District launches HIV-test campaign [News, 8.31.09]

HIV/AIDS | District Launches HIV-Test Campaign (WaPo, 8/29) – “The city has been strongly criticized for failing to launch an aggressive social marketing campaign… In fall 2008, a D.C. Appleseed Center for Law and Justice report sharply rebuked the city’s AIDS awareness effort…”

RECESSION | Effects being felt by nonprofits nationwide, report finds (PND, 8/31)

“EXTREME” GRANTING! | Concurrent with the [Extreme Home Makeover] reveal, Millicent Williams, President and CEO of the D.C. Children and Youth Investment Trust Corporation, awarded The Fishing School a grant in the amount of $50,000. The Wachovia Foundation, of Wachovia Bank, matched the grant with an additional $50,000 (wire, 8/30). More about the filming…

CORPORATE
- Drops in corporate giving exceed forecasts (Crain’s, 8/28)
- “The Washington Area Fuel Fund, Washington Gas’s signature philanthropic program, assisted more than 8,200 area residents in 2009, disbursing over $888,000 to help pay for winter heating bills.” (wire, 8/27)

GIVING | “Skip a lunch, feed a bunch” – Sept. 16 – Capital Area Food Bank asks businesses, nonprofits and individuals to donate what they would normally spend on lunch.

SOCIAL PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS | Non-Profit Helps Abused Women From Local Vietnamese Population (WAMU, 8/31)

SCHOOLS | Schools crack down on rising truancy (Examiner, 8/30) - ”I’ll go next week.”

“Double the Numbers”… Pro bono service… “The merger wave that never broke” [News, 8.28.09]

DC EDUCATION | “The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation approached [Herb Tillery] to run its nonprofit to get more D.C. kids in college. They put in about $116 million. He opened the College Success Foundation in December 2006. Its motto is “Double the Numbers.” … So far the money seems well spent…” (Examiner, 8/28)

CORPORATE
- “Almost half the corporations in the survey report that they are emphasizing partnerships with nonprofits over straight cash donations.” (CSRWire, 8/’09)
- The Evolution of Pro Bono Service: What It Means for Corporations Today (onPhilanthropy, 8/27)
-  “Kennedy = Service; What it means for business…” (BCLC, 8/’09)
- What Personality Is Your Company’s Twitter Account? (BCLC, Aug. ’09)

MERGERS | The merger wave that never broke (Crain’s, 8/24)

AFFORDABLE HOUSING | D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development picks housing projects for funding (WBJ, 8/26)

HEALTH
- Losing Health Care Coverage, People Seek Services At Free Clinics (WAMU, 8/28)
- Maryland’s Health Department Takes Brunt of Layoffs (WAMU, 8/27)

ARTS | Falls Church approves arts district formation (WBJ, 828) – “Communities across the Washington area are investigating the concept of arts districts as catalysts for economic development.”

PEOPLE | Life lessons: From one Gates to another (USAToday, 8/27) – One Gates, two Gates, old Gates, new Gates. (Sorry. I have preschoolers and they are melting my brain.)

Volunteering waning in this recession? [News, 8.27.09]

VOLUNTEERING | …Waning in Recession, Report Says (NYTimes, 8/26)

LIFEPIECES | …gets $5K grant from NEA after vandalism (WaPo, 8/27)

DC SCHOOLS | Enrollment Climbs (WaPo, 8/27) – 40,179 and counting…

PEOPLE | Interview: Albert Ruesga, President/CEO, Greater New Orleans Foundation (PND, 8/26)

Shortest Daily ever! Back full-strength tomorrow.

-Nick

D.C. public education funders go back to school [News, 8.26.09]

DC SCHOOLS
- The DC Public Education Learning Tours 2009-10 (for grantmakers) will begin with the “Semester Kick-Off Breakfast” on September 9. The Community Foundation, the Banyan Tree Foundation, the CityBridge Foundation, and the D.C. Public Education Fund bring education funders in for a closer look at the reform effort. Stay tuned for updates/reports from Erica Pressman, consultant to WG’s Public Education Working Group.

- D.C.’s Other School Reformers (WaPo editorial, 8/26) – “In what is being described as a national first, the city’s charters will be subjected to a uniform evaluation process. Developed with grants from national foundations, the “performance management framework” will include academic measures… and nonacademic indicators…”

HIV/AIDS | D.C.’s Ex-Dealers Back On Streets, “getting residents hooked on HIV/AIDS prevention” (WaPo, 8/26).  Former drug dealers “have the skills for what we do,” says A. Toni Young, executive director of the nonprofit Community Education Group.

HEALTH | Gov. Kaine: “By making private resources available CareFirst is setting an example for other corporate leaders and helping build on the progress made by publicly funded initiatives in communities across the Commonwealth.” (WJLA, 8/25) [apply for this grant]

HUNGER | Commentary: Hunger Affects Students’ Ability To Learn – By Alexandra Ashbrook, Director of D.C. Hunger Solutions
(WAMU, 8/25)

SOCIAL INVESTING | Opinion: Social Investing (Finally) Grows Up (Greenbiz.com, 8/24) – “investing in a broad array of companies [including 'sin stocks'] and pushing them to improve their practices.”

