Cover Story
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Innovation
A Children’s Museum’s Partnership With Local School District Brings in Revenue — and New Ideas
Leaders at the Children’s Museum of Fond du Lac got to see different teaching techniques in action when it hosted a charter school for the 2020-21 academic year.
Highlights
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Children and Families
Mentoring Nonprofit Helps Kids Thrive in the Pandemic — by Adding Services for Caregivers
The pandemic helped Friends of the Children - Boston realize it’s hard for young people to succeed academically if the adults in their lives are struggling. See the rest of our special section on what nimble charities do to withstand crises. -
Racial Justice
Zoom Gives a Boost to Nonprofit’s Work to Promote Racial Healing
The move to videoconferencing helped the Winter Institute reach more people with its workshops, while allowing participants to connect on a human level and discuss difficult subjects. See our special section on nonprofits’ creative ideas for getting through a year of crises and how groups are building on those ideas to shape the future. -
Advice
How to Decide Which Pandemic-Era Changes to Keep
Listening to clients and testing approaches will help nonprofits chart a path for their work going forward, management experts say. Plus: See our special section on nonprofits’ creative ideas for getting through a year of crises and how groups are building on those ideas to shape the future. -
Innovation
The Pandemic Reveals the Long-Term Impact of Advocacy on a Food Charity
The Common Market has long purchased produce from local farms and sold it to schools and hospitals as a way to get healthy food to people who need it. After Covid hit, the nonprofit overhauled its operation to focus on emergency food aid to individuals. -
Early Education
An Early-Childhood Nonprofit Tunes Into Families’ Needs and Reconsiders Videocalls
ParentChild+ made sure families had the food, diapers, and technology they needed during the pandemic. Now it’s figuring out the best mix of virtual and in-person learning. Read more ways nonprofits innovated to stay nimble and survive the crisis in our Creative Moves report. -
Online Communications
A Housing Nonprofit Finds New Ways to Reach More Supporters
Virtual donor visits and tours have saved employees at LA Family Housing hours of driving time, and outreach to online influencers has raised awareness of the group’s work. Plus: See our entire special report on how charities have built on changes they made during the pandemic to shape the future.
Features
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Giving
Billions Flood Into Blue Meridian as It Seeks to Help Innovative Nonprofits
The group is aggregating huge amounts of cash to give patient, no-strings-attached capital — as well as coaching and guidance — to organizations that have developed promising ways to solve social problems. -
Fundraising
Crypto, Meet Donor-Advised Funds: a New Way of Giving
A crypto-enthusiast has developed a system that makes it easy for charities to receive digital currencies — and could open the door to new, young, tech-savvy donors. -
Giving USA
Giving Grew in a Tumultuous Year but Not for All. What’s Ahead in 2021?
Individual giving made up 69 percent of all philanthropy last year, the smallest share “Giving USA” has ever recorded.
Departments
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The Face of Philanthropy
Nonprofits Work to Bring Water to the Navajo Nation
DigDeep has installed roughly 1,000 water storage tanks, each of which holds 275 gallons and is refilled monthly at no cost to the homeowner. -
Fundraising Events
Houston Ballet’s Charity Ball Offers a Blueprint for Pandemic-Era Hybrid Events
The March 6 program, which included small parties at private homes in addition to a virtual program, raised $850,000 for the dance company. -
Individual Giving
How to Jump-Start Individual Giving
Start with your board — and much more advice to help you connect to people with the interest and capacity to make sizable gifts.
Opinion
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Opinion
Embracing Feminism Can Change Philanthropy and Create a More Equitable World
Well-known women philanthropists like MacKenzie Scott and Melinda French Gates are showing what’s possible if we move beyond traditional giving approaches. Now we need to expand their approaches on a large scale. -
Opinion
Providing Clothing to Families Facing Poverty Should Be More Than a Funding Accessory
Those of us in the business of offering free clothes to struggling families receive almost no help from grant makers. But ensuring children have shoes, underwear, and apparel that fits is a basic need worthy of philanthropic support. -
Opinion
Low Pay and Poor Working Conditions Forced a Vital Nonprofit to Shut Down. I Was Complicit in Its Demise.
Blinded by my class and race privilege, it never occurred to me to probe the organization’s salary structure more closely and provide the support its leaders needed to continue their important work.