Foundations Join Forces to Fight Inequality
Dozens of America’s biggest grant makers are attacking the problem on several fronts. But will they really make a difference?
By Alex Daniels
Senior Editor, Foundations
Forecast for Major Funds: Increased Giving in 2015
Assets at the nation’s largest 31 foundations topped $148.7 billion last year as grant makers steered more than $7.8 billion toward nonprofits, according to a new Chronicle survey.
By Alex Daniels and Lance Lambert
Feeling Flush, Hewlett Boosts Giving 80%
The foundation is channeling more money to nonprofits whose grants it had to trim during the financial crisis.
By Alex Daniels
Contributor
As Menu of Naming Rights Expands, Fundraisers Pitch Options Online
Supporters see the phenomenon as a natural evolution in the Internet era, but critics say the growing practice makes this type of giving seem too much like a business transaction.
By Drew Lindsay
Contributor
Silicon Valley vs. Philanthropy
Charities are clamoring for the support of tech moguls, whose elusive giving patterns may fundamentally change the nonprofit world.
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Ben Franklin, Meet Phil Knight
Does the challenge grant empower people or plutocrats? The question has vexed philanthropy for more than 200 years.
By Benjamin Soskis
Contributor
A Nonprofit Scraps Top Executive Post in Favor of 4 Leaders
A California charity copes with turnover at the top by eliminating the executive role altogether.
By Rebecca Koenig
Contributor
Surprise! A High-Efficiency Rating Can Hurt Giving
Researchers at George Mason University find that some people may dial back donations to well-run charities, perhaps because they believe those nonprofits can do more with less.
By Alex Daniels
Senior Editor, Foundations
A Famed Business Accelerator Opens the Door to Nonprofit Start-Ups
Y Combinator applies its business principles to support people seeking to solve the world’s problems.
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
A Nonprofit’s New Innovation Lab Helps Problem Solvers Experiment
Tipping Point Community borrows principles from the tech-development world to let nonprofits’ creative juices flow.
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Will Criticism of Big Gifts Scare Off Tech Donors?
Some experts worry that entrepreneurs may shy away from the spotlight — and from giving — if the attention grows too intense.
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Planned Anarchy: Playtime That Frees Kids From Structure
Digging in the mud, climbing trees, and building forts are all part of a wild, unstructured environment available at Ithaca Children’s Garden, a type of stimulation that advocates say is missing from many kids’ lives.
By Maria Di Mento
Senior Editor
Karen Brooks Hopkins Stages a Success Story
An arts leader reflects on helping to raise the Brooklyn Academy of Music from “scrappy start-up” to a red-hot cultural center through passionate fundraising.
By nicole lewis
Contributor
‘I Had One Foot in the Silk and One Foot in the Mud’
Albina du Boisrouvray has been a journalist, a film producer, and a war-zone aid worker. She’s also an heiress who has given at least $100-million to charity.
By Maria Di Mento
Senior Editor
‘Investment Club’ of Foundations Pays Off for Nonprofits
Per Scholas, a work-force training organization in the South Bronx, is among the beneficiaries of a unique arrangement in which participating grant makers play a more active role in program-related investment decisions.
By Alex Daniels
Contributor
Peter Laugharn Named Chief Executive of Conrad N. Hilton Foundation
The grant maker’s new leader was previously head of the Firelight Foundation, a Hilton grantee that provides health, education, and resilience training to needy people in Africa.
By Maria Di Mento
Senior Editor