Weekend Link Roundup (March 12-13, 2016)
March 13, 2016
Our weekly round up of noteworthy items from and about the social sector. For more links to great content, follow us on Twitter at @pndblog....
Children and Youth
Looking for a good collection of juvenile justice resources? The Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation, a leader in the field, has published this on its blog.
Climate Change
On the Humanosphere site, Tom Murphy asks the question: Will the Global Climate Fund falter before it gets off the ground?
Education
In the New York Review Books, historian of education and author Diane Ravitch reviews Dale Russakoff's The Prize: Who's In Charge of America's Schools? and Kristina Rizga's Mission High: One School, How Experts Tried to Fail it, and the Students and Teachers Who Made it Triumph and finds both to be "excellent." Together, Ravitch adds, the two books also "demonstrate that grand ideas cannot be imposed on people without their assent. Money and power are not sufficient to improve schools. [And genuine] improvement happens when students, teachers, principals, parents, and the local community collaborate for the benefit of the children...."
Environment
Nonprofit Chronicles' Marc Gunther has written a must-read post about the recent assassination of Honduran environmental activist Berta Cáceres -- and what U.S. funders can do to combat the organized campaign of terror and intimidation being waged against environmental activists in Honduras: 1) Demand that Berta Cáceres' killers be brought to justice; 2) provide more support for grassroots activism; and 3) recognize/acknowledge the connections between the environment and human rights.
Fundraising
In Forbes, Russ Alan Prince recaps the seven wealthy charitable donor types.
On the HuffPo Impact blog, Karl Zinsmeister, creator of the just-published Almanac of American Philanthropy, celebrates the deep, human need to give.
Grantmaking
Debbie Craig, board chair at the Portland-based Meyer Memorial Trust, lays out some of the steps the trust will be taking as part of a refocusing of its grantmaking to meet some of Oregon's most serious challenges.
The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy has announced the winners of the 2016 NCRP Impact Awards, which honor organizations for their "exemplary grantmaking, leadership, and commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion."
Impact/Effectiveness
Check out this map from Business Insider detailing the share of total employment attributable to nonprofit organizations on a state-by-state basis. The District of Columbia, where many national nonprofits are headquartered, leads the pack, at 26.6 percent, followed by the "blue" states of New York and Rhode Island (18.1 percent), Vermont (17.9 percent), and Maine and Massachusetts (17.7 percent), while the states with the smallest share are all "red," led by Nevada (2.7 percent), Texas (5.1 percent), Alabama and South Carolina (5.4 percent), and Mississippi (6.4 percent).
Here's an eye-opening stat: Seven out of ten Bay Area nonprofits say soaring real estate costs in the region are threatening their long-term financial stability. The San Francisco Business Times' Chris Rauber reports.
Just days from becoming a father (for the second time), Nonprofits With Ball's Vu Le unpacks the "pervasive notion that nonprofits don't have clear outcomes."
Public Affairs
In a post on the Triple Pundit site titled "The Flint Water Crisis and Culture of Zero Accountability," Andrea Newell notes that "Michigan ranked dead last out of all 50 states in a report on legislative accountability and transparency, illustrating that the state’s policies left it wide open for abuse and corruption," and further argues that this "has fostered a culture of deception and lack of accountability at the highest level of government, and supported an attitude of dismissiveness and disdain toward most of the state's residents, especially the middle and lower class."
Transparency
Social Velocity's Nell Edgington shares her thoughts about the Center for Effective Philanthropy's latest research report, Sharing What Matters: Perspectives on Foundation Transparency, including what Nell refers to as "three stark disconnects."
In a post on the Foundation Center's Transparency Talk blog, Janet Camarena, the center's director of transparency initiatives, shares the news that the "Who Has Glass Pockets?" transparency and accountability self-assessment form has been expanded to a total of twenty-five indicators, including the addition of three new indicators: diversity data, open licensing, and strategic plans.
Women/Girls
And to mark International Women's Day, Jean Case, president of the Case Foundation, remembers the efforts of then President Richard Nixon to boost women's access to high-level appointments in the federal government.
That's it for now. What have you been reading/watching/listening to? Drop us a line at mfn@foundationcenter.org or via the comments section below....
Posted by Dina | March 13, 2016 at 11:05 PM
The Business Insider map is quite telling. Non-profit involvement in the community often does help the underprivileged obtain full-time, meaningful work. I wish more states would realize this.