Mary E. McClymont to lead the Public Welfare Foundation [News, 12.20.10]

PEOPLE

McClymont

- Public Welfare Foundation chooses new president (wire, 12/20) – “[Mary E.] McClymont has served most recently as executive director of Global Rights, an international human rights organization” … “She also previously held a number of executive positions with the Ford Foundation”

- Ted Leonsis’ pick for Washington’s person of the year is George Jones of Bread for the City. (WaPo, 12/18)

CORPORATE GIVING
“‘The success of our company has been because we give,’ [Bill] Marriott, chairman and chief executive of Marriott International, said in an interview after accepting the Civic Spirit Award presented by the Community Foundation for the National Capital Region…” (WaPo, 12/20)

- Wal-Mart’s “charitable foundation has been an active funder of local nonprofits for the past few years.” (WaPo, 12/20)

- D.C. officials wonder what became of $100,000 award to McKinley High (WaPo, 12/19)

EDUCATION | Bill Gates and Randi Weingarten – “Can [they] find common ground—and fix our nation’s education system?” (Newsweek, 12/20)

GIVING | Opinion: It’s Time to Rethink the Charity Deduction (NYTimes, 12/18)

SOCIAL GIVING NETWORKS | Crowdrise, Jumo, Causecast, Causes on Facebook… “to many in the nonprofit world, the value of the sites remains to be seen” (NYTimes, 12/19).  On the other hand, Charity: Water’s making it work. (Bloomberg, 12/20).

JUVENILE JUSTICE/YOUTH DEVELOPMENT | Challenges await D.C. Mayor-elect Gray (WaPo, 12/20) – “DYRS supervises…twice as many as about five years ago… even though the number of juvenile arrests has risen more slowly in recent years and is on pace to register a decline this year.”

New jobs, jobs, jobs. (Post jobs here – $60 for 60 days)

• Administrative Assistant – The Community Foundation for Montgomery County (Silver Spring, Maryland)
• Executive Assistant to the President / Operations Manager - Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers (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.

Happy Holidays, Happy New Year, and happy traaaaails… to youuuuu…

This will probably be the last Daily until 2011, because Christian and I are busy transitioning my job from me to him, since I’ll be joining the State Department as a foreign service officer in January.

I’ve had far too much fun with this blog over the past four years–thank you all for putting up with me. I’ll miss my colleagues and this community terribly, and I look forward to following this space to keep up with your news. There’s a tiny chance of a farewell post lurking within me, but this is probably the last hurrah, so a HUGE happy holidays to you and I wish you well in the new year.

Until we meet again,
Nick

Farmers and environmental conservationists work to find common ground [News, 12.16.10]

Jan. 5: Quarterly Meeting of WG’s Children, Youth & Families Working Group:
What is a Community and Systems Approach to Mental Health for Low-Income Children and Families?
(for WG members only)

ENVIRONMENT | Farmers and environmental conservationists worked to find common ground during a conference this week put on by the Accokeek Foundation. (Gazette, 12/16) – “Wilton Corkern, the Accokeek Foundation’s president [and WG Board member], said the trust’s support represented a commitment from farmers and environmentalists to collaborate in the future.”

GIVING
- Opinion: “Why we should dial down our enthusiasm for the Giving Pledge” (HuffPo, 12/15) – by Aaron Dorfman, NCRP
- Annual charity survey reveals new trends, change in giving tools (wire, 12/16) – “DAFs now outnumber private foundations by more than two to one.”

HEALTH | Providence receives $100,000 grant from CareFirst to support its efforts to lower infant mortality in Greater Washington (wire, 12/16)

JUVENILE JUSTICE / YOUTH DEVELOPMENT | Regarding DC’s DYRS leadership, youth advocates “now see Hildum’s leaving as a sign that Gray will embrace their vision.” (Examiner, 12/16)

CHILDHOOD OBESITY | Save the Children breaks with soda tax effort (NYTimes, 12/14) – “Officials of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, who had encouraged Save the Children to advocate for soda taxes, are disappointed.” Save the Children’s COO says “there was no connection between the group’s about-face on soda taxes and [funding] discussions with Coke. A $5 million grant from PepsiCo also had no influence on the decision, she said.” [Hmmmmmmmm.]