WEB | New nonprofit aims to be the YouTube for global giving (MercuryNews, 8/26) – Worldflix.org

YOUTH DEVELOPMENT/JUVENILE JUSTICE | “[T]ension between security staff and the youth services agency over how best to protect and rehabilitate some of the District’s most violent teens.” (WaPo, 8/26)

Online learning is difficult without a computer [News, 8.25.09]

DIGITAL DIVIDE | The feds suggest that in case of flu outbreak, students should use web conferencing and podcasts to keep up. But in Wards 7 and 8, many kids don’t have access to a computer. (WaTimes, 8/25)

EDUCATION | New accelerator schools to speed pupils to diploma (AP, 8/25) – “Designed for at-risk students”…”The Open Society Institute-Baltimore, a philanthropic organization, provided $675,000 to the city’s transformation-schools initiative”

DC SCHOOLS | Higher scores test how Washington, DC public schools define success (PBS, 8/18) – “School test scores are up in Washington, D.C., but does that mean students are learning?”

CHILD WELFARE | DC Children’s Trust Fund speaks to teachers about reporting signs of physical, sexual and mental abuse of students that has taken place over summer. (WaPo, 8/25)

ARTS | A Few Dollars at a Time, Patrons Support Artists on the Web (NYTimes, 8/24)

CORPORATE: Commentary: Corporate philanthropy can boost education (Philanthropy Journal, 8/24)

PEOPLE
- Profile: Jacqueline Novogratz, founder of the Acumen Fund (NYTimes, 8/22)
- Billion-Dollar Donors (Forbes, 8/24) – Top 14 donors in the world

Neighbors in Need Fund: Safety-net systems reform grants

The Community Foundation for the National Capital Region is accepting applications for Neighbors in Need Fund Systems Reform Grants. Guidelines and RFP available here. Deadline: Oct. 5, 2009. Grantseeker webinar: Sept. 15, 2009.

New faces of homeless in D.C. [News, 8.24.09]

HOMELESSNESS | New faces of homeless in D.C. (McClatchy, 8/23) - DC has ”almost triple the number of homeless per 10,000 people as the national average”…”In the past year, family homelessness has increased at least 15 percent in DC…” Video: Who are the homeless in DC? - features Thrive DC, Miriam’s Kitchen…

PUBLIC POLICY | Opinion: Nonprofits: We Must Start Beating the Drum (Nonprofit Quarterly) – “Now is the time for nonprofits to remind government that we exist, and we exist at a scale that should not and cannot be ignored any longer.”

DC SCHOOLS 
- Rhee’s 200-Page ‘Framework’ Spells Out Teaching Guidelines (WaPo, 8/23)
- 37,000 to Start D.C. Public School Year, Well Below Budgeted Figure (WaPo, 8/24)

HEALTH | HHS Secretary Announces $25.7 Million in Grants to Expand, Improve Health Center Services (wire, 8/23) - just one grant in our region, it appears–$80K to Family and Medical Counseling Service in DC.

ENVIRONMENT | D.C. Councilman Tommy Wells Pushes for Recycling Effort (WAMU, 8/22)

VOLUNTEERING ON THE TEEVEE | Good Morning Tripp Family and The Fishing School! (wire, 8/22) – Get your Extreme Makeover in DC updates from United Way.

GIVING | Can money buy happiness? (Boston Globe, 8/23) – Give it away, give it away, give it away now…

The nonprofit starvation cycle [News, 8.22.09]

Heads up! September is a big month at WG–many chances for members to learn, reconnect, and recharge.
______________________

PHILANTHROPY
- Opinion: The Nonprofit Starvation Cycle – “A vicious cycle is leaving nonprofits so hungry for decent infrastructure that they can barely function as organizations…” (Stanford Social Innovation Review, Fall 2009)
- Jeff Raikes talks about first year as Gates Foundation CEO (SeattleTimes, 8/20)

SOCIAL PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS | Hope and a Home is breaking the cycle of poverty in Washington D.C. (Examiner, 8/21)

UNEMPLOYMENT | …is down across the D.C. region (WBJ, 8/21)

ARTS | Check out this mural. “The D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities partnered with the youth employment program and Albus Cavus, a nonprofit artist collective and mentoring program, to transform the wall and engage local youth.” (WaPo, 8/23)

Sept 16-18 in DC: First Annual Gathering of Funders Concerned About AIDS

Topics will include the future of HIV/AIDS funding and policy, reproductive rights of women with HIV/AIDS,  and media and technology, and more. The Washington AIDS Partnership’s Channing Wickham helped shape a panel on HIV/AIDS in Washington, D.C. featuring Dr. Shannon Hader, the Director of the D.C. HIV/AIDS Administration; Walter Smith, the Executive Director of the DC Appleseed Center (Partnership grantee); and Adam Tenner, Executive Director of Metro TeenAIDS (Partnership grantee). Register! “This is not a talking head conference. It is a unique opportunity for funders to mobilize and contribute to AIDS funding-at-large.”

RFP from CareFirst: $1 million for maternal and child health in Northern Virginia

CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield has announced the availability of $1 million in grant funding for programs aimed at improving maternal and child health in its Northern Virginia service area. Proposal deadline: September 18. Download application here.