Council on Foundations: FN&C Now – Volume 6, Number 39

	FN&C Now
	Volume 6, Number 39 – November 18, 2005 IN THIS ISSUE NEWS COVERAGE: Senate tax bill includes charitable reforms; Global Fund for Women creates world's largest endowment for women; health foundation makes first grants JUST PUBLISHED: Trustee study reveals compliance efforts and definitions of effectiveness; report offers strategies for helping traumatized children; Family Giving News examines how philanthropic families respond to tragedies; New York Times runs annual Giving section AWARDS ROUNDUP: Health sector nonprofit executives awarded sabbaticals; Rasmuson Foundation announces artist award recipients AT THE COUNCIL: International Committee nominations sought; sign up for Breaking News ACT NOW: Register for teleconference on the future of family philanthropy ON THE MOVE: Jane W. Carney (Irvine); Larry R. Faulkner (Houston Endowment); Bobbi Silten (Gap); Raymond Colmenar (California Endowment); Jennifer Hill, Jeff Mansour and Anthony Artis, et al. (Ruth Mott); Karen L. Rosa, Victor De Luca and Vincent Stehle, et al. (NYRAG); Jocelyn Ancheta and Lisa Simer (Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota); Jean Deighan, Eileen Epstein and Lisa Heyward (Maine Community) NEWS COVERAGE TAX CHANGES: At 12:30 a.m. Friday, the Senate passed the Tax Relief Act of 2005 (S. 2020) by a vote of 64-33. The final bill contained a number of charitable reform provisions. Although the final bill language has not been released, Council on Foundations staff has done an initial analysis based on the content included in the bill reported out of the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday and a Manager's Amendment approved last night. For more information, including the analysis of S. 2020, visit the Council's Charitable Reform Resource Center at http://www.cof.org/government . LARGEST ENDOWMENT: The Global Fund for Women completed its $20 million Investing in Women Campaign. The campaign created two strategic, complementary funds to transform women's lives. The $10 million Legacy Fund is now the world's largest endowment exclusively for promoting women's rights internationally. The $10 million Now or Never Fund is an emergency fund designed to address women's urgent needs, strengthen the women's movement and safeguard the international consensus around women's human rights. Read more: http://www.globalfundforwomen.org/press/press-releases/2005/iwc.html . NEW FOUNDATION: The Physicians' Foundation for Health Systems Excellence (PFHSE), a foundation with the mission of helping practicing physicians improve patient care, made its first grants. Twenty-six nonprofits nationwide were awarded a total of $16 million in grants for practice-based, innovative projects that provide physician education or address quality of care or patient safety issues. Several grants were made to programs aiding small- and solo-practice physicians. "This foundation was created for the sole purpose of helping practicing physicians improve the clinical care of their patients. I'm not sure that there is another foundation in this country with a similar mission," said Tim Norbeck, PFHSE president. The foundation was established with funds from a 2004 settlement in a class action lawsuit between physicians, medical societies and Aetna, Inc. Read more (PDF): http://www.physiciansfoundations.org/usr_doc/PFHSE_Press_Release_FINAL.pdf . JUST PUBLISHED TRUSTEE VIEWS: Foundation trustees take compliance issues seriously, but also think board effectiveness includes their central involvement in developing strategy, assessing impact and performance, and contributing their talents to foundation efforts, according to a report from the Center for Effective Philanthropy. Based on a survey of 550 trustees of 53 large foundations, Beyond Compliance: The Trustee Viewpoint on Effective Foundation Governance is the largest-scale research on foundation boards ever conducted. The report describes steps boards have taken to implement governance reforms and reveals trustees' five key indicators of board effectiveness. The survey, which was cosponsored by BoardSource and Grantmakers