Quick Hits (Dec. 1, 2007)

With a nod to recent articles by New York Times' reporters Stephanie Strom and David Cay Johnston, the folks at Beyond Philanthropy argue that "there is a lot of ‘unproductive’ philanthropic capital out there," much if it "either frozen in untouchable endowments, or spread out in small amounts over hundreds of thousands of tiny organizations, many of which overlap in mission and approach, and are too numerous for the government to monitor properly." 

The anonymous blogger known as Don't Tell the Donor wrestles with whether he/she should reveal the identity of the other party in the Mark Everson "sex scandal."

Nancy Schwartz, at Getting Attention!, grades the Red Cross on its communications reponse to the Everson scandal.

The November Giving Carnival has arrived at Maya Norton's New Jew: Blogging Jewish Philanthropy, with posts from Phil Cubeta (Gift Hub), Dahna Goldstein (Philantech), Marc Pitman (Fundraising Coach), Christopher Scott (Nonprofit Leadership, Innovation, and Change), Arlene Spencer (Grant Plant), and Rosetta Thurman (Perspectives From the Pipeline).

The Nonprofiteer has some questions about a recent grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, a major supporter of the arts in the U.S., to the Nonprofit Finance Fund for a new national initiative, Leading for the Future: Innovative Support for Artistic Excellence.

BusinessWeek reports that the "Ivy Plus" schools (the seven Ivy League schools plus Stanford and MIT) are solidifiying their position atop the higher education heap by using their deep pockets to recruit top-notch faculty, shrink class sizes, increase financial aid for lower-income students, and expand their central role in research. "The gilding of the Ivies," says BusinessWeek, "offers a striking manifestation of the contemporary American tendency of the rich to get much richer."

And Albert Reusga asks, Why is it so difficult to marry art with advocacy?

-- Mitch Nauffts

Comments

[Maya Norton]

Thanks for the mention, Mitch.

We got some great responses from the November Giving Carnival on the question of "What best practices in business should nonprofits adopt to maximize their resources."

Maya Norton

The New Jew: Blogging Jewish Philanthropy