“Take it from me: every vote counts” – Al Gore [News, 8.31.10]

DC POLITICS
- 1,100 D.C. voters cast first-ever early ballots for mayor (WaPo, 8/31)
- DC Mayoral Debate: Tuesday, Sept. 1 at noon (online broadcast) — UPDATE: and by Tuesday, I of course mean Wednesday. Wednesday, Sept. 1. At noon.

EDUCATION | FocusDC is asking the candidates about charter school issues.

EARLY LEARNING | Pre-K programs in Md. get praise (WAMU, 8/31) – Pew Center: “Montgomery County… invest[ed] in pre-k as a fundamental component of it’s education system. And it’s paid off!” … Weast: “It costs a lot less than the remediation.”

PROFILE | Mark Buscaino, executive director of DC nonprofit Casey Trees (Examiner, 8/31)

PAKISTAN FLOOD | Philanthropy’s Response (Re:Philanthropy, 8/31)

FUN NEWS | Shera, a five-year-old lion at the National Zoo, gave birth to four little cubs last night (NatGeo, 8/31).

WEATHER | Can you handle the truth?? We did not order the code red!! (But here it is anyway.)

Good and good for you [News, 8.30.10]

NUTRITION
- Cooking meals together is the top way to get kids to eat a healthy meal, according to a survey from the Walmart Foundation and Boys & Girls Clubs of America. (8/30)
- “A ‘Yes! Organic’ grocery store will open on Wednesday in Ward 8’s Fairlawn neighborhood” (WAMU, 8/30)

ELECTIONS
- Nonprofit Montgomery shares the results of its Candidates’ Questionnaire
- Prince George’s: Candidates in the Democratic primary for county executive in Prince George’s answer: “What is the most important thing the county can do to attract more jobs and development?” (WaPo, 8/29)

PROFILE | Darell Hammond, founder and CEO of KaBoom, a nonprofit that builds playgrounds in communities. (WaPo, 8/30)

GIVING PLEDGE | [VIDEO] PND talks to Matthew Bishop about the pledge (8/25)

…and other than a bunch of articles on the DC mayoral race, that’s kind of it. Slow news weekend? What did I miss?
-Nick

“Foundations: Fleas or Elephants?” … Child care: “It’s a container.” … ARRRGHHHHH [News, 8.27.10]

DC SCHOOLS
- ‘D.C. really has an opportunity to serve as a national model’ (WaPo, 8/27) – an interview with HyeSook Chung, executive director of D.C. Action for Children, about new “blended” pre-K programs
- Progress slows in closing achievement gaps in D.C. schools (WaPo, 8/26)

PHILANTHROPY | “Foundations: Fleas or Elephants?” (Blue Avocado, 7/20) – Rubie Coles (Moriah Fund) says: “I highly recommend this article.  The importance of funding community organizing and local advocacy is made very clear.”

HEALTH | New report from GIH: “Implementing Health Care Reform: Funders and Advocates Respond to the Challenge (August, 2010)

“KNOW YOUR SECTOR” | Via Tactical, this video is full of facts: “Nonprofits in the U.S. generate $1.1 trillion every year, which is more than the entire economies of Saudi Arabia and Sweden combined.” (There’s a pairing you don’t see every day.)

ARGHHHHH | Stephen Strasburg out for rest of season, possibly next (ESPN.com, 8/27) – Torn ligament. But, “the success rate for guys coming back from Tommy John [surgery] and retaining their stuff is very good.”

CHILD CARE | “Those of us who work on children’s issues are very depressed.” – Edward Zigler, Yale Professor, co-founder of Head Start. Excerpt:

Let me tell you about one study that’s really very interesting and tells you what I’m talking about.

The Benton Foundation spent $7 million simply to get a sense of people, the man on the street. They spent this money and they did focus groups and the whole survey bit. What they found, down to one word: It’s a container. Mother or father brings the child to the child care center, you put him in this container, and you keep the child safe and dry all day and then the mother picks them up at night.

We didn’t used to call it child care, we used to call it day care, caring for the kids during the day while the parents are working. I don’t see that usage much anymore but that’s exactly how people think of it. It’s not viewed as a place where children can learn and develop, or not depending on what they encounter there.

