its foodbank directors are very worried about food supply in the coming months. While we're hopeful the economy will continue to improve, we want to make sure that those who may not be benefiting from the improvement are taken care of. Feeding America foodbanks are on the frontlines of need in our communities, and Walmart wants to make sure they have the food they need to help those who need it -- particularly if food prices rise, as some are predicting, and as we head into the holiday season.

PND: What are some of the best ways for individuals to fight hunger in their communities?

JG: One of the things we're doing is called the Golden Spark campaign. Through Sunday, October 14, people can go to Walmart.com/hunger or our Facebook page and vote for a community to win $50,000 to start or expand a backpack program -- that's a program that provides meals to food-insecure children over the weekend, when they don't have access to free- or reduced-price school meals. A lot of people understand that kids get fed through school, lunches and sometimes breakfasts, during the week. But the backpack program forces people to think about what a kid does on the weekend. Studies have found that teachers have noticed that many kids are less attentive on Monday mornings, and that's because many of them have not eaten enough over the weekend. Backpack programs are largely run by volunteers. Individuals pack backpacks with food that's easy for kids to open and prepare on their own over the weekend. Walmart believes this is a local issue, something that communities and individuals in those communities have to rally around, because it's their neighbors who are feeling the pain.

PND: As a parent of two small children who have some eating issues, I know that a lot of food goes uneaten. What, if anything, are you doing to control for or take advantage of that?

JG: A lot of people are thinking about that. We're working hard with a number of nonprofits to make sure the food that's provided through the program is both healthy and appealing to kids. For example, some kids will not eat an apple unless it's in slices. We also address things like the school breakfast program by providing food in classrooms. Everyone eats together and we do everything we can to make sure there's no stigma attached to receiving food from a foodbank.

PND: Is Walmart using social media to engage its customers in the effort?

JG: The Golden Spark campaign relies on Facebook. Again, to vote for a community, visit our Facebook page or Walmart.com/hunger. You can also share the page with your friends on Facebook. The campaign is about broadening the number of people who are involved in hunger-alleviation efforts, and social media is a great way to do that. Our Facebook fans also can visit the "Live Better" section of our page to learn about our ongoing work fighting hunger across the United States and to view videos that highlight local stories of Americans making a difference in their communities.

PND: How many people do you hope to reach?

JG: This year, between the meals we donate, those donated by our suppliers, and those donated by Walmart customers, it'll be fifty-three million meals -- and that doesn't include the $2.5 million Walmart will give in cash to support hunger-alleviation efforts. When we started in 2007, we donated about nine million meals.

As you know, this is part of our $2 billion commitment to combat hunger in the United States. One of the things we know we can do as the nation's largest grocer is raise awareness of the issue. And so we're supporting our efforts through a multi-channel marketing campaign that kicked off in September, which was Hunger Action Month. It's really about using the combined resources of nonprofits, corporations, foundations, and individuals to say that this is a real issue, this is an important issue, and that together we can make a difference.

-- Matt Sinclair