December Issue of Washingtonian: “64 Ways to Do Good”

If you don’t subscribe, you should probably buy this issue. See pg. 90 for “Not Your Father’s Philanthropy,” featuring comments from Tamara, Terri, Chuck, and many, many others. Issue includes features on charities doing excellent work, “companies with a heart, hot nonprofit boards… how to set up a foundation.”

CORPORATE
- Dec. 4:  WG Corporate Philanthropy Group Holiday Luncheon
- New Report on Data Trends in Corporate Philanthropy (wire, 11/25)

TOUGH TIMES
- Foundation Assets May Have Dropped 30%, Expert Predicts (Chronicle, 11/25)
- Big Players Scale Back Charitable Donations (WSJ, 11/25)
- Food-Stamp Use Nearing an All-Time High? (NYTimes blog, 11/26)
- Newseum’s Shrinking Endowment = 25 Job Cuts (WaPo, 11/25)

ARTS
The Phillips Collection’s Mentor Teacher Program helps to improve student learning through visual arts education. (11/26)

WG Daily will return on Monday. Happy Thanksgiving and safe travels,
Nick

Maryland partners with Share Our Strength to end childhood hunger [News, 11.25]

HUNGER
- Group looks to end childhood hunger in Md. (Examiner, 11/25) – Share our Strength partners with the state of Maryland to enroll more needy children in federal nutrition programs, “end childhood hunger” in the state.
- Putting Leftovers to Work for The Homeless (VOA, 11/24) – D.C. Central Kitchen profile

PHILANTHROPY & THE ECONOMY
Geoffrey Canada “laid off 10 percent of Harlem Children’s Zone’s more than 1,200 full- and part-time employees earlier this month, to cut costs.” (CityLimitsWeekly, 11/24)

Philanthropy Journal 3-parter: (via COF)
1 – U.S. funders face the downturn (11/10)
2 – Foundations respond to crisis (11/17) – “It’s time for foundations as a sector to step up and continue to award big grants, even if it hurts”
3 – Funders urged to lead in tough economy (11/24) – “Foundations need to recognize that philanthropy has a unique ability to serve as a community convener”

BUDGETS
It’s official: MontCo budget shortfall doubles to $500M (Examiner, 11/25)

Recent postings on the WG Job Board

Post and find jobs here.

President - Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers (Arlington, Virginia)

Program Assistant - Butler Family Fund (District of Columbia) (part time)

Grants Program Assistant - Commonweal Foundation (Silver Spring, Maryland)

Director of Development - Communities In Schools National (Alexandria, Virginia)

WG members post for free. Email us for a discount code, or to have us post the job for you.

Food bank says: “We have donors that are now clients” [News, 11.24]

WaPo Charitable Giving section (11/23):
- “Employers Encourage Workers to Volunteer” - “corporations are increasingly donating the skills of their employees, on company time, rather than just dollars.” With quotes from several WG members and WG’s Katy Moore.
- “Less in Hand to Offer” - “many area nonprofits have trimmed overhead costs, frozen hiring and are anxiously considering cutting programs and laying off staff members in a struggle for solvency and survival.” Article cites WG’s recent survey.
- “Food Banks Adapt for Lean Times” - “One way to put it: We have donors that are now clients”
- “How Donors Can Maximize Social Returns” - ”Fund safety-net services and policy solutions…Give fewer, bigger grants — without strings attached…”
- “Keep On Giving: Times Are Even Tighter For Others”

Donor advised funds to the rescue? – “With money tight, more Americans draw from donor-advised funds built in past years.” (CSM, 11/24)

KEEP THE PAPER TRANSFER!
Social profit orgs have a message for Metro: It’s “absurd to make low-income residents pay as much as $4.15 more for the same [$1.35] trip because they lacked a SmarTrip card.”  (WaPo, 11/23)

-Nick

Evaluation: “New Way To Rate Charities Sought”

In today’s WaPo there’s an article about the quest for better metrics for rating charities. The Social Investing Rating Tool would help donors ”evaluate whether a charity is worth their money.”

Robert Egger:

“There are commonly accepted metrics to be able to say this is a good corporation or a good restaurant or a good movie, but there are none of those metrics for the nonprofit sector, and there have to be.”

