Foundation giving fell 1% (inflation adjusted!) in 2008. But this year… [News, 3.31.09]

Foundation Giving in ’08 Defied Huge Asset Decline (NYTimes, 3/31) - BUT “giving in the current year… likely to drop much more.” “The nation’s foundations lost nearly $150 billion in assets last year.”  Article cites Fdn. Center data (.pdf)
> Related: “Grantmakers in the Washington region are making adjustments to keep critical funds flowing into the community.” (WGDaily, 3/6)

READY TO LEAD…NOW | Inaugural Class of Future Executive Directors Fellowship Produces Two New Nonprofit CEOs (Nonprofit Roundtable, 3/30) - That was quick! Several WG members supported the fellowship program. The Meyer Foundation, Annie E. Casey Foundation and others produced 2008′s “Ready to Lead?” report, which got the ball rolling.

FOUNDATIONS AND PUBLIC POLICY | New Foundation Center book includes options available for foundations and recent efforts concerning school choice, wetlands preservation, child care, and health insurance. (wire, 3/30)

GIVING/TAXES/HEALTH | Independent Sector’s Diana Aviv on charitable deductions and health-care reform: “We believe the country can find ways to encourage our tradition of charitable giving and create a less expensive but more inclusive health-care system.” (WaPo, 3/31)

Consumer Health Foundation announces 2009 RFP

Details here. Under this RFP, the Foundation will fund organizations advocating for positive social change in two areas: 1) Health Care Access and 2) Health Justice.
- Q&A Teleconference – April 14, 2009
- Application deadline - May 13, 2009

School uniforms for DC students [News, 3.30]

DC SCHOOLS
- Rhee lays out guidelines for new uniforms policy (Examiner, 3/29) – Great idea. I wore a uniform in high school–was initially opposed, but came to appreciate the positives.
-  Opinion: “How Bill Gates Would Repair Our Schools” – “You might call it the Obama-Duncan-Gates-Rhee philosophy of education reform…” (WaPo, 3/30) 
- “Significant, and seemingly random” disparities in funding this year (WaPo, 3/28)
- Opinion: Continue the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (WaPo, 3/29)

ENVIRONMENT | “No Child Left Inside” - Environmentalists want to tweak No Child Left Behind.
> They’re baaaack! Peak cherry blossoms: April 1-4

HIV/AIDS | Justice Must Sustain Compassion for Those With HIV (WaPo, 3/29) – by Patricia Wudel, CEO of Joseph’s House. Joseph’s House is a Washington AIDS Partnership grantee.

SOCIAL SECTOR
- Social worker puts nonprofits to test (WaTimes, 3/29) - profile of Social Solutions, which provides software that lets nonprofits “track, measure and analyze their efforts as they relate to outcomes.”
- More from Paul Brest about NCRP guidelines (HuffPo, 3/30)

PEOPLE
In a recession, “Down But Not Out” – WaPo follows Rick Rose, former Forum communications director, as he looks for work. (3/29)
____

TOMORROW | WG Event: Reception for Grantmakers in the Arts’ Janet Brown

Beyond Dollars: Giving less, but leading more [News, 3.27]

BEYOND DOLLARS | Giving Less but Leading More (onPhilanthropy, 3/27) – “Now, more than ever, it’s vital to showcase foundations’ value beyond dollars and cents.” Yes! WG’s forthcoming Beyond Dollars report will do just that. Look for it this fall.

FOUNDATIONS ON THE HILL  | “The stars were aligned” at this year’s event (Chronicle, 3/26) – “[T]he tone of the conversations had changed. ‘They are asking, How can we help you?’”

NEIGHBORHOOD INVESTMENT? | Awarding of Neighborhood Funds to Large Nonprofits Draws Criticism (WaPo, 3/27) - ”By law, [DC] is supposed to gather community input before deciding how to use the [Neighborhood Investment Fund], which will have more than $17 million in 2010, according to the budget…. But some D.C. Council members say that has not happened during this budget cycle.” The question: Should any money from this fund really go to the Kennedy Center?

