What's New at Candid (July 2019)

Whenever someone asks me how things are going with our newly minted Candid, I honestly reply "it's never dull!" There are a lot of moving pieces as we develop our Candid 2030 strategy while continuing to share insights on everything from human rights funding to our nonprofit data profiles. After you've read through this update, please shoot me an email about what you'd like to hear from us going forward.

Project Highlights

• We released U.S. Household Disaster Giving, which highlights giving for disaster-relief efforts in 2017 and 2018 — the first- and fourth-most costly years for natural disasters in U.S. history. The report details how Americans responded to disasters in both years, including how many donated to disaster-relief efforts and their main motivations for doing so. Produced in collaboration with the Center for Disaster Philanthropy and the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, the report builds on a five-year partnership dedicated to measuring disaster philanthropy in the U.S. You can explore the data and key findings here and/or check out our webinar on the topic, From Preparedness to Recovery: Fundraising for Natural Disasters.
• Our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion webinar and learning opportunity videos have been gathered into a single playlist.
• In partnership with Hispanics in Philanthropy, we launched LATINXFunders.org to help funders and grantseekers understand how philanthropic resources are supporting Latinx communities across the U.S. One of my favorite features of the site is the section that allows you to explore trends by issue area and population.
• A new infographic on the Foundation Funding for U.S. Democracy site includes data on the growth in youth voter turnout and what foundations are doing to support the trend.
• Mapping the Dance Landscape in Chicagoland revisits seminal Dance/USA research published in 2002 and is the first comprehensive data analysis of the region's dance sector in seventeen years. Candid partnered with Sustain Arts and See Chicago Dance to conduct the research, which shows a 97 percent increase from 2002 to 2016 in the number of dance studios and schools in the Chicagoland region and a 23 percent increase in the number of dance-makers.
• We launched two new courses in July: "Is Starting a Nonprofit Right For You?" and "Introduction to FDO" (which will be offered as a webinar starting July 31).

Thought Leadership Highlights

• "Shaping sanitation in Ghana," Florencia Rieiro (WASHfunders.org)
• "Capitalizing on the Next Wave of Bitcoin Donations," Alex Wilson and Patrick Duffy (GrantSpace)
• "Collaboration Versus Competition: Funders Should Shift Their Giving Models to Better Support Families," Frances Sykes and Jackie Edwards (PhilanTopic)
• "Meet Our #OpenForGood Award Winner: An Interview with Lee Alexander Risby, Head of Effective Philanthropy & Savi Mull, Senior Evaluation Manager, C&A Foundation," Janet Camarena (Glasspockets)
• "Three Shifts Philanthropy Needs to Make to Better Design and Evaluate Social Change," Srikanth Gopal (GrantCraft)
• "Donor Dollars Into Dividends: The Past, Present, and Future of Nonprofits Aiding the Private Sector," Jessica Almy (GuideStar Blog)
• IssueLab added 365 new resources in May and June, including Building Youth Life Skills and High Impact Giving Guide.

For more great content, follow us on Twitter.

Candid in the News

I was honored to author two articles recently, one in the Chronicle of Philanthropy on lifting up philanthropy's unheard voices and another in Alliance magazine on a powerful learning experience many of us had at the recent United Philanthropy Forum conference. Candid also has been featured in several recent articles:

• "Episode 18: A Closer Look At 2018 Giving," NonProfit Times, July 17, 2019
• "New research shows a glaring lack of transparency in environmental organizations," Carole Love, University of Michigan, July 10, 2019
• "Most Foundations Expect Their Grant Making to Hold Steady or Decline in 2019," Alex Daniels, Chronicle of Philanthropy, July 8, 2019
• "Fact-check: Trump makes series of false claims in two-day New York tweetstorm," Daniel Dale and Cristina Alesci, CNN, July 5, 2019
• "Opinion: United Way is focused on results and raising every dollar possible," Cincinnati.com, July 2, 2019

To check out more mentions of Candid in the news, see our press page.

Services Spotlight

• We added 341,150 new grants to Foundation Maps in June, of which 4,580 were made to 3,526 organizations outside the U.S.
• The number of recipient profiles in Foundation Directory Online, which updates its database daily, has grown to more than 800,000.
• In June, our Funding Information Network team (Brian Schultz and Kate Tkacik) hit the road to visit some of our FIN partners in Wyoming, Colorado, and Arizona #candidontheroad.
• In collaboration with the NYC Department of Youth & Community Development and Partnership for After School Education (PASE), we're co-hosting this year's Building Bridges: Understanding Fundraising in 2020 community series, which features Candid staff presenting one fundraising workshop for grassroots and community-based organizations in each of New York City’s five boroughs during the course of the month.
• We're redirecting our in-person library services in Atlanta and San Francisco to local community partners, with our Cleveland and DC offices to follow suit later in the year. Get the full picture of our #CandidInTheCommunity transition here.
• Our Funding Information Network, which provides Candid resources free to the public across the country, added new partners in June in the following locations: Plano, Texas; Geauga County, Ohio; Brookings, South Dakota; Concord, Massachusetts; Bar Harbor, Maine, and; Jackson, Mississippi. Find a Candid FIN partner near you.
• Candid will serve as a panel judge for the UN Youth Assembly Impact Challenge at George Washington University on August 10.
• We'll be hosting a series of webinars on a variety of topics in August, including "Forging Partnerships with Corporate Leaders" on August 8, "From a Cog to an Intrapraneur: How to Lead from Within" on August 15, and “Building a Strong Fundraising Team” on August 22.
• We've welcomed three new customers: Relpro, Bluenovo, and Golf Status.

Data Spotlight

• The performance of the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team at the 2019 World Cup has generated renewed interest in gender-based pay-discrimination and equal pay for women. Take a look at how funders are supporting equality rights and freedom from discrimination for marginalized groups, including more than $84 million in grants for Women and Girls.
• Data collected through the U.S. Census every ten years is a key factor in the distribution of more than $675 billion in federal funding. In advance of the 2020 census, foundations have joined forces with advocates and census experts to help support an accurate count. We've identified 53 grants, ranging from $5,000 to $3 million, awarded since 2011 that reference the census. Learn more here.
• The number of eBooks checked out in June was 123, bringing the total number of eBook checkouts over the life of the program to 1,746. In addition, the number of eBook user registrations in June was 86, bringing the total to 1,253. We now have 209 eBooks in our collection, including 183 unique titles.
• We completed custom data searches for the Center for Effective Philanthropy, the Community Foundation of Hawaii, the Federal Reserve of St. Louis, the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, the National Endowment for the Arts, and School of Philanthropy and Public Policy at the University of Southern California.
• Last but not least, we welcomed ten new data sharing partners in June: the Beverly Jackson Foundation, the Fouress Foundation, the Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation, the Lynch Foundation, the Michigan Humanities Council, Proteus Action League, the Michael Reese Health Trust, the Sisters of Charity Foundation of Canton, Warsh-Mott Legacy, and the WCA Foundation. Tell your story through data so we can communicate philanthropy's contribution to making a better world — learn more about our eReporting program.

If you found this update helpful, feel free to share it or shoot us an email. I’ll be back next month with another update.

Jen Bokoff is director of stakeholder engagement at Candid.