The article doesn’t mention any specific metrics. I’m still wondering what set of metrics will allow me to compare the “worth” of a drug prevention program to that of a voting rights advocacy organization. You can objectively rate any for-profit corporation by its bottom line profitability, in dollars. There is no equivalent for social profit organizations that will help you objectively determine, as the article says, ”whether the charity is doing any good.”

I think it’s probably a useful exercise, but that in the end, a nonprofit’s score in any such rating system will say as much about the system’s quirks as it does the effectiveness of the nonprofit.

Your thoughts?

-Nick

Prediction: Financial crisis will close 100,000 nonprofits in next 2 years [News, 11.22]

> Save the date: Dec. 15 – “Coming Together in Tough Times”
__________________

On the bright side…
- Study: Americans to Spend Less This Holiday, but Donate More (ChristianPost, 11/18)
- Americans still giving, despite economic meltdown (AP, 11/21)

Paul Light,
before the
financial crisis
hit

…but on the other hand:
- Prediction: Financial crisis will kill nonprofits (Crain’s, 11/19) – “At least 100,000 nonprofits nationwide will be forced to close their doors in the next two… Mr. Light called on foundations to liquidate their assets to create a safety net for social services groups, or at the very least increase their annual pay-out rates from the current 5%….”
- Nonprofits Ponder Increased Demands, Fewer Resources (AlexandriaTimes, Nov. 20) – “[Terri Freeman] recommended that nonprofits consider merging to survive…mergers could allow nonprofits to create shared back-office support.” 

AGING IN PLACE
Fairfax officials are considering incentives for builders and remodelers to incorporate “universal design” into single-family houses. (WaPo, 11/22)

HUNGER
- Economy and Food Prices Mean Fewer Pantry Donors (WaPo, 11/20)
- A Different Banking Crisis in Need of Fresh Capital (WSJ, 11/20)
- Wal-Mart Gives Fresh Food to Help Combat Hunger  (NYTimes, 11/18)

HOMELESSNESS
- Fannie, Freddie Halt Foreclosures for Holidays (WaPo, 11/21) 
- Homes for the Homeless [Means] Bargains for Everyone (WaPo, 11/20) – Marc Fisher says “Housing First” is a bargain, so look elsewhere for cuts.
- Fannie Mae Holds 21st Annual Help the Homeless Walkathon (wire, 11/22)
- Housing Project Breaks Ground (WaTimes, 11/22) – “Catholic Charities broke ground Friday on an ambitious public-private housing project that will provide 178 high-quality apartments to low- and moderate-income families.”

EARLY CARE AND EDUCATION
“Quality Pre-K For All” – by Vincent Gray (Independent, 11/20) (via Women’s Foundation) 

GREAT AMERICAN SLEEP-IN
GlobalGiving Launches ‘Great American Sleep-In’ This Black Friday (wire, 11/20) – This is a great idea. In fact, let’s do it all week.

Gates Foundation: “The Economy and Our Work”

Yesterday (11/21/08) the Gates Foundation released a statement on the financial crisis:

- “We’ll stay focused on the core set of issues where we think we can do the most good”

- “[A]dvocacy is especially important in tough times. When government officials write next year’s budgets, it may be tempting to cut back on the very programs our grantees care most about.”

- “We are planning to grow our payout in 2009 by about 10%. This is lower than previously planned.”

- “There’s still a lot we don’t know about the effects of the economic downturn… We are working with all of our partners to understand these issues better in the coming weeks and months.”

“Coming Together in Tough Times” (Save the Date: Dec. 15)

- SAVE THE DATE: Dec. 15, 9 am to 11 am -

Tamara Lucas Copeland, President, Washington Grantmakers

According to our recent survey of members, grantmaker assets are declining. This should surprise no one. Fortunately, many grantmakers will continue to give in the same amounts, some will decrease their giving only slightly, and many plan to shift towards providing more general operating support. But overall, funders are very concerned about 2009 and even more concerned about 2010. The fragile social profit community is becoming even more fragile.