DC SCHOOLS | Obama Reform Plan May Boost Rhee in Negotiations (WAMU, 3/27) – “His reform agenda, say some experts, resembles that of D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee.”

PEOPLE | MEAF Executive Director Rayna Alward honored with KIT Founders Award (3/26)

and finally, from the family fun department, tomorrow is the Smithsonian Kite Festival. (Rain date is Sunday.) Enjoy your weekend!

-Nick

4 tips from Leslie Crutchfield

By Katy Moore, Director of Member Services

Washington Grantmakers’ corporate members gathered on March 12th for the first Corporate Philanthropy luncheon of 2009. Guest speaker, Leslie Crutchfield, co-author of Forces for Good, led a discussion on how to get the biggest return on your social investments. Here are four of her suggested strategies for optimizing returns this year:

Give fewer, bigger grants—without strings:
Focusing on a smaller portfolio of nonprofit partners allows you to give larger gifts and be hands-on with the success of your grantee. Think about how investing happens in the private sector: venture capitalists pick a small number of would-be winners and fund those companies over many years.

Fund safety-net services AND policy solutions:
While funding the local food bank or homeless shelter is important, funding organizations that advocate, for instance, to increase federal food assistance or alter the tax structure to aid working-poor families will be a much greater return on your investment. To learn more about funding advocacy, visit the Center for Lobbying in the Public Interest.

Leverage social innovation:
Helping organizations with novel solutions take their ideas to scale (whether that’s regionally, nationally or internationally) allows you to leverage your investment many times over. If you’re looking for nonprofit in the early-state of development, you may want to check out the portfolios of Ashoka or Venture Philanthropy Partners as a place to start.

Look beyond conventional charity ratings:
While easy-to-access online rating sites, such as Charity Navigator, show how efficiently a nonprofit deploys funding, they do not reveal much about effectiveness. One of the best ways to learn information on nonprofit performance is anecdotally through peer forums such as Washington Grantmakers’ working groups, affinity groups and funding collaboratives.

Financial safety net of nonprofit organizations is fraying [News, 3.26]

Financial safety net of nonprofit organizations Is fraying, according to a survey from the Nonprofit Finance Fund (NYTimes, 3/25). More resources on this topic from the Foundation Center.

GIVING/TAXES
Obama Defends Push to Cut Tax Deductions for Charitable Gifts (WaPo, 3/26) – CBPP reports that the change would save the Treasury $318 billion over the next ten years to help finance health care reform, and would reduce charitable giving by approximately $4 billion per year, from $306B to $302B. So I guess that’s the trade-off.

HEALTH
- Bread for the City expansion project breaks ground (WaPo, 3/26 – scroll down) – “will more than double its medical clinic’s capacity. “
- Maryland poised to receive $1.7B for health care coverage (WBJ, 3/24)

CHILD CARE
DC budget proposal would cut 111 positions from child-care programs (WaPo, 3/26)

FIRST HOMETOWN
Could It Really Be Him? Yeah, Probably (NYTimes, 3/25) – The Obamas, out and about. Another mention for Mary’s Center, Miriam’s Kitchen.

EDUCATION | What the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) has yet to prove (Slate, 3/23)

Senate measure seeks to spur foundations to give more [News, 3.25]

Senate Measure Seeks to Spur Foundations to Give More (NYTimes, 3/24) – “Foundations complain that the current system effectively penalizes them when they give away more money than usual.” And this bill would simplify things…or something. Actually, I’ve read this twice and I still don’t understand it. But many of you will!

REAL TIME GRANTS DATA?
The Grantsfire project is helping grantmakers nationwide publish their grants data online in a standardized format (wire, 3/25). This is important. I’ll look into it and post in more detail soon.

