Food pantries slammed … Gates Foundation gives $335M to raise teacher effectiveness [News, 11.20.09]

EDUCATION | Gates Foundation gives $335 million to raise teacher effectiveness (WaPo, 11/20) – Gates Foundation press release (11/19) – $290 million in grants to support four Intensive Partnership for Effective Teaching sites in Memphis, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, and Hillsborough County, Florida.

2050 | New 2050 regional plan: Will it change anything? (WBJ, 11/20) – “[The Greater Washington] Board of Trade, which was involved in the process and raised its concerns, argues that adhering to the plan would be impossible especially given current economic conditions.”

HUNGER
- Grim holidays ahead for area food pantries (WaPo, 11/19)
- Charity Leaders Ask Congress to Help on Hunger Relief (Chronicle, 11/19)

SAFETY NET | D.C. officials press for compromise on Catholic Charities (WaPo, 11/20)

HOUSING | Teaching Local Clergy The ABCs Of Affordable Housing (WAMU, 11/19)

CHILD CARE | Costs Skyrocket For Several D.C. Families After Budget Cuts (WAMU, 11/19)

GIVING, MAYBE | Young heirs seek moral balance (WaPo, 11/20) – Don’t we all, don’t we all.

GRANTS | HHMI grants $16 million to help biomed doctorate students apply their knowledge to public health (Daily Tell, 11/19)

Dec. 10 event: “Worry Free Advocacy: Understanding the Rules for Nonprofits”


Voice is one of the elements of Beyond Dollars–>Big Change funding. Encourage your grantees learn how to use the power of their voice, legally. Convened by Nonprofit NoVA and sponsored by United Way of the National Capital Area:

DEC 10: WORRY FREE ADVOCACY: Understanding the Rules for Nonprofits
8:30am-11:30am
breakfast provided
Location: The Campagna Center
418 S. Washington St., Alexandria, VA 22314

Register Online
Learn the lobbying and advocacy rules for your organization. Find out how your organization can advocate for your programs, constituents and the nonprofit sector as a whole.

DC’s homeless youth… Minnesotans give like crazy… WSJ vs. Ford Foundation [News, 11.19.09]

GIVING | GiveMN raised $14 million online in one day (Beth’s blog, 11/18) – Yesterday, “more than 45,000 Minnesotans donated!  More than 350 orgs received $10,000 or more.” Not too shabby, eh?

HOMELESS YOUTH | Non-Profits Shine Spotlight on District’s Homeless Youth (Informer, 11/19) – Eshauna Smith, DCAYA Executive Director: “Young people go to great lengths to ensure that no one is able to identify them as homeless.”

EDUCATION | Wall Street Journal vs Ford Foundation. WSJ: Why are you giving $100M to teachers unions? Ford Fdn: Actually, only a portion is going there. And what do you have against teachers? Point Ford.

ARTS | Michael Bigley (Cafritz Foundation) recommends “Lights go dark at Catalyst Theater” (WaPo, 11/18): “Interesting article on how the closure of Catalyst Theater Company has affected the Atlas Arts Center on H Street, and how the Atlas is evolving.”

And see below for posts about our annual meeting speakers, Dan Pallotta and Allison Fine.

Dan Pallotta addresses an audience of social profit leaders (aka “overhead” to some)

By Christian Clansky, Program Associate, Washington Grantmakers

pictures by B. Vartan Photography

Dan Pallotta’s numbers confirm the gigantic fiscal gap between nonprofits from the rest of the business world. Example: a Stanford MBA graduate will make $400,000 ten years out of school while a CEO for a hunger charity will make $84,000. Why, he asks, should our best and brightest work for $84,000 when they can make $400,000, donate $100,000 to charity, come out $200,000+ ahead, and be lauded as philanthropists?

But the numbers only scratch the surface of what Pallotta claims is an entire mode of American thinking. At Washington Grantmakers’ annual meeting last week, the author of Uncharitable lamented the fact that charity plays by a different rulebook than the rest of the world. While corporate America thrives through capitalism (most of the time, at least), people deny “nonprofits” the same tools of capitalism that have grown giants out of simple ideas and straightforward missions. That denial, he says, is born out of an unwillingness to see people in charities making money. Misguided conceptions about the costs of overhead, advertising, and fundraising drive donors to ask exactly the wrong question: “How much of my donation goes directly to the cause?”

The right question, he counters, is, “What has the organization achieved, and what can it achieve with my donation?” Paying appropriate overhead and high salaries to the people best suited to accomplish the intended goals can be a very good investment.

As an aside, Pallotta pointed out that “profit” derives from the Latin “profectus” meaning “advance, progress, grow.” Put a “non” in front and…well, you do start to wonder if the deck isn’t stacked against us.

In related news, our recent survey found that, among grantmakers who had seen changes in types of funding requests, 55% are seeing more requests for operating support.

It’s time to stop talking about Twitter (and start tweeting)

By Nick Geisinger, Communications Director, Washington Grantmakers

Allison Fine (@afine) spoke at our meeting last week about social networks (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, listserves) and social change. It’s a big topic that we could discuss endlessly, but it’s far more fun to just dive in. That’s what Allison suggests and that’s what we did with Twitter here a couple of months ago, and with Facebook a few months before that.

