Are there too many nonprofits? [News, 9.30.09]

TOO MANY NONPROFITS?
- Opinion: “Too many nonprofit groups… is not the problem. Rather, the endemic undercapitalization of even the strongest nonprofit groups is the more pressing problem grant makers should try to solve… [G]rant makers might reflect on the role they play in creating and perpetuating the current system in which even strong organizations struggle to meet their budgets.” (Chronicle, 10/1) – By Kathleen P. Enright and Jonathan Spack.
- Want to start a nonprofit? Think again. (Social Citizens blog, 9/29)
- Some interesting thoughts on this topic appeared on the White Courtesy Telephone blog a couple of years ago.

HUMAN RIGHTS | Bread for the City has a new monthly clinic for political asylum-seekers. “Having a doctor certify that an asylum-seeker was tortured back in the home country enormously improves the chance that an immigration court will approve a claim.” (WaPo, 9/27)

GIVING | 1 in 3 Americans Giving Less to Charities (Christian Post, 9/29), according to an August survey by World Vision.

FLU | Local Businesses Face Different Challenges When it Comes to H1N1 (WAMU, 9/29)

More neighbors in need [News, 9.29.09]

NEIGHBORS IN NEED | Terri Lee Freeman, president of WG member Community Foundation for The National Capital Region, appeared on Fox5 News last week to talk about the Neighbors in Need Fund. (9/22)

HUNGER
- Local Food Bank Anticipates Record Numbers For Second Straight Holiday Season (WAMU, 9/29)
- “We have more people than ever coming here thinking they’d never ever be here,” said Amy Ginsburg, executive director of Manna Food Center in Montgomery County (WaPo, 9/29).

POVERTY | “More than one in four District children were living in poverty last year…” (WaPo, 9/29) – “data was virtually unchanged from 2007.”

HOMELESSNESS | 15 homeless people get apartments next month (WaPo, 9/29) – “another step in the city’s ambitious, five-year-old plan to end homelessness by 2014.”

UNITED WAY | …shifts goals from fundraising to ‘impact’ (USAToday, 9/27)

Announced: “Building Effective Organizations to Beat a Downturn” – Oct. 13 [WG Event]

Social-profit funding … Compensation … WEAVE reaches first goal [News, 9.28.09]

SOCIAL-PROFIT FUNDING | [Opinion] “When the clock strikes midnight on Sept. 30, public-private partnerships will be severed all across the District” – by Marianne Scott, chair of the board of directors of the Humanities Council of Washington, D.C.

SOCIAL-PROFIT COMPENSATION
- Study: CEO Salaries At Nonprofits Up In 2008 (NPR, 9/28) – “Nonprofits… defend the high salaries as necessary to attract good talent.” Yes. That is how compensation works.
- “Some donors are surprised to learn that leadership isn’t voluntary, says Ken Berger, CEO of Charity Navigator.” (USAToday, 9/28) Seriously? Apparently, a signficant number of people think that “nonprofit” = people working for free.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SUPPORT
- Update: WEAVE reaches first goal
- Letter to editor: House of Ruth helps victims of domestic violence (WaPo, 9/25)

“IMPACT INVESTING” | New Industry Group Launched to Facilitate For-Profit Investing that Addresses Social and Environmental Challenges (wire, 9/25)

CLINTON GLOBAL INITIATIVE | …raises more than $8 billion (Reuters, 9/25)

PEOPLE
- Obituary: Frank Karel, Communications Exec at Nonprofits (WaPo, 9/28)
- Top nonprofit chiefs find ways to inspire while leading people (WBJ, 9/25)

DONORS | Alexandria, Va. is tops in charitable giving, according to Convio

Side-by-side comparison of major health care reform proposals

… from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Rhee profile in WaPo Magazine… New HIV/AIDS clinic in DC… Youth volunteering on the rise [News, 9.25.09]

DC SCHOOLS
- The big Michelle Rhee profile in this coming Sunday’s Post magazine, written by Marc Fisher, is online already (WaPo, 9/27) – George Vradenburg, WG Board member: “In the end, she’s right. One can debate the tone, and people do, but she’s right.”

- D.C. Teachers Protest Impending Layoffs (WAMU, 9/25) – “Rally organizers…aren’t ruling out a hunger strike.”

Amidst the complaints, these facts from the Fisher piece strike me as the key ones:
- “only 9 percent of D.C. high school students will graduate from a college within five years of leaving the city’s system”
- “only 8 percent of ninth-graders are proficient in math”
- “The poor black fourth-graders in New York City are two full grades ahead of the poor black fourth-graders in Washington, D.C.”
- “[N]o one, anywhere, has turned a failed inner-city school system into a beacon of achievement.”