for Executive Organizations, also found that compensated trustees spend a third more time than unpaid trustees on foundation-related business outside the boardroom. Download the report (PDF): http://www.effectivephilanthropy.org/images/pdfs/CEP_Beyond_Compliance.pdf . CHILDHOOD TRAUMA: A new Grantmakers In Health report focuses on the needs of children exposed to school violence, terrorist attacks and natural disasters. In Harm's Way: Aiding Children Exposed to Trauma offers grantmakers strategies for early identification and intervention, and for the provision of timely, appropriate services to children and their caregivers. The report resulted from a day-long dialogue in May among grantmakers, researchers and policymakers on childhood exposure to trauma. Read the executive summary (PDF): http://www.gih.org/usr_doc/Exec_Summary.pdf . Download the full report (PDF): http://www.gih.org/usr_doc/GIH_IssueBrief23pdf.pdf . FAMILY RESPONSES: The November Family Giving News focuses on how families respond to natural disasters and other tragedies and outlines ways to support affected communities long after an event is gone from news reports. As part of its continuing "Profiles in Family Philanthropy" series, the issue also looks at how the William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund uses storytelling to shape its philanthropy. Read the issue or subscribe: http://www.ncfp.org/Email_Alert.html . ANNUAL GIVING: Yesterday, the New York Times published its annual Giving section, which includes articles on the share of nonprofits' funds going to the poor, how to turn an art collection into a foundation, the New Deal's effect on giving and the reasons people give to particular causes. The pieces also discuss charitable responses to recent hurricanes' destruction and the comparatively paltry response to the South Asian earthquake's devastation, among many other topics. Read the section: http://www.nytimes.com/specials/giving/index.html . AWARDS ROUNDUP HEALTH SABBATICALS: The California Wellness Foundation Sabbatical Program awarded eight California health sector nonprofit executives with time away from their jobs. The executives are Shannon Rose Chavez, North County Rape Crisis and Child Protection Center; Shirley J. Cole, North County Lifeline, Inc.; Cherry L. Houston, Critical Learning Systems, Inc.; Camille Schraeder, Redwood Children's Services, Inc.; April Silas, Homeless Children's Network; Diane L. Sommers, Suicide Prevention of Yolo County; Lue N. Yang; Fresno Center for New Americans; and Richard Zaldivar, The Wall Las Memorias Project. The program provides $35,000 to cover leaders' salaries and expenses during the sabbaticals, which last a minimum of three months. Each organization also receives up to $5,000 for professional development of managers who take on extra duties during the leaders' absences. Read more: http://www.tcwf.org/leadership_awards/sabbatical_program/2005/index.htm . ARTIST AWARDS: The Rasmuson Foundation selected John Haines to receive its 2005 Distinguished Artist Award, in recognition of his lifelong achievements in the arts. Among Haines' accomplishments are serving as Alaska's Poet Laureate and authoring more than ten collections of poetry. The $25,000 award is part of the foundation's Arts and Culture initiative, a ten-year, $20 million program to increase the impact of the arts in Alaska. Six artists also received $12,000 Fellowship Awards, which provide mid-career or mature Alaskan artists with an opportunity to focus their energy and attention on developing their creative work for one year: Ayap'run J. David Abraham, Kathleen Carlo, Olena Davis, Seth Kantner, Thomas Malapanis and Susan Share. Eleven artists received 2005 Individual Artist Project grants of $2,200 to $5,000 each, which are awarded to Alaskan artists for short-term projects that have a clear benefit to the artist and the development of his or her work: John Luther Adams, Sarah Beaty, Michael Conti, Mark Daughhetee, Ernestine Hayes, Judith Lindenfelser, Charles Mason, Mavis Muller, Alexandra Phillips, Jake Pogrebinsky and Patrick Race. Find out more: http://www.rasmuson.org/ PressRelease/index.php?switch=view_pressrelease&iReleaseID=80 . AT THE COUNCIL INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE: The Council on Foundations is seeking nominations to fill upcoming vacancies on its International Committee. The committee seeks members who are committed to its goals of assisting the Council in building and extending the field of international philanthropy and increasing its awareness. Selections are made with a view toward ensuring the committee is broadly representative of the Council's membership. Nominations deadline is December 31, 2005. Questions? E-mail Isabelle Mack at macki@cof.org. Download a nomination form (PDF): http://www.cof.org/files/ Documents/International_Programs/2005Publications/Nomination_Form_(2006).pdf . FREE NEWS SERVICE: Breaking News is a free, daily e-mail newsletter summarizing the top articles—mostly from national and regional newspapers—about philanthropy. Breaking News is available to Council members only. Subscribe by e-mailing your name, title and foundation name to media@cof.org. ACT NOW LOOK INTO THE FUTURE: The National Center for Family Philanthropy will hold a teleconference, The Future of Family Philanthropy, December 15 from noon to 1:30 p.m., ET. The teleconference will describe what family philanthropy may look like in 2020 and how globalization, immigration, geographic dispersion and Web-based initiatives for giving will affect family philanthropy. Center President Virginia M. Esposito and Katherine Fulton, a senior practitioner and partner of the Global Business Network, will lead the conversation. Registration is required. Find out more: http://www.ncfp.org/program-teleconferences.htm . ON THE MOVE JANE W. CARNEY will join the James Irvine Foundation's board in January 2006. Read more: http://www.irvine.org/irvine_news/press_releases/current/11-03_jane_carney.shtml . In February 2006, LARRY R. FAULKNER becomes president of Houston Endowment. Read more: http://www.houstonendowment.org . Gap Inc. appointed BOBBI SILTEN chief foundation officer to lead the Gap Foundation and to oversee Gap Inc.'s philanthropy. Read more: http://www.gapinc.com/public/Media/Press_Releases/med_pr_BobbiSilten110805.shtml . RAYMOND COLMENAR is now senior program officer for The California Endowment's Greater Bay Area regional office in San Francisco. Read more: http://www.calendow.org/news/press_releases/2005/11/110705.stm . The Ruth Mott Foundation appointed JENNIFER HILL and JEFF MANSOUR program officers and ANTHONY ARTIS and ELIZABETH JORDAN program assistants. Read more: http://www.cmif.org/News_Detailed.asp?ID=900 . The New York Regional Association of Grantmakers elected KAREN L. ROSA board chair. VICTOR DE LUCA and VINCENT STEHLE were elected vice chairs, WILLIAM P. FALAHEE treasurer and ERICA HUNT secretary. New board members are HELEN DORADO ALESSI, DOUGLAS BAUER, LAWRENCE D. MORELAND and JANICE M. NITTOLI. Read more: http://www.nyrag.org/press_release3759/press_release_show.htm?doc_id=317086 . JOCELYN ANCHETA and LISA SIMER were hired as program officers by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation. The Maine Community Foundation elected JEAN DEIGHAN, EILEEN EPSTEIN and LISA HEYWARD to its board. SUBSCRIBE FN&C Now is published by the Council on Foundations to keep you in the loop by sharing news between bimonthly editions of Foundation News & Commentary magazine (FN&C Now Web archive: http://www.foundationnews.org/now/index.htm ). Please feel free to forward this message to your friends and colleagues who might enjoy it. To subscribe (it's free) to FN&C Now, send an e-mail to fncnow@cof.org . Questions or comments about FN&C Now? Contact Paula J. Kelly at 202/467-0261. To contribute a news item for consideration, please e-mail fncnow@cof.org . To unsubscribe, send a blank e-mail to leave-fncnow-4832R@int1.cof.org . To subscribe to Foundation News & Commentary, an award-winning magazine, please send an e-mail to fncsubs@cof.org , or visit our website at http://www.icnfull.com/cgi-bin/cobolscript.exe?cof/cofmain.cbl . Council on Foundations 1828 L Street, NW Washington, DC 20036 202/466-6512 webmaster@cof.org last update: 11.22.05