Today let’s talk Twitter. You can find us here: @WGrantmakers. Angel Belardinelli does most of our tweeting. We’re working things out on the fly.

And why not? As Allison pointed out, people will talk about you whether you’re there or not. The only choice is whether to participate. Signing up is free and fast. If you want, you can just follow people initially without posting anything yourself, and get a feel for things.

The Community Foundation’s Terri Freeman mentioned that she tweets as a way of getting input from people, and that she appreciates the 140 character limit. Me too. In a world of unlimited information, limits are wonderful. Three cheers for brevity!

This week Angel set up some Twitter lists, which collect tweets from WG member organizations and individual members. Click those links to see what some of your colleagues are thinking about. (Here are actual lists of the WG organizations and individuals we’re following on Twitter. Did we miss you? Let Angel know. In fact, email her if you have questions about any aspect of this!)

In short, it seems like we’ve all done enough talking about social networks. It’s time to start networking!

> WG members can watch Allison Fine’s presentation in full on WGTV.

Post your jobs here: $60 for 60 days

Program Associate – Jack Kent Cooke Foundation (Leesburg, Virginia)

Senior Program Officer – Access to Care at National AIDS Fund (District of Columbia)

Account Executive –  Success Communications Group (District of Columbia)

Account Executive – Success Communications Group (Baltimore, Maryland)

Click here to post/view all jobs. (WG members post for free.) Positions appear on the WG website, blog, and member newsletter, and enter the Simply Hired database to appear on LinkedIn, Myspace, and others.

In the News: Wednesday round-up [11.18.09]

ECONOMY | “Nonprofit Emergency” (Bisnow, 11/17) – recap of Eight Neighbors’ “Nonprofit 911″ event. Click to read the report shared with attendees (pdf).

LOCAL BUDGETS | Revenue picture sours in Virginia (Examiner, 11/18) – Delegate: “[C]ertainly I think you’ll see some cuts in K-12″

SOCIAL INNOVATION | Opinion: Dan Pallotta: “[I]sn’t giving money to innovative organizations what hundreds of foundations try to do every year? Using the power of the White House for this purpose is like using Steve Jobs to write code.”

Washington AIDS Partnership featured in a new report

How is U.S. philanthropy supporting the fight against HIV/AIDS? A new report from Funders Concerned About Aids breaks it down. The report features the Washington AIDS Partnership, a project of Washington Grantmakers, and the funding collaborative’s ongoing partnership with DC government.

Executive Director Channing Wickham: “In this type of partnership, you have access to resources far beyond your own…our fluency in grantmaking and ability to negotiate flexible contracts has complemented the public sector’s epidemiology expertise and access to federal dollars.” (Partnerships! A key element of Beyond Dollars funding!)

Channing recently joined the board of FCAA, which held its inaugural gathering in DC in September.

Nonprofit 911 event stresses collaboration … ‘Funders Together’ to end homelessness … Flava Flav [News, 11.17.09]

"Collaboration." The 8 Neighbors are: Center for Nonprofit Advancement, the Community Foundation of the National Capital Region, the Greater Washington Board of Trade, Leadership Greater Washington, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, the Nonprofit Roundtable of Greater Washington, United Way of the National Capital Area and the Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers.

COLLABORATION | Local Non-Profits Urged to Collaborate (WAMU, 11/17) - The Center for Nonprofit Advancement has more news from Tuesday’s Nonprofit 911 event, co-hosted by Eight Neighbors. Several folks were tweeting.

HOMELESSNESS | Speaking of collaboration, Funders Together just announced a new website for funders dedicated to ending homelessness. (11/17)

WG | This new Association Bisnow profile is called “Washington Grantmakers.” Catchy title!

FAIRY TALES | WG member Rubie Coles writes: ‘Can you include the link to this op-ed about the movie Precious (WaPo, 11/14) from a Moriah grantee [Rebecca Project for Human Rights] that works… with parents battling substance abuse and vulnerable girls? With all the hype the movie is getting, I think it is important for a reality check.” Done.

HUNGER IN AMERICA | Way way up, according to a new federal report (WaPo, 11/17)

PROFILE | ‘Us Helping Us’ has a passion for living (Examiner, 11/16) – specializes in HIV/AIDS prevention and care services for black gay and bisexual men

MAPS! | It’s Geography Awareness Week!, with oodles of coolness from the National Geographic Education Foundation.

NEWS NEWS | Washington Blade closes (WaPo, 11/17).

BELIEVE THE HYPE |  Chuck D and Flava Flav to visit Sasha Bruce House on Wednesday (wire, 11/16). My band played a showcase with Public Enemy once. It was a strange bill. Glory days, baby. 

-Nick

Thursday: Briefing on the Investing in Innovation (i3) Fund

- Nov. 19, 2-4pm
- 1825 K St. NW. (Cafritz Foundation building)

WG members: Join PEWG & CYF to discuss how the funding community can be supportive of local non-profit applicants to the $650 million Investing in Innovation ( i3) Fund. WG members register here.