Less Than 2 Percent of Global Giving Goes to Curb Climate Change, New Study Finds
The ClimateWorks Foundation identified opportunities for philanthropy to boost electric transportation and curb greenhouse-gas emissions.
By Jim Rendon
Executive Editor
Mandel Foundation Awards $50 Million to Cleveland Orchestra
Also, Amazon Web Services is committing $40 million to improve health equity and outcomes in marginalized communities, and Google.org gave $3 million to develop technology to identify service lines that deliver lead-contaminated water to poor households.
By M.J. Prest
Senior Editor, Solutions
Foundations and Big Donors Quadruple Fund to Transform Lives of Workers and Their Families
Ford, Rockefeller, and people like MacKenzie Scott and Jack Dorsey are seeking to build better paying jobs and find ways to ensure wages and benefits meet the needs of workers who today see little opportunity.
By Alex Daniels
Senior Editor, Foundations
Philanthropy Newcomer Becomes Insider and Challenges the Status Quo
Se-ah-dom Edmo, the rare American Indian to lead a grant maker, says conventional philanthropy has done little to advance the equity it claims to cherish. Plus: Read profiles of 15 professionals whose ideas, writing, activism, and work are <a href="https://sandbox.philanthropy.com/package/toward-a-more-just-nonprofit-world">driving conversations about equity</a>.
By Drew Lindsay
Senior Editor, Special Projects
A Grant Maker Opens Up Her Private Life Public to Show That a Disability Is More Than a Diagnosis
Ford Foundation’s Rebecca Cokley argues that grant makers must change how they view disabilities.
By Drew Lindsay
Senior Editor, Special Projects
A Century-Old Group Created by Private-School Alumnae Becomes a Force on Race and Disability
Kristy Trautmann leads a little-known Pittsburgh foundation that’s retooling to lead a growing new field.
By Drew Lindsay
Senior Editor, Special Projects
N.Y. Billionaires Leon and Toby Cooperman Pledge $100 Million to Medical Center in N.J.
Plus, the University of Alabama at Birmingham lands $95 million from Marnix and Mary Heersink to create a biomedical institute.
By Maria Di Mento
Senior Editor
Also, the BlackRock Foundation pledged $100 million over five years for climate technology that can achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, and the Moody Foundation gave $100 million to build a new student center at Rice University.
By M.J. Prest
Senior Editor, Solutions
An Activist and a Historian Are Among 25 ‘Genius Grant’ Recipients
The winners are an eclectic group that includes scientists, economists, poets, and filmmakers. The work of several recipients involves topics dominating the news, such as voting rights and how history is taught in schools. Race figures prominently in the work of about half of them.
$5 Billion Conservation Effort Promises a New Approach but Faces Hurdles
The effort will involve Indigenous people, who have a track record of managing healthy ecosystems with vast biodiversity. But doing so on such a vast scale might require a willingness to take more risk.
By Jim Rendon
Executive Editor
A Giving-Local Mind-Set Reinforces the Chasm Between Wealthy People and Those in Need
When philanthropists mostly donate to causes and services in their own backyards, they perpetuate inequitable giving trends and fail to recognize historic discriminatory practices that have kept people of color out of higher-income areas.
By Davey M. Kim
Contributor
The 24-hour event, broadcast on six continents, generated pledges from foundations, vaccine pledges from numerous countries, and a commitment from the U.S. government for humanitarian needs caused by the pandemic.
John and Tashia Morgridge Pledge $125 Million to Their Alma Mater
Plus, five universities and St. Jude Children’s Hospital received large gifts.
By Maria Di Mento
Senior Editor
Philanthropy Needs to Rethink How It Supports Efforts to Rebuild Our Nation’s Infrastructure
As Congress debates a potential massive increase in federal infrastructure funding, grant makers should embrace a more expansive view of such projects — one that paves the way toward more equitable and sustainable communities.
By Katy Knight
Contributor
Chicago Couple Give Northwestern U. $480 Million Gift
The donation from Patrick and Shirley Ryan will support education and research programs in applied microeconomics, business, digital medicine, neuroscience, and global health.
By Maria Di Mento
Senior Editor
$123 Million in Surprise, Unsolicited Grants Go to 71 Ariz. Charities
Also, GM has pledged $50 million to strengthen economic development in Detroit, and the Novo Nordisk Foundation has committed $47.5 million to MIT and Harvard to analyze genetic data for links to common diseases.
By M.J. Prest
Senior Editor, Solutions