Weekend Link Roundup (July 22-23, 2017)

Our weekly roundup of noteworthy items from and about the social sector. For more links to great content, follow us on Twitter at @pndblog....

Climate Change

According to the best-case scenario — a drastic reduction in greenhouse gases across the world — 48 percent of humanity will be exposed regularly to deadly heat by the year 2100. But "[e]xtreme heat isn’t a doomsday scenario," writes Emily Atkin in The New Republic, it's "an existing, deadly phenomenon — and it’s getting worse by the day. The question is whether we’ll act and adapt, thereby saving countless lives."

Community Improvement/Development

In a Perspectives piece on the MacArthur Foundation website, Tara Magner and Cate A. Fox discuss how the foundation's newly appointed Chicago Commitment team is beginning to think about its work to make Chicago a more connected and equitable city, and the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead.

Education

After twelve years, the Moody's Foundation has dropped its sponsorship of the Moody's Mega Math Challenge, a national math modeling competition for high school juniors and seniors, and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, which runs the competition, is looking for a new sponsor. Forbes associate editor Alex Knapp has the details.

Environment

According to a new report from international environmental NGO Global Witness, two hundred environmental activists were murdered in 2016, more than double the number who lost their lives defending the environment just five years ago. And the violence continues, with more than a hundred activists murdered in the first five months of this year. On the Skoll Foundation website, Zachary Slobig talks with Global Witness' Billy Kyte about the  “culture of impunity” that is enabling these gross violations of human rights.

Giving

There are clever tax avoidance schemes involving the charitable deduction, and then there's this one. Peter J. Reilly reports for Forbes.

On the TriplePundit platform, Lee Rhodes, the founder of glassybaby, a manufacturer of hand-blown glass candleholders, explains how she successfully incorporated charitable giving into her young company's business model. 

International Affairs/Development

Big humanitarian NGOs must “change or die,” a new report, The Future of Aid: INGOS in 2030, argues. "The shift in power and resources from the northern hemisphere to the global south could render international aid organizations irrelevant by 2030," writes the Guardian's Karen McVeigh, citing the report. By then, 46 percent of people will live in countries affected by "fragility, conflict or violence." And without "concerted efforts" to evolve, international non-government organizations "will be sidelined by more efficient, adaptable actors — from the private sector [and] religious groups, [to local civil society and armed forces."

Nonprofit Chronicles blogger Marc Gunther's latest spotlights Spark MicroGrants "a small NGO that practices what's called community-driven development, an approach that invites communities to design, execute and manage their own aid projects — farms to feed families, power lines, schools or roads" — and, according to a growing body of evidence, may also help to create "stronger governments and institutions."

Colombia’s historic peace accord is a once-in-a-generations opportunity for philanthropy to advance the UN's sustainable development agenda and improve the lives of Columbia's poorest citizens and communities. Juan David Ferreira, a consultant for Asociación de Fundaciones Empresariales y Familiares-AFE Colombia, and Merybell Reynoso, an international communications consultant for the SDG Philanthropy Platform, explain.

Nonprofits

Collaboration, as many of you have heard or experienced, is challenging. So when does it make sense for nonprofits to collaborate, and what can they do ahead of time to ensure the success of any collaborative engagement? In a post on her Social Velocity blog, Nell Edgington has some commonsense advice for nonprofits thinking about taking the collaboration plunge.

Philanthropy

In a Q&A with Foundation Center's Jen Bokoff, Laurie Tisch, founder and president of the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund, talks about her philanthropic investment strategy and why she chooses not to be a passive donor.

What happens when a foundation puts residents in charge of local grantmaking? In a post on the NCRP site, Liane Stegmaier, director of communications at the Brooklyn Community Foundation, shares the happy results.

Science/Technology

The future is here and, for well-resourced nonprofits, it includes ingenious texting bots. Beth Kanter explains.

Social Science

And some food for thought from Vox and German Lopez: "Research says there are ways to reduce racial bias. Calling people racist isn’t one of them."

 That's it for this week. Got something you'd like to share? Drop us a line at mfn@foundationcenter.org.