Monday, July 21

 

From the Chronicle: State Budget Woes Hit Charities

Charities across the country are feeling a budget squeeze as the economic downturn eats into state finances and forces cutbacks in money for social services and other causes. And experts say next year will be even tougher, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.

Plus: See all the articles The Chronicle posted this morning from its new print issue.

(A paid subscription or short-term pass is required to view the article on state budget woes.)

Senator Grassley Proposes New Disclosure Requirements for Smithsonian

Sen. Charles E. Grassley and Sen. Arlen Specter have introduced legislation that would remove the Smithsonian Institution’s exemption from the Freedom of Information Act and the Sunshine Act, thereby requiring that the organization hold public meetings and make its records available to the public upon request, reports The Washington Post.

After a number of scandals and embarrassments, the institution — which receives 70 percent of its financial support from Congressional appropriations — has promised to make its operations more transparent and has hired a new secretary, G. Wayne Clough. The Post has previously reported on lavish, unauthorized expenditures by the former top Smithsonian executive, Lawrence M. Small.

The institution says that its policies are consistent with FOIA requirements, the newspaper reports. But according to Melanie Sloan, director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the public currently has no way to appeal if the Smithsonian refuses a FOIA request.

“Grassley’s bill would clarify that the Smithsonian belongs to all of us … and is not some private institution which can do as it will,” says Carl Malamud, who founded Media.org, which advocates for disclosure of public records.

(Free registration is required to view this article.)

Surprise $10-Million Left to Pa. Charities

James Ebbert, the son of a sharecropper who lived modestly in Quakertown, Pa., left a $10-million fortune to nonprofit groups when he died last December, reports The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Mr. Ebbert left $1-million to St. Luke’s Quakertown Hospital; $1-million to be divided between Millersville University and Temple University, the alma mater of his late wife, Martha; and other gifts to three churches, two private schools, a local fire company, the local YMCA, the Salvation Army, and the Shriners Hospital for Children in Philadelphia.

In 1946, as a high-school teacher, Mr. Ebbert bought K&L Company and sold lumber, coal, and sand. He lived frugally and invested his money well, says the newspaper. Most people did not know he was wealthy or planned to leave a major bequest, the newspaper says.

“Uncle Jim told me years ago, ‘We made it here in Quakertown; it’ll stay here in Quakertown,’” says his niece, Susan Ebbert Wambaugh.

Leader of Humane Society Presses for More-Aggressive Activism

The chief executive of the Humane Society of the United States, Wayne Pacelle, has helped the organization become a more aggressive advocate for animals, in part by using publicity campaigns and lobbying for animal-friendly legislation, reports The Los Angeles Times.

Under Mr. Pacelle, the Humane Society has doubled its assets to $207-million and increased its lobbying and publicity efforts. After the group released a video of cows being dragged and abused at a California slaughterhouse, the plant was closed. Mr. Pacelle has also set up a branch of the Humane Society that goes after politicians with poor animal-welfare records.

Mr. Pacelle’s actions have drawn criticism both from those who think he is too aggressive and those who think he is not aggressive enough. He says he knows that people have such different views on animals that he cannot please everyone. His own view, he says, is that animal advocacy is “really about human behavior and less about the animals. Animals for the most part just need to be left alone.”

To read more about the humane society’s approach, see this profile in The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

(Free registration is required to view the Times article, and a paid subscription or short-term pass is required to view the Chronicle article.)

Health-Care Philanthropy Executive Talks About Foundation's Efforts

The chief executive of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, discusses her organization’s work advocating for health-care changes, fighting childhood obesity, and pushing for social change in a profile by the Financial Times.

Ms. Lavizzo-Mourey earned a medical degree from Harvard University and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania; she is the first female and first African-American to lead the $10-billion foundation, the largest health-care philanthropy.

“We want to create transformative social change that improves the health of people and the health care they get, so we’ve got a very clear, focused mission,” she says. “We don’t have to deliver results quarter to quarter, we have to deliver results decade to decade, and that makes us have a very different mindset than corporations or, for that matter, governments that can have a much more short-term horizon than we do.”

In 2007 the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, created by the heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune, gave away $487.8-million. It also pledged $500-million to lower the rates of childhood obesity by 2015. Ms. Lavizzo-Mourey says that philanthropy is strengthened by collaboration among different types of groups working for different but related causes, like health and education or poverty.

Conservation Groups Protest Plan to Let Farmers Opt Out of Federal Program

The U.S. Agriculture Secretary, Ed Schafer, is considering allowing farmers to opt out of a conservation program that pays farmers to protect swamps, native grasslands, and other environmentally important areas found on their land, reports National Public Radio.

A press officer at the Agriculture Department says Mr. Schafer is now considering a plan to let the 450,000 farmers in the program turn the conserved areas back into fields and pastures without giving back the money they were paid to protect them, reports NPR.

“Corn prices are triple what they were a year ago,” says Jesse Sevcik, of the American Meat Institute. “We think there should be an opportunity for farmers to opt out [of the reserve programs] and respond to market signals.”

But environmental groups are protesting the changes, saying that the program prevents more than 400 million tons worth of erosion every year and supports millions of birds.

“The conservation-reserve program is the most successful land-conservation program in history,” says Neil Shader, of Ducks Unlimited. “This is the Holy Grail of conservation.”

Prospecting: Preparing for a Long Recession

Fund raisers should get ready for a long recession, according to Prospecting, the Chronicle’s column on fund raising.

Online Discussion Tomorrow: Building an Endowment

Join us tomorrow at noon U.S. Eastern time for a live online discussion on creating and building endowments. Get expert advice on programs available to help charities with endowments, strategies for reaching out to potential donors, and tips on how to manage those funds.

Answering your questions will be:

• Lisa Farber Miller, a senior program officer at the Rose Community Foundation, in Denver. In that position, Ms. Miller has helped 19 charities in the Denver metropolitan area create or expand their endowments.

• Kimberly Lauth, who runs Nonprofit Outfitters: Community Benefit Consulting, a Knoxville, Tenn., company that advises nonprofit groups on endowment building and other topics.

• Althea Allen Ledford, founder and chief executive officer of Founders Choice Endowments, a nonprofit organization in Inglewood, Calif., that helps charities and foundations more effectively manage their endowment funds.

The Chronicle’s online discussions are free and open to everyone. People who ask questions in advance have a better chance of getting answers.

From The Chronicle: Aid to Zimbabwe Stalled

Six weeks after a directive from Zimbabwe’s government ground aid work in the country to a halt, charities’ efforts to resume their operations have largely been thwarted and more than a million people are still living without food aid and medical care, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.