LOCAL EVENT | 6th Annual Budget and Tax Briefing for Grantmakers – It’s free, it’s in DC.

GIVING/TAXES | President Obama Stands By Proposed Charitable-Deduction Limits (Chronicle, 3/24)

NEWSPAPERS | Save the dead tree news! U.S. Sen. Cardin (D-Md.) introduces bill that would allow “newspaper companies to restructure as nonprofits with a variety of tax breaks.”

MICRO-LOANS | Micro-loans for Americans? Kiva’s coming to the USA (Fortune, 3/23)

PUBLICATION | “Philanthropy Annual: 2008 Review” - from Foundation Center

In the News – Tuesday Round-up [3.24]

- Foundations Oppose Call to Target Grants (WSJ, 3/23)
- Opinion: “Nonprofits Wrong to Oppose Obama Tax Changes” (BeyondChron, 3/24)  – “I always find it sad when my fellow nonprofit leaders become fronts for campaigns by the wealthy to perpetuate social injustice.”
- Philanthropist puts bounty on saving lives (BizJournals, 3/20) – “The challenge is to save as many lives as possible with the least amount of money — and to prove the number of lives saved with something akin to a head count.”

BUDGETS
District services taking a hit in Fenty’s budget proposal (Examiner, 3/24) 

HOUSING
Affordable Housing Program Reevaluated (WaPo, 3/24) – Will Fairfax County’s “penny for housing” break the budget in a down economy?

DC SCHOOLS
Education’s Ground Zero (NYTimes, 3/22) – Kristoff column about Michelle Rhee

WHO WILL WIN?
Vote in the Women’s Foundation’s 2009 Leadership Awards

The state of public arts funding (Things could be worse)

Photo by Shyree Mezick for DCCAH – Life Pieces to Masterpieces

By Christian Clansky, program associate

Over the last few weeks, Washington Grantmakers members have gotten a good sense of how private funders are navigating the economic crisis. Last week, WG’s Arts and Humanities Working Group invited representatives from several public grantmaking organizations to share their perspectives.

First, the bad news: In Maryland, arts and humanities funding is being reduced by more than 30%. Montgomery County also faces a county cut of 5% in FY09, with more expected in FY10. Suzan Jenkins, executive director at the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, expressed her fear that once the economy starts to recover, it will be too late for many arts organizations. Her organization is focusing on creative ways to spread its reduced grants budget as far as possible.

Elsewhere locally, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities expects its grants process to be more competitive due to more requests, but it has applied for aid from the stimulus package (via the National Endowment for the Arts’ allocation) to help keep its funding stable. In Fairfax, there are mixed blessings. Over the last few years, the county council has shown a commitment to the arts by increasing the Arts Council of Fairfax County’s budget from $120,000 to $620,000. On the flip side, across the board cuts of 15% will affect the organization in FY10.

At the national level, both the NEA and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) conveyed optimism about the government’s commitment to the arts and humanities. The NEA’s John Ostrout pointed out that while the $50 million received through the stimulus package is not a huge amount of money, the simple fact that the allocation stuck to the bill through all of its forms is a great accomplishment and a show of support.

Carol Watson, Acting Chair of the NEH, shared her encouragement not only that President Obama and Congress have acknowledged her organization’s importance – increasing its budget slightly in 2009 – but that the humanities are being recognized separately from the arts.

If you are interested in joining the Arts and Humanities Working Group, please contact me at clansky@washingtongrantmakers.org. The Arts and Humanities Working Group will continue to advocate on behalf of arts and humanities funding in our region by expounding on Americans for the Arts’ Bob Lynch’s assertion that “the arts are part of the solution.”

Related:
> “To Fix the Economy, Fund the Arts” (WGDaily, 2/9/2009)
> WG’s Arts and Humanities Working Group

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• - Director of Finance and Administration – Maryland Association of Nonprofit Organizations (Baltimore, Maryland)