FN&C Now

Volume 7, Number 20 – May 4, 2006 IN THIS ISSUE NEWS COVERAGE: Panel on the Nonprofit Sector supplements final report to Congress; Rockefeller Foundation gives $3.5 million to spur recovery planning for New Orleans; first chair for family philanthropy endowed; Meyer foundation supports nonprofit executive directors AWARDS ROUNDUP: Goldman prize goes to six environmental activists; Scott Berrie wins inaugural Stewart Satter Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award JUST PUBLISHED: Access to investment capital challenges nonprofits, study says AT THE COUNCIL: International Dateline covers corporate compliance to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act; sign up for Breaking News ON THE MOVE: David Gretick (St. Luke's); Michael J. Smith and Robert E. Swaney (Mott); Eric Muschler (McKnight); Abigail Disney, Mu Sochua and Lydia Alpízar Durán (Global Fund for Women); Stacie Ma'a (Gerbode); Sylvester Jones Jr. (Ruth Mott); Colleen Appleby-Carroll (Council on Foundations) NEWS COVERAGE CONGRESSIONAL REPORT: The Panel on the Nonprofit Sector, a group of 24 leaders from a wide range of public charities and private foundations, released a supplement to the final report it issued to Congress last June. The report offered more than 120 actions to be taken by Congress, the Internal Revenue Service and charities to strengthen the transparency, governance and accountability of the charitable sector. The supplemental report focuses on nine areas: international grantmaking, charitable solicitation, compensation of trustees of charitable trusts, prudent investor standard, nonprofit conversion transactions, taxation on sales of donated property, consumer credit counseling organizations, disclosure of unrelated business activities, and federal court equity powers and standing to sue. It also incorporates input from people across the charitable community. Read more or download the reports (PDF): http://www.nonprofitpanel.org . SPURRING RECOVERY: The Rockefeller Foundation will provide $3.5 million to develop of a comprehensive rebuilding plan for New Orleans. The grant, which is the first commitment of private funds to the planning process, will enable city and state representatives and neighborhood organizations to work together to craft plans to trigger national funding for full-scale redevelopment efforts. The plan will be managed cooperatively through the Community Fund Support Organization of the Greater New Orleans Foundation. Read more: http://www.rockfound.org/AboutUs/FoundationAnnouncement/141 . FIRST CHAIR: The Frey Foundation pledged $1.5 million to Grand Valley State University's Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership to establish the nation's first endowed chair in family philanthropy. The Frey Foundation chair will pioneer a program of study on family foundations and how they are managed to help society. The foundation made its pledge as a challenge to help the university raise $5 million for the Johnson Center's endowment. Joel J. Orosz, interim executive director of the center, said that the center will look for a candidate who has a unique combination of skills and experience. Read more: http://www.gvsu.edu/gvnow/?fuseaction=home.read_news&id=D7BD8ACE-99D3-67BA-AC6E9059CCE0D8A5 . EXECUTIVE BURNOUT: To address high burnout and turnover rates among nonprofit executive directors in the Greater Washington region, the Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation created Rewarding Leadership, a three-year, $2.2 million initiative to increase training, networking and professional development opportunities for executive directors. The initiative will provide two-year leadership development grants of $100,000 to up to five outstanding mid-career executive directors each year. Rewarding Leadership was developed in response to Daring to Lead 2006, a national survey of nearly 2,000 executive directors, conducted by the foundation and CompassPoint Nonprofit Services in late 2005. Three out of four respondents said they were likely to leave their current positions within five years. Relentless fundraising pressure, weak boards, low salaries and lack of management support are causing many executive directors of small to midsized nonprofits to move on. Read more: http://www.meyerfoundation.org/resources/ resources_show.htm?type_id=1260&doc_id=368571 . AWARDS ROUNDUP GOLDMAN PRIZE: The Goldman Environmental Prize, the world's largest environmental award, has been presented to six grassroots environmental activists representing North America, Africa, Asia, South and Central America, Europe, and Islands and Island Nations. Recipients are Craig E. Williams of Kentucky (North America); Silas Kpanan'Ayoung Siakor of Liberia (Africa); Yu Xiaogang of China (Asia); Tarcísio Feitosa da Silva of Brazil (South and Central America); Olya Melen of