…We have to turn it into education and not just a container. But this has proven very difficult, the attitudes haven’t changed very much over the entire period I’ve been involved, which is a long, long time now.

Sorry to leave you on a downer. Get outta there! Start that weekend!
-Nick

Everything you could possibly need to know [News, 8.26.10]

Not to overstate things, but below is literally everything that you need to know that is happening in the world today*:

Prince George’s County Candidate Forum
Where? Landover, MD. Time? 6:30pm
Voting Rights Demonstration in DC
Where? Lafayette Park. Time? This. very. moment.

WORKFORCE | Knight Foundation invests $1.1 million in National Fund for Workforce Solutions (8/25) – Other national investors include WG members Annie E. Casey Foundation, The Hitachi Foundation, and Walmart Foundation.” The DC site is the Greater Washington Workforce Development Collaborative.
> Related: Profile: Sarah Oldmixon, director of workforce initiatives at the  Community Foundation for the National Capital Region.

FAMILY INCOME | WG members Pepco, Verizon, and Washington Gas are offering discounts to low-income DC residents. (WaPo, 8/26)

LEGAL AID | …is important. Behind the victory at Marbury Plaza in DC (Beyond Bread, 8/25) – “Bread for the City helped us get educated and organized”

NONPROFITS | “A good value proposition articulates how an organization is uniquely positioned to create significant social impact that is much greater than the costs associated. It involves an organization analyzing, understanding and delivering on three very important things:    1. Capability:  2. Social Impact:   3. Cost…” (Change.org, 8/25) – by Nell Edgington

EDUCATION | Arne Duncan calls on schools to share more data (WaPo, 8/26) – “More than 2,000 L.A. teachers have asked the Times for their scores. It makes no sense that they had to wait for a newspaper to share this information…”

POVERTY / MENTAL HEALTH | Study links poverty to depression among mothers (WaPo, 8/26) – and “severe depression goes largely untreated among low-income mothers of infants”

ARTS | Commentary: “Anacostia is D.C.’s new arts hub” (Examiner, 8/24)

HEARTS & MINDS | “A fifth of [Pakistan] is underwater, it’s open season for the Taliban and aid dollars are meager” (Salon, 8/19)

…and in WMATA news, you’ll no longer be able to go slightly negative on that SmarTrip card (for which you paid $5),  and the exit fare machines don’t take credit cards. Brilliant!
-Nick

_________
* If, by some chance, we missed something, please contact us at grantmakers@gmail.com.

“Demand Democracy” (ending taxation without representation in DC) [News, 8.25.10]

VOTING RIGHTS | Demonstration outside the White House tomorrow (Thursday). “Ninety years ago, the 19th
Amendment granted women the right to vote. Today, women and men in the District of Columbia are still fighting to end taxation without representation.” … “The march will last all day. To join the DC Vote contingent, meet us between 2:30 PM – 4:30 PM.”

EDUCATION
- Tom Friedman, on the movie “Waiting for Superman”: “It is intolerable that in America today a bouncing bingo ball should determine a kid’s educational future…” (NYTimes, 8/24). Look, it’s not just about schools. It’s also about feeling safe, being read to, good nutrition/sleep, etc. But it does have a lot to do with schools, and the lottery scene here is quite powerful. Watch.

- How Will ‘Race to the Top’ Winners Address Early Ed? (New America Fdn, 8/25) – “The District of Columbia  says it will increase the number of 3- and 4-year-old children in its publicly funded preschool and pre-kindergarten programs… [and blend] Head Start, federal and local monies to create what the district says will be a comprehensive pre-kindergarten program in its Title I schools.” … Georgia will “participate as a lead state in an initiative coordinated by the Annie E. Casey Foundation to improve reading outcomes for children by age 8.”

- Search Underway For New Montgomery Co. School Superintendent (WAMU, 8/25) – Weast to retire

INNOVATION | More than $: Insights from the Case Foundation-White House gathering on prizes, challenges and open grantmaking (8/25)

PAKISTAN | Donations for flood victims lag, despite on-going crisis (USAToday, 8/24)

OUR JUMBLED BRAINS | Some things in this NYTimes series, Your Brain on Computers, ring far too true.