“The soda companies argue that it is unfair to blame their products for the obesity epidemic, which has complex causes. They say that policies should be focused instead on getting people to exercise more.” [Because problems always have a single solution and are never caused by a combination of factors?]

PUBLIC EDUCATION | Under Gov. McDonnell plan, Virginia taxpayers wouldn’t fund state’s public broadcasting, reports the WaPo (12/16). “McDonnell made a similar proposal in the spring, but legislators restored the cuts to public TV and radio after broadcasters argued that most state aid to public broadcasting is actually used to teach children in public schools.” SO, you might logically ask, how much of the aid is used to teach children in schools? What are the facts of this situation? Who knows! More journalism required!

The fierce urgency of a limited-life foundation

By Katy Moore, Director of Member Services

Ostrower

On Dec. 2, Washington Grantmakers partnered with the Aspen Institute and the Philanthropy Roundtable to provide an opportunity for trustees to hear from renowned foundation spend down expert, Dr. Francie Ostrower, professor of public affairs at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, Austin.

Dr. Ostrower’s research – which will be made available in early 2011 – approaches foundation spend down as a specific philanthropic strategy with a variety of benefits, including:

- the ability to make larger investments over a shorter period of time;
- the renewed sense of urgency that a deadline lends; and
- the inevitable self-assessment, evaluation and focus that comes with that urgency.

As one trustee said, “There is a huge psychological difference when you suddenly have to make a difference in your lifetime rather than hoping that you make a dent and that your kids and grandkids will do the same.”

Dr. Ostrower walked attendees through the major decision points in the spend-down life cycle and provided insights into her research findings. One finding of note is that limited-life foundations often become very strong partners for their grantees due to increased transparency and increased investments in grantees’ organizational health, capacity and sustainability. Limited-life foundations understand that their grantees will continue the foundation’s efforts and need to be in a strong position after the spend down.

For more information on foundation spend down see:

- Beldon Fund’s Spend Out Strategy and Resources
- Beldon Report: “Beyond 5%: The New Foundation Payout Menu”
- Foundation Center resources

Obama creates council to promote social change [News, 12.15.10]

WHITE HOUSE
- Obama Creates Council to Promote Social Change (Chronicle, 12/14) – Headed by Patty Stonesifer, former CEO of the Gates Foundation, it will be housed in the Corporation for National and Community Service.

Among the council members (WhiteHouse.gov, 12/14) will be Diana Aviv, president and CEO of Independent Sector, and Jon Bon Jovi, a cowboy, who rides a steel horse and has rocked one million faces. Turns out he is also chairman of the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation, working to “break the cycle of poverty and homelessness in the United States.”

- Obama Said to Meet Gates, Buffett on Boosting Economy (Bloomberg, 12/14)

LOCAL BUDGETS | Montgomery County Council approves budget cuts (WaPo, 12/15) – “Some of the actions promise to be difficult for the individuals involved, including the elderly, who will be shut out of neighborhood senior programs”

DC SCHOOLS
- “A year for Henderson, Gray to try each other on for size” (Examiner, 12/15) – Henderson says the chancellor job “was not something I wanted to do,” but took it to prevent a mass exodus after Rhee’s departure.
- “The battle’s not over for interim D.C. schools chief” (Examiner, 12/15)

CENSUS | Washington area is wealthiest and most educated region in the nation, census data show (WaPo, 12/15)

JUVENILE JUSTICE | In DC, Robert Hildum to leave D.C. juvenile justice department (WaPo, 12/15)

AWARDS | Call for applications for the The Washington Post 2011 Award for Excellence in Nonprofit Management. The Center for Nonprofit Advancement is hosting a free application workshop teleconference on Thursday, Dec. 16. Application deadline: January 7th.