HIV/AIDS | Newly Opened Clinic to Offer Hundreds Free HIV/AIDS Care (WaPo, 9/25) – AIDS Healthcare Foundation opened the “AHF Blair Underwood Healthcare Center” on the 2100 block of K Street.

ENVIRONMENT | Chesapeake Bay Cleanup Efforts Could Become Nationwide Model (WAMU, 9/25)

ARTS | Gold Leaf is “a rarity in the District: an affordable shelter for young musicians, artists with day jobs and established creatives who have been priced out of other locations.” (WaPo, 9/27)

KIDS. STILL ALRIGHT. | Youth volunteering on the rise (PJ, 9/23)

-Nick

Funeral services for Frank Karel

Funeral services for Frank Karel, Trellis Fund trustee and husband of former Washington Grantmakers Board Chair Betsy Karel, will be held on Saturday, September 26th at 4 pm at The All Souls Memorial Episcopal Church. The address is 2300 Cathedral Avenue, NW. (The church is at the corner of Cathedral and Woodley Avenues.) The family invites guests to their home at 3411- 36th Street, NW immediately following the service.

Giving, and taxes, and healthcare, oh my [News, 9.24.09]

GIVING/TAXES/HEALTHCARE
- Senators Propose Charitable-Deduction Limits in Health Bill (Chronicle, 9/23) – The top bracket would have charitable contributions offset against taxes by 35 cents on the dollar, not 39.6 cents. A coalition of nonprofits opposes the plan. This opposition doesn’t sit well with some:
- Opinion: Uncharitable Charities (WaPo, 9/24) – E.J. Dionne asks, “If even groups whose very mission is public-spirited can’t take an exceedingly modest risk to extend health coverage, how can we expect anybody else to pay a little more for a moral imperative?” A fair question.

LET’S STUFF BALLOTS | Two local nonprofits’ projects are finalists for Tom’s of Maine $20,000 grants–New Community for Children and Bread for the City. Public vote determines the 5 winners. Vote early and often–it’s allowed! (To find them, ctrl-F and search for “DC”)

DEBT | Nonprofits Paying Price for Gamble on Finances (NYTimes, 9/24) – Expert: “Organizations got to be all fancy-pants with their financial management.” Indeed. The time for plain-pants financial practices is upon us.

DIGITAL DIVIDE | U.S. Broadband Coalition Releases Report on Broadband Strategy (BroadbandCensus.com, 9/24)

SCHOOLS | Graduation Rates Reach 13-Year Low In Montgomery (WaPo, 9/24)

Gearing up for D.C. Public Education Learning Tours

By Erica Pressman, WG Working Group consultant

Last week I had the pleasure of attending the kick-off breakfast for the D.C. Public Education Learning Tours – a new initiative launched by the Community Foundation of the National Capitol Region, the Banyan Tree Foundation, the CityBridge Foundation and the D.C. Public Education Fund. The breakfast, in addition to introducing the semester, focused on what makes for an effective school – Dr. Tasha Johnson and LaShante Knight from DCPS presented the “DCPS Effective Schools Framework” that is guiding the system’s reform efforts and will be used to evaluate school and educator performance. Andrea Foggy-Paxon of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation presented the rubric she and her colleagues have developed for evaluating a school’s effectiveness during a site visit.

The eight school tours, which will take place over two semesters during the 2009-10 school year, have been designed to provide participants with a deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities faced by the public education systems in D.C., and to learn what constitutes an effective school. Tours are thematically arranged and include both DCPS schools and DC charter schools. The first tour of the fall semester will focus on early childhood education, and I look forward to writing again to share with you what I learn.

> WG’s Public Education Working Group

DCEC to cease operations… Meyer Foundation and Consumer Health Foundation announce partnership [News, 9.23.09]

PARTNERSHIPS | The Meyer Foundation announces a new collaborative partnership with the Consumer Health Foundation, the leading health funder in the Greater Washington region. “Beginning in 2010, Consumer Health Foundation will manage the application and grant review process for Meyer’s health and mental health grants.”

DC EDUCATION COMPACT | …to cease operations as an independent organization (9/22) … DCEC to Fold (CityPaper, 9/23)

CORPORATE
According to a new study by the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship and the Hitachi Foundation…
- corporate citizenship practices are ingrained in increasing numbers of American businesses (wire, 9/23)
- 38% of companies cut cash giving in 2009 (Chronicle, 9/23)

DC SCHOOLS
- WaPo opinion: How D.C. budget cuts can eliminate ineffective teachers (9/23)
-  Erasures on D.C. Tests Apparently Concentrated in Six Schools (WaPo, 9/23)

ARTS | In Gateway Area of Pr. George’s, Route 1 Revitalization Takes Its Time (WaPo, 9/23)

CHILD CARE | D.C. Council Hears From Child-Care Community (WaPo, 9/23)