Who will answer the call?

Ah, yes. Two words – philanthropy and transparency – that go together quite frequently in “insider baseball” discussions among foundations and nonprofits. Unfortunately, the general public is standing outside the ballpark on this one. Two major public events on this issue – the release of the list of donors to the Clinton Foundation and the [...]

You know you’ve become an issue geek when…

…you regret not being able to attend a law school conference on “Taxing Philanthropy.” Conference was held at Columbia U on Nov 9 and included the following key topics: Subsidizing Charitable Contributions: Incentives, Information and the Private Pursuit of Public Goals, Is Income Tax Exemption for Charities Special? The Issue is Investment Income, Taxing Philanthropy [...]

Scrutiny of hedge funds may hit foundations

In case you don’t want to watch former presidents and current world leaders discuss the potential of philanthropy, here’s a link to coverage of today’s Senate Finance Committee (SFC) hearings. The committee is looking into investments by nonprofits in offshore hedge funds. You can watch it live by clicking the Real Player button on this [...]

$500 million to fight obesity

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation just announced a $500 million, 5 year initiative to fight childhood obesity in the U.S. The Foundation has a track record on major public health issues – most notably, perhaps, on anti-smoking awareness, campaigns, legislation, and legal action. Joel Fleishman points to RWJF’s work against tobacco as one of the [...]

Its beginning to feel a bit like…some folks get it

This post on xigi is really inspiring: Danish pension funds want to invest in Africa. Leads to creation of capital funds, such as C-4. The announcement of myc4.com, another mapping tool that will help investors, capital, and social enterprises find each other (like xigi does). The linkage of these capital activities to the Millennium Development [...]

New Congressional Caucus on Nonprofits

This story came from the Chronicle of Philanthropy, via the Examiner. The announcement from the House of Representatives came following the Council on Foundations annual “Foundations on the Hill” event, in which almost 400 foundation professionals visited with their Congressional representatives and staff. Tags: philanthropy, regulation