New position openings (Post jobs here – $60 for 60 days)

• Program Assistant – National AIDS Fund (District of Columbia)

Click here to post/view all jobs. (WG members post for free.) Positions appear for 60 days on the WG website, are featured in WG’s blog and newsletter, and enter the Simply Hired database to appear on LinkedIn, Myspace, and others.

The Pr. George’s Candidate Forum: Thursday, Aug. 26 @ 6:30pm

Click here to register for the Candidates’ Forum for Prince George’s County Executive Candidates
When: Thursday, Aug 26, 6:30pm – 8:30pm … Where: 8181 Professional Place, Hyattsville MD … Moderator: Darcy Spencer, NBC4 News.

Hear from candidates about their plans for the future, for bringing the county out of the recession, and for engaging their constituents. This event is convened by the Human Services Coalition of Prince George’s County and the Prince George’s County Community Foundation. The Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers is a co-sponsor.

Now enrolling grantmakers for “DC Public Education Learning Tours 2010-11″

DCPS reforms under Chancellor Rhee and the presence of the second-largest charter sector in the country have led DC education reform into the national spotlight. As local funders we have an obligation to delve deeper into the education reforms in our city. The Banyan Tree Foundation, the CityBridge Foundation, Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers, and the D.C. Public Education Fund have designed two “semesters” of DC Public Education Learning Tours to facilitate the kind of learning that fosters this deeper understanding.

> Register for single events, or for Fall Semester, Spring Semester, or Full Year packages. Learn more at Washingtongrantmakers.org/edutours. Presented with support from the Community Foundation for the National Capital Region, Flamboyan Foundation, and Elizabeth Harrison Hadley.

DC, Md. win millions in federal “Race to the Top” education funds [News, 8.24.10]

EDUCATION | DC and Maryland are Race to the Top winners! Round II winners were announced this morning (AP, 8/24):  … DC to receive $75 million, Md. $250 million (Ed.gov, 8/24)

PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS | When DC closes the Office of Partnerships and Grant Services (OPGS), here’s where its services are supposed to end up (Susie’s blog, 8/24)

GIVING | The charitable giving market is efficient after all (SSIR, 8/24) – by Timothy Ogden – “[D]onors are getting exactly what they want from their charitable giving.” “The challenge is changing what donors want.”

DC SCHOOLS | Very few logistical problems on DCPS’ first day (WaPo, 8/24) – three years ago Michelle Rhee sought the authority to dismiss employees and reorganize the office, and then did it.

Social Innovation Fund controversy [News, 8.23.10]

TRANSPARENCY | Social Innovation Fund faces questions about conflicts and selection procedures (NYTimes, 8/21) – More information has now been made available. Times article notes: “the nonprofit world has its own code of silence that keeps insiders from expressing negative opinions.”
> Opinion: “[T]he fund should announce immediately that next year’s process will include an explicit notice to applicants that all applications considered for grants will be made public.” – Sean Stannard-Stockton, Tactical Philanthropy.com

TEACHER EVALUATION | “In coming months, The LA Times will publish a series of articles and a database analyzing individual teachers’ effectiveness in the nation’s second-largest school district — the first time, experts say, such information has been made public anywhere in the country.” The most recent article here (8/21).
> Jay Mathews: “L.A. Times testing series raises more questions” (WaPo, 8/23)
> Opinion: Why not to publish data on individual teachers… (HuffPo, 8/23)

EDUCATION | With limited training, Teach for America recruits play expanding role in schools (WaPo, 8/23)

- Sept. 8 @ WG: Public Education Working Group: Developing and Retaining Highly Effective Educators (guest: Michelle Rhee) (for WG members only)

PSYCHOLOGY OF WEALTH | “if higher-income people were instructed to imagine themselves as lower class, they became more charitable.” “fascinatingly, the inverse was true as well…” (NYTimes, 8/20)

AFFORDABLE HOUSING | Commentary: D.C. needs to change affordable housing law if it truly wants to promote homeownership (WaPo, 8/23) – by Shiv Newaldass, director of advocacy for Manna Inc..

GIVING | Nonprofits face drop-off in giving, driven by decrease in individual donations, survey finds (WaPo, 8/23)