Fun fact: Bon Jovi is credited with inspiring MTV’s  “Unplugged” format after that stripped-down performance from the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards. Now you know.

-Nick

Obama signs Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act [News, 12.14.10]

HUNGER/NUTRITION
- Obama signs Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (Whitehouse.gov, 12/13)
- “Child Nutrition Initiative applauds Congress…“ (12/2)  “The Child Nutrition Initiative is  funded with the generous support of [WG member] New Venture Fund, the California Endowment and other private donors…”

PHILANTHROPY | Opinion: Generosity drives American innovation (Examiner, 12/13) – by Claire Gaudiani – pt 2 of a series.

CHILD CARE | Why D.C. shouldn’t cut child-care subsidies (WaPo, 12/13)

EDUCATION | Report: Area Latino students improving in 8th-grade math tests, but challenges remain (WaPo, 12/14)

JOBS | “Job summit”: “…how to tackle one of the Ditrict’s most frightening statistics: an unemployment rate as high as 30 percent in Ward 8.”

HOMELESSNESS | Homeless Advocates Sue DC for Closing La Casa (CityPaper, 12/14)

Washington Grantmakers seeks Executive Assistant/Operations Manager

Association of grantmakers seeks well organized, detail-oriented individual with a good sense of humor. This position manages the president’s office and overall office operations. For priority consideration applications should be sent to Tamara Copeland at copeland@washingtongrantmakers.org by January 5th. To view the job description, please go here:
http://www.washingtongrantmakers.org/jobs

New Gates Foundation research on teacher effectiveness [News, 12.13.10]

EDUCATION | Gates Foundation research finds test score growth is sign of a good teacher (WaPo, 12/11) – “teachers with “value-added” ratings are able to replicate that feat in multiple classrooms and in multiple years.”

TRANSIT | Washington region to begin TIGER grant bus improvements (Examiner, 12/11) – “$58.8 million on Tuesday that it won in federal stimulus money, a first-of-its-kind award for improving local bus travel across the area.”

FAILING WELL | “Seth Godin, the author and marketing expert, is tired of hearing why charities should be more like businesses.” (Chronicle, 12/10)

HONORED | “[Allison] Baugher received the R. Robert Linowes Award for Leadership from the Community Foundation of the National Capital Region…” (Gettysburg Times, 12/10)

FUNDRAISING | “In what has become an annual no-miss event for elected officials, politicians joined hundreds of volunteers at phone banks at Jewish community centers in Fairfax County, the District and Rockville to elicit private donations for schools, the elderly, young people and special-needs residents supported by the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington.” (WaPo, 12/12)

Dental clinic replaces liquor store… DC budget: poor families lose… Grinchy Steve Jobs? [News, 12.10.10]

HEALTH | Dental: “KIPP decided to tear down the liquor store next to the school and build a dental office instead.” “KIPP has partnered with the nonprofit Kids Smiles to run the clinic. It has its grand opening today.” (WAMU, 12/10)

BUDGET CHOICES
- On Tuesday, the DC Council gave preliminary approval to a policy that dramatically cuts assistance to thousands of poor families…” (DCFPI, 12/9)
- Opinion: Cutting D.C.’s child-care subsidy isn’t the way to fix the city’s budget gap (WaPo, 12/10) – It’s tempting to delete “Opinion:” and type “Fact.”

PHILANTHROPY | Opinion: 10 reasons why the Giving Pledge will reshape philanthropy (HuffPo, 12/10)

AWARDS | Call for applications for the The Washington Post 2011 Award for Excellence in Nonprofit Management. The Center for Nonprofit Advancement is hosting a free application workshop teleconference on Thursday, Dec. 16. Application deadline: January 7th.

GIVING
- Prohibited by Apple: Apps that allow you to donate to charities (NYTimes, 12/8)
- Supported by Apple: “Scam” games for kids that let them rack up fees on your credit card. (Examiner, 12/9) – C’mon Apple, figure it out.

That’s it for this week. Hope your holiday season is off to a great start.