FN&C Now

Volume 7, Number 7 – February 11, 2006 IN THIS ISSUE NEWS COVERAGE: Getty Trust president resigns; Boston Foundation set three records in 2005; nonprofit academic centers participate in first large-scale collaboration; NNG presentation carried on Dish TV Free Speech channel AT THE COUNCIL: New vice president, chief of staff announced; Treasury Guidelines Working Group asks that anti-terrorist guidelines be dropped; sign up for Breaking News JUST PUBLISHED: Federal cuts will lessen appropriations to nonprofits by $1 billion, study finds; Ohio grantmakers predict growth for third consecutive year; socially invested assets growing faster than overall assets, report says NOW ONLINE: Foundation News & Commentary on managing foundation workload; new tools for community foundations ON THE MOVE: Cynthia Hardin Milligan and Nadia C. Brigham (Kellogg); Theodore L. Eliot, Jr., Mary Brown Bullock and James A. Kelly (Asia); Tadataka Yamada (Gates); Janice P. Ward (North Georgia); Garrett Martin (Maine Community); Mark Berzins, Jack Fox and Diana Lee, et al. (Denver); Caroline D. Avery, James Head and Benjamin T. Jealous, et al. (Northern California Grantmakers); Shalini Nataraj (Global Fund for Women) NEWS COVERAGE STEPPING DOWN: Barry Munitz, president of the J. Paul Getty Trust, resigned February 9 amid questions of impropriety. According to the trust, Munitz—whose travel and expense spending are under investigation by the California attorney general's office—would be required to repay the trust $250,000 and would not be given a severance package. The money was an estimate of what the trust felt Munitz owed because of perks, expenses and other costs that should not have been charged to the trust during his eight-year tenure. Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-me-getty10feb10,0,776425.story?coll=la-headlines-frontpage . RECORD YEAR: The Boston Foundation received $73 million from 716 individual gifts in 2005, the largest amount the foundation has ever raised in a single year since its establishment in 1915. The total market value of the foundation's assets also set a record of $731.8 million in 2005, as did its grantmaking, with a total of more than $60 million distributed. The foundation has expanded its mission in recent years, from funding nonprofits in the region to developing its role as convener and sponsoring research to build consensus for a civic agenda. Read more: http://www.tbf.org/About/about-L2.asp?id=3320 . ACADEMIC CENTERS: The W. K. Kellogg Foundation will provide $7.5 million for three nonprofit academic centers to participate in their first large-scale collaboration. The centers are the Center for Nonprofit Leadership and Management at Arizona State University, the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, and the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership at Grand Valley State University. The centers, which will collaborate on activities to strengthen nonprofit and philanthropy education and increase the sector's capacity and diversity, will operate programs under the name of the AIM (Arizona-Indiana-Michigan) Alliance. Joel J. Orosz, distinguished professor of philanthropic studies at the Dorothy A. Johnson Center, will serve as the alliance's interim executive director. Read more: http://www.philanthropy.iupui.edu/nr-AIM_announce.html . NNG ON DISH TV: Eloise Cobell, lead plaintiff in Cobell vs. Norton, spoke on the status of the nearly ten-year-long lawsuit and the 118 years the government has denied Indians an accounting of their monies held in Individual Indian Trust Accounts at a recent conference sponsored by the National Network of Grantmakers (NNG). The NNG presentation will be aired several times during February on Dish TV's Free Speech channel (satellite channel 9415), beginning Monday, February 13 at 4:00 a.m. ET. Information on additional airings will be posted at: http://www.freespeech.org . AT THE COUNCIL NEW LEADERSHIP: The Council appointed Roy Clason, Jr., a veteran of public relations and global corporate communications, as vice president of strategic communications and Mary Dwyer Pembroke, a long-time legislative and government relations expert, as chief of staff. Clason will lead the Council's strategic communications outreach efforts, while Pembroke will work directly with Council President and CEO Steve Gunderson in day-to-day internal operation of the Council's programs and activities. Read more: http://www.cof.org/Content/PressRelease/Display.cfm?pressReleaseID=3388 . PUBLIC COMMENTS: On February 1, 2006, the Council's Treasury Guidelines Working Group submitted comments to the U.S. Department of Treasury in response to the invitation for public comments on its revised Anti-Terrorist Financing Guidelines: Voluntary Best Practices for U.S.-based Charities, issued December 5, 2005. The working group asked that the Treasury Department withdraw the revised guidelines and endorse in their place the Principles of International Charity, which the working group developed during 2004 and 2005. The working group is a broadly representative group, coordinated by the Council, of more than 40 U.S. charities, foundations, religious organizations, corporations, umbrella associations, watchdog groups and advisors. Read the comments to the Treasury Department (PDF): http://www.cof.org/files/Documents/International_Programs/2006%20Publications/Final_Comments_to_Treasury-Feb1-06.pdf . The Treasury Department's revised guidelines are available at: http://www.treasury.gov/offices/enforcement/key-issues/protecting/charities-intro.shtml . 