Ukraine (Europe); and Anne Kajir of Papua New Guinea (Island and Island Nations). Often called the "Nobel for the environment," the prize comes with an unrestricted award of $125,000. It was established in 1990 by San Francisco civic leader and philanthropist Richard N. Goldman and his late wife, Rhoda. The winners were honored April 24 in San Francisco. Read more: http://www.goldmanprize.org/2006media . SOCIAL ENTREPENEUR: Scott Berrie, president and cofounder of Scojo Vision and Scojo Foundation, received New York University's Stern School of Business' inaugural Stewart Satter Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award. The award honors a social entrepreneur who has applied his or her Stern education to create solutions to the world's most intractable social problems. Berrie and Jordan Kassalow started the Scojo Foundation to increase the number of people with access to affordable reading glasses, while creating jobs for local entrepreneurs and facilitating access to comprehensive eye care. The award, which includes a $5,000 honorarium, was presented April 6 in New York City, during the Third Annual Conference of Social Entrepreneurs: Where Practice and Research Align. Read more: http://w4.stern.nyu.edu/news/news.cfm?doc_id=5780 . JUST PUBLISHED NONPROFIT CHALLENGE: Although nonprofits face a growing need for investment capital, most report widespread obstacles to accessing it, according to a survey from Johns Hopkins University's Listening Post Project. Investment Capital: New Challenges for American Nonprofits found that nonprofits in the human service, community development and arts fields have significant investment capital needs, which extend well beyond the traditional areas of physical capital to program development, staff upgrading and strategic planning. Technology topped the list of needs for more than 90 percent of the responding organizations; however, only 37 percent reported success in raising needed capital. Similarly, 80 percent of organizations reported needs in the program development area, but only 25 percent reported success in raising needed capital. The project involves 1,000 nonprofit agencies that act as organizational listening posts on pressures and changes affecting nonprofits and promising responses to them. Download the report (PDF): http://www.jhu.edu/listeningpost/news/pdf/comm05.pdf . AT THE COUNCIL INTERNATIONAL DATELINE: In the second quarter 2006 issue of International Dateline, Stephen Curran, counsel to the Boeing Company, reports on how corporate grantmakers can comply with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The issue also includes a call for proposals from parties interested in contracting with the Council to review, update and expand the Country Information section of its United States International Grantmaking (USIG) website. Read the issue: http://www.cof.org/Content/General/Display.cfm?contentID=3607 . 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. ON THE MOVE Saint Luke's Foundation in Cleveland named DAVID GRETICK the first recipient of the 18-month Francis H. Beam Jr. Fellowship. Read more: http://crainscleveland.com/apps/ pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060330/FREE/60330008/1022/breaking&Profile=1022 . The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation appointed Associate Vice President-Investments and Investment Manager MICHAEL J. SMITH to vice president and chief investment officer. Smith succeeds ROBERT E. SWANEY, who retired May 1 after 31 years with the foundation. Read more: http://mott.org/news/pr-detail.asp?newsid=43 . ERIC MUSCHLER joined the McKnight Foundation as region and communities program officer on May 1. Read more: http://www.mcknight.org/newsandviews/news_detail.aspx?itemID=3709&catID=2440&typeID=2 . On May 1, ABIGAIL DISNEY, MU SOCHUA and LYDIA ALPÍZAR DURÁN joined the board of the Global Fund for Women. Read more: http://www.globalfundforwomen.org/press/press-releases/2006/board-of-directors.html . The Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation promoted Program Officer STACIE MA'A to vice president. The Ruth Mott Foundation hired SYLVESTER JONES JR. as program officer. COLLEEN APPLEBY-CARROLL joined the Council on Foundations as director of member communications on May 1. SPECIAL OFFER The Council on Foundations has a special offer made possible through the Building Strong and Ethical Foundations program. New foundations can receive a half-priced non-member registration rate at any Council conference. In addition, they can also join the Council and receive half-priced membership dues. Your foundation may qualify—even if you've been grantmaking for several years. For specific eligibility information and more details, please contact the COF Membership Department at 202/467-0291. 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: 6.28.06