Weekend Link Roundup (December 2-3, 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....

Aging

According to Claire Petersky, executive director of the Wallingford Community Senior Center in Seattle, "Only 4 percent of us end up in nursing homes, and that number is dropping. Dementia? The vast majority of us, 90 percent, have our marbles when we die, and the numbers who die with dementia is also dropping. Depression? Turns out, we are happiest at the beginnings and ends of our lives. It's called the U Curve of Happiness." Petersky's colleague, Nonprofit AF blogger Vu Le, explains why we all need to change the way we think about older adults.

Climate Change

The California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), the largest public pension fund, in the U.S., has announced an equity investment in two large wind farms, the Caney River facility in Elk County, Kansas, and the Rocky Ridge facility in Kiowa and Washita counties, Oklahoma.

An NPR analysis of grants awarded by the National Science Foundation found a steady decline in the number with the phrase "climate change" in the title or summary — a change in language that "appears to be driven in part by the Trump administration's open hostility to the topic of climate change." Rebecca Hersher reports for NPR.

Disaster Relief

Mother Jones editor Kanyakrit Vongkiatkajorn shares some good advice for those who want to help in the wake of a natural disaster.

Giving

If you haven't heard, this year's #GivingTuesday campaign (the sixth annual) was a huge success, raising more than $274 million for nonprofits working in the U.S. and around the world. Congrats to all who gave and participated!

Felix Salmon, host and editor of the Cause & Effect blog, had charitable giving on his mind this week, posting a piece on Tuesday about why it's okay if the charitable sector shrinks a little as a result of the Republican tax bills working their way through Congress ("[A] a lot of very rich people are going to see their taxes cut, and at the margin, the less you pay in taxes, the less incentive you have to try to avoid them through mechanisms like charitable giving") and following that up with a piece on Thursday that addresses the question: How do you get people to donate less money to less-effective charities, and more money to more-effective charities.

According to Network for Good, 29 percent of all online giving happens in December and 11 percent happens in the last three days of the month. Which is why you'll want to spend a few minutes with these "essential" fundraising resources compiled by Brady Josephson.

It's not exactly news anymore, but Tennessean.com business columnist Jennifer Pagliara has some good advice for those who are looking to reach out to to today’s digitally savvy contributors — millennial or otherwise.

Nonprofits

In a post on her Philanthropy 2173 blog, Lucy Bernholz asks: Does journalism's past hold clues to nonprofits' futures?

Earlier this week, charity watchdog and evaluation service Charity Navigator announced that it will make "concise" impact statements and progress reports for twenty-four hundred charities available free of charge on its website.

Philanthropy

The Ford Foundation and the Peter G. Peterson Foundation have launched a new research initiative, US 2050, that will examine and analyze the demographic, socioeconomic, and fiscal trends likely to shape the nation at mid-century.

In a post that celebrates the charitable spirit behind Giving Tuesday, Barr Foundation president Jim Canales shares a few reflections on how his foundation seeks to deepen collaboration with the organizations it funds.

Philanthropy has reached an "impact tipping point," with organizations "becoming more educated about how and why impact matters, and what difference their work has made"& — and not a moment too soon, writes Triple Pundit contributor Leon Kaye.

In a post for CityLab, former D.C. mayor Anthony Williams notes that the "golden age of [urban] parks philanthropy" in which we find ourselves does little to benefit lower-income neighborhoods and wonders whether there's a more equitable way to spread around the charitable dollars of mega-donors?

And this bit of news caught our attention Friday as we were getting ready to head home for the weekend: Matthew Bishop, U.S. business editor and New York bureau chief for The Economist magazine, is leaving the venerable publication after twenty-seven years to become a managing director at the Rockefeller Foundation, where he will lead the foundation's Bellagio Center on the shores of Italy's Lake Como and be tasked with creating a new global institute and network. Alcuni ragazzi hanno tutta la fortuna!

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