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, as well as members and staff of our colleague organizations. Subscribe by e-mailing your name, title and foundation name to media@cof.org. JUST PUBLISHED FEDERAL CUTS: A new report from the Aspen Institute's Nonprofit Sector and Philanthropy Program, FY 2006 Federal Appropriations Recap: Impact on Nonprofit Organizations, found that by enacting approximately two-thirds of President George W. Bush's proposed spending cuts, Congress will trim appropriations to programs of interest to nonprofits by $1 billion, or 3.3 percent, after adjusting for inflation. The report, written by Alan Abramson, Lester M. Salamon and John Russell, estimates that discretionary appropriations for education programs will fall by $2.2 billion in the current fiscal year and health service programs will decrease by $1 billion. However, funding will increase for some areas, such as international aid, which received a $366.7 million increase over fiscal year 2005, and income assistance programs, which received a $500 million increase. Download the report (PDF): http://www.nonprofitresearch.org/newsletter1525/newsletter_show.htm?doc_id=348744 . GREAT EXPECTATIONS: For the third consecutive year, many of Ohio's foundations expect to increase their grantmaking, according to the Ohio Grantmakers Forum's Ohio Grantmaking Outlook: 2006. The report found that 41 percent of surveyed grantmakers expect to increase their funding in 2006, while another 51 percent expect their grantmaking to remain at 2005 levels. In addition, 75 percent of respondents reported that, in 2005, their assets either increased or remained level. Nearly two-thirds also said they planned to provide operating support to some of their grantees in 2006. To conduct the survey, the forum used its Foundation 100 sample, a diverse cross-section of grantmakers representing approximately half of private grant dollars in Ohio. Download the report (PDF): http://www.ohiograntmakers.org/images/outlook20061.pdf . SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: Assets invested in socially responsible vehicles grew faster during the last decade than managed assets overall, according the Social Investment Forum's fifth biennial report on socially responsible investment (SRI) trends. According to the report, from 1995 to 2005 SRI assets grew more than 258 percent to $2.29 trillion, compared to the less than 249 percent growth to $24.4 trillion in overall assets under professional management. The study also found that, from 2003 to 2005, the amount of assets invested in socially responsible mutual funds grew 18.5 percent, assets in community investing grew 40 percent, and social and corporate governance shareholder resolutions for items such as proxies grew 16 percent. Read more or download the report (PDF): http://www.socialinvest.org/areas/news/2005Trends.htm . NOW ONLINE FOUNDATION NEWS: In the January/February Foundation News & Commentary, Lee Draper offers tips on how to balance foundation workload with a life outside the office in "Managing the Workload." The issue also has a special section for family foundations with features on multigenerational philanthropy, making discretionary grants legally, and a Q&A with James Piereson, head of the James M. Olin Foundation, which closed its doors last December. Read the issue: http://www.foundationnews.org . NEW TOOLS: A companion "futuring toolkit" is now available to help community foundations apply the lessons of On the Brink of New Promise: The Future of U.S. Community Foundations to the circumstances of their individual organizations and communities. Last fall, the Community Foundations Leadership Team and the Council on Foundations partnered with Blueprint Research & Design, Inc. and the Monitor Institute to share On the Brink with nearly every U.S. community foundation. Funded by the Ford and Charles Stewart Mott foundations, the report analyzes the changing environment for community philanthropy and its implications for community foundations. The toolkit includes a short presentation to use with board and staff, discussion guides to help begin conversations about scenarios for the future and emerging community changes, and worksheets to help assess community philanthropy environments and consider strategic problem-solving roles. The tools are free at: http://www.communityphilanthropy.org/get_toolkit.html . ON THE MOVE CYNTHIA HARDIN MILLIGAN was elected chair of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Read more (PDF): http://www.wkkf.org/DesktopModules/WKF_DmaItem/ViewDoc.aspx?CID=6&ListID=28&ItemID=5000003&fld=PDFFile . NADIA C. BRIGHAM joined the foundation as a program assistant in the Youth and Education area. Read more (PDF): http://www.wkkf.org/DesktopModules/WKF_DmaItem/ViewDoc.aspx?LanguageID=0&CID=6&ListID=28&ItemID=5000023&fld=PDFFile . THEODORE L.ELIOT, JR., MARY BROWN BULLOCK and JAMES A. KELLY were elected trustees of The Asia Foundation. Read more: http://www.asiafoundation.org/News/news_trustees06.html . In June 2006, TADATAKA (TACHI) YAMADA becomes executive director of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Global Health program. Read more: http://www.gatesfoundation.org/GlobalHealth/Announcements/Announce-060106.htm . The North Georgia Community Foundation appointed JANICE P. WARD as program officer, effective January 1, 2006. Ward had served as director of the foundation's Nonprofit Network since its inception in 2001. Read more: http://www.accessnorthga.com/news/hall/newfullstory.asp?ID=100520 . GARRETT MARTIN was named director of program strategy at the Maine Community Foundation. The Denver Foundation named MARK BERZINS, JACK FOX, DIANA LEE and MICHAEL MARTINEZ trustees. Northern California Grantmakers appointed CAROLINE D. AVERY board chair and JAMES HEAD, BENJAMIN T. JEALOUS, LISE MAISANO, and JUNE SUGIYAMA board members. On March 1, 2006, SHALINI NATARAJ becomes vice president of programs at the Global Fund for Women. 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: 3.27.06