Philanthropy Today - Philanthropy.com

These are items on other Web sites that are of interest to the nonprofit world. The Chronicle has no control over their content or availability. To reach the Philanthropy Today staff, send an e-mail message to daily.news@philanthropy.com

Compiled by Noelle Barton, Caroline Bermudez, Maria Di Mento, Audrey Hill, and Anne W. Howard.

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August 20, 2008

Top Official Resigns at White House 'Faith-Based' Office

Jay Hein, the head of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, has resigned effective August 29, according to the Roundtable on Religion & Social Welfare Policy.

The roundtable — which reports news related to government money for social services by religious organizations — says Mr. Hein plans to return to Indiana to take care of his father, who has cancer.

Aid Groups Press Russian Authorities for Access to South Ossetia

Aid organizations met with Russian authorities yesterday to ask to be allowed to enter South Ossetia, a Georgian province controlled by Russian troops. The groups say tens of thousands of people are in need of food and medical care, Reuters reports.

Aid workers have been kept out of the province since the start of the conflict between Moscow and Tbilisi, which has lasted 11 days.

Jakob Kellenberger, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, spoke with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow yesterday; Antonio Guterres, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, is set to meet Mr. Lavrov today.

Red Cross officials who reached the western Georgian town of Gori several days ago were approached by residents asking for food and medicine, said Anna Nelson, a spokeswoman for the international Red Cross. Ms. Nelson said the organization has flown 430 tons of food and medical supplies into Georgia in the past week.

Officials at the United Nations estimated that 158,700 people have been uprooted by the conflict, including 30,000 people from South Ossetia who have been allowed by Russian authorities to remain in North Ossetia, a part of the Russian Federation.

The United Nations appealed on Monday for $58.6-million to help survivors of the crisis with food and other essential aid for the next six months.

College of Southern Nevada Receives $8.2-Million Grant

The Engelstad Family Foundation, in Las Vegas, has given $8.2-million to the College of Southern Nevada for the institution’s cardiorespiratory-sciences program, reports the Associated Press.

College officials say the money will pay for a 10,000-square-foot expansion of the health-sciences building, which is to be re-named the Ralph and Betty Engelstad School of Health Sciences.

Ralph Engelstad, who died in 2002, was a hotel and casino owner.

Two Nonprofit Film Organizations Merge

The 51-year-old San Francisco Film Society has agreed to take over the Film Arts Foundation, a struggling San Francisco nonprofit organization that has been well known in that city for its teaching and support of local Bay Area filmmakers, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.

Officials at the Film Society say they plan to expand on some of the Film Arts Foundation’s work, including film-production classes, financial support of films, and help with distribution and marketing, while eliminating the group’s equipment and facility rentals. The Film Arts Foundation broke even in 2007 but faced hard times this year.

“As with a lot of nonprofits, we didn’t have much of a safety net,” said the Film Arts Foundation president, Steve Ramirez.

From The Chronicle: Final IRS Instructions for New Form 990

Completing the first major overhaul in a generation of the informational return that most charities must file with the federal government, the Internal Revenue Service released on Tuesday final instructions for the redesigned Form 990, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.

Government and Politics Watch: Nonprofit Representatives' Denver Plans

Nonprofit and foundation representatives will mingle with political activists during the Democratic National Convention, which takes place next week in Denver, reports Government and Politics Watch, a Chronicle online column.

Plus: Two U.S. senators have created a Senate Philanthropy Caucus to look at ways to help foundations and charities.

Give and Take: Why Special Olympics' Movie Boycott Was a Mistake

A nonprofit communications specialist says the decision by Special Olympics to boycott the new movie “Tropic Thunder” because it uses the word “retard” was a “big tactical communications mistake,” according to a new post in Give and Take, The Chronicle’s roundup of the best blog posts in the nonprofit world.

Plus: How much does it really matter whether donors use the term ‘giving’ vs. ‘investing?’

Need Help Finding Potential Donors?

If you’re attending this week’s annual meeting of the Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement, in Denver, we hope you’ll make sure to join The Chronicle for a special preview of the key findings of a new survey on screening prospective donors.

You’ll get an early look at a survey of fund raisers The Chronicle asked the research firm Campbell Rinker to conduct in a session on Saturday, August 23, at 8:30 a.m.

The session in Denver will feature Peter Panepento, The Chronicle’s Web editor, and Dirk Rinker, chief executive of Campbell Rinker. It will be held in the Hyatt Regency Denver — Mineral Hall A.

August 19, 2008

Nonprofit Groups Seek Attention in 2008 Campaign

As the campaign for the White House kicks into high gear, a growing number of charity leaders are pushing for the federal government to create an agency that matches nonprofit programs to government priorities, bolster national-service programs, and provide money to help charities grow, reports The Washington Post.

Problems such as poverty, climate change, and lack of access to high-quality health care and education for the needy are so great that they “cannot be solved by the public sector alone,” says Jane Wales, founder of the Global Philanthropy Forum, in San Francisco.

Both Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama have been receptive to working with nonprofit groups on these issues.

Some caution, however, that increased government involvement may complicate a nonprofit group’s mission.

“We don’t want an agency that is going to over-regulate us,” says Alan J. Abramson, a professor of public and international affairs at George Mason University and a senior fellow in the nonprofit sector and philanthropy program at the Aspen Institute.

To learn more about the issues affecting nonprofit groups in the 2008 campaign, see this special section of our Web site.

(Free registration is required to view the Post article.)

Giving by Wealthy Donors to Stay Flat

Giving by wealthy donors in the United States is likely to remain strong but flat through the rest of the year, reports the Financial Times.

Giving by high-net-worth individuals dipped slightly in the first quarter but rebounded in the second quarter, according to a study by Crown Philanthropic Services, a New York company that helps donors create donor-advised funds. Officials at Crown expect giving in 2008 to keep pace with 2007.

“The ultra-high net worth is a group that doesn’t worry about market volatility day to day,” says William Hewitt, national marketing director at Crown.

However, giving by average, middle-class Americans is more likely to drop, reports the newspaper.

For more on the giving outlook, see this article from The Chronicle’s archive.