Meanwhile, community needs are rising. Local service organizations are wondering how to meet the increased demand when they already see their resources dwindling. Many rely on the continued charitable giving of our region’s top two corporate givers, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. While we believe that their giving is likely to continue, the amounts and areas of focus are still unknown.

Change often waits until something just has to give.

What does it all mean? That we will have to do more with less. Grantmakers will have to be even more strategic, effective and efficient. Efficiency will involve looking beyond the walls of our own organizations and understanding that this downturn, like any other difficulty our region ever faces, is a shared problem.

So that’s what we’re doing. The coalition* that formed to work to preserve Fannie’s and Freddie’s charitable giving for the region has now grown to include the Community Foundation of the National Capital Region and has broadened its focus. We are preparing to lead an assessment in our respective communities of the impact of a changed fiscal reality. The discussion begins with a summit on Dec. 15. We know it’s a busy time of the year, but we have to start the conversation. Then, within our respective communities, we will hold small group discussions that will evolve into larger group explorations and finally into a plan of action.

Many of these conversations are overdue, but change often waits until something just has to give. Sometimes turmoil is an opportunity—a catalyst for new insights, new strategies, and better ways of doing business. I hope to see you on the 15th.

* The original coalition of membership-umbrella organizations included the Board of Trade, the Center for Nonprofit Advancement, the Council of Governments, Leadership Greater Washington, the Nonprofit Roundtable of Greater Washington, the United Way of the National Capital Area, and the Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers.

Funder tour recap: Supporting community organizing as a strategy for change

by Michael Coffey, Program Associate, Hill-Snowdon Foundation

Pedro Cruz, an organizer with DC Jobs with Justice, facilitates a conversation between day laborers and learning tour participants.

Last month, the Hill-Snowdon Foundation hosted a learning tour through 3 distinct District neighborhoods: Brentwood, Anacostia and Shaw. It is tradition for our Foundation to supplement board meetings with neighborhood tours as a board education strategy. This time we invited local funder allies from the Butler Family Fund, Community Foundation for the National Capital Region, Consumer Health Foundation, Herb Block Foundation, Moriah Fund and World Bank.

Mackenzie Baris with DC Jobs with Justice, Jonathan Stith with the Youth Education Alliance and Dominic Moulden with ONE DC, and their colleagues, facilitated conversations about worker rights, education reform, and affordable housing issues. Parisa Norouzi with Empower DC provided insights regarding the critical issues facing low- to moderate-income District residents.

These community leaders and their colleagues helped us get a better feel for the challenges of building a worker center for African American and Latino day laborers, increasing the quantity and quality of guidance counseling in the DC Public School system and preserving affordable housing. Our stops included the Home Depot and Israel Baptist Church in northeast; Anacostia High School, Barry Farms and Poplar Point in southeast and Parcels 33 and 42 in northwest.

Participants appreciated the opportunity to learn about these issues and expressed interest in having similar group learning experiences on a regular basis. For more information about the tour and the importance of supporting community organizing as a strategy for change, contact Nat Chioke Williams, Executive Director of the Hill-Snowdon Foundation, at (202) 833-8600 or nwilliams@hillsnowdon.org.

Major victory for affordable housing in DC

By Martin Mellett, Director, Community Development Support Collaborative

On Tuesday evening the DC City Council approved in a unanimous vote a first reading of a bill that would create a permanent floor for the Housing Production Trust Fund–$70 million for next year and $100 million for future years. This is a major victory for affordable housing. In the wake of a number of affordable housing cuts last week, we thought this was not going to move forward. But advocates packed the city council yesterday morning, made a bunch of calls, and visited council members. It paid off.

From the Coalition for Nonprofit Housing and Economic Development (CNHED):

“Yesterday, November 18, 2008 the Council voted unanimously (all 13 members) to approve Bill 17-0943 the “Housing Production Trust Fund Stabilization Amendment Act of 2008”… The passage of this bill and follow through by the Mayor and Council to fund it would assure that the Trust Fund will have stable funding for years to come, and a unanimous vote by the Council speaks volumes about their support of affordable housing. A final vote on the bill will take place in December.”

For background, read about Washington Grantmakers’ testimony at the Oct. 20 Council hearing on this subject.