Philanthropy This Week

Feeding America

Good Morning.

Ever since Covid prompted a global crisis, major donors and grant makers have made changes nonprofits have long sought, such as increasing the size and speed of donations and loosening restrictions on grants.

The big question for nonprofits, writes Alex Daniels, is whether those changes will stick.

Topline numbers released this week are impressive. Corporations, foundations, wealthy individuals, and charities distributed at least $20.2 billion last year in response to the pandemic, more than double the amount given to the previous top 10 disasters combined, according to preliminary estimates from the research organizations Center for Disaster Philanthropy and Candid.

What was truly stunning were the size of gifts to nonprofits that aren’t usually the recipients of transformative donations from the nation’s wealthy. Jeff Bezos gave $100 million to Feeding America so its network of food banks, like the one in Winston-Salem, N.C., above, could step up to meet surging demand. Meanwhile his former wife, MacKenzie Scott, made $4 billion in unrestricted gifts to nonprofits, including multimillion-dollar gifts to 42 food banks.

The giving started strong in the spring and held up through the end of the year, so for now donor fatigue remains a distant worry. That’s important, notes Grace Sato, Candid’s director of research, because there’s no letup in the need. “We know that vaccine delivery, the protracted effects on the health-care system, people’s mental and physical health, as well as on the economy are going to be long-standing issues,” Sato says.

Looking ahead to what will happen after the Covid crisis recedes, philanthropy still has a long way to go to thoroughly transform itself. Only 39 percent of dollars from major donors, corporations, and foundations were for general support rather than specific programs, according to the report. Even among those that have changed how they operate, early signs indicate that many foundations are likely to fall back to their old ways as the pandemic wanes.

“I think there’ll be some pullback,” says Henry Berman, CEO of Exponent Philanthropy, an organization that represents small foundations, “but I don’t think it will revert all the way back to what it was.”

Meanwhile, our partners at the Associated Press had another take on the report worth reading: Pandemic Puts 1 in 3 Nonprofits in Financial Jeopardy.

Here’s What Else You Need to Know

Nonprofits and volunteers are playing key roles in getting vaccines in people’s arms and acting as watchdogs to ensure equitable distribution. These nonprofits are seeking not only to reduce the fear of vaccines but also to help local and state governments better understand which distribution policies will do the most good for the people they serve, writes Emily Haynes. Nonprofits that help LGBTQ people, advocate for the homeless, and those that work to serve people of color and the elderly are joining the fray. So, too, are disaster-relief groups, like Team Rubicon. A side benefit of speeding up vaccines, says Art delaCruz, chief operating officer of the nonprofit: More people will be able to volunteer later in the year, when hurricanes and other natural disasters often strike. “If this goes smoothly, we’ll actually serve more communities in the fall,” he says.

With social gatherings banned or curtailed for much of last year, 2020 was especially tough for nonprofits that rely on large-scale in-person fundraising events. Overall giving to the nation’s 30 biggest events in which donors raise money for charities fell nearly 34 percent, according to an annual survey by the Peer-to-Peer Professional Forum, making 2020 the first year in the survey’s history that the large events collectively raised less than $1 billion. The American Heart Association’s Heart Walk topped the survey results despite a 27 percent decline in revenue, writes Emily Haynes, a sign of just how tough a year it was for these organizations. The American Cancer Society’s walkathon, Relay for Life, which held the top spot for 14 years, saw its fundraising fall by more than half. “There’s no question what we’ve gone through has been devastating and our results are devastating,” said Dan Thorpe, vice president for community fundraising at the American Cancer Society. “But we’re not surprised by them.”

Too often major-gift fundraisers ignore potential donors of color. That’s a big mistake. Roughly 14 percent of millionaires are people of color, a figure that’s likely to grow in the years ahead. Emily Haynes takes a look at some of those donors including a Mexican-born couple who made a fortune in beer and are longtime supporters of education; a former elementary schoolteacher who is now a major booster of the arts; two married professional athletes who donate to social-justice efforts; and a billionaire businessman born in Pakistan who gives to arts, athletics and health sciences.

After years of fending off efforts by former President Trump to eliminate federal funding for AmeriCorps, national service advocates are hoping for a turnaround. Young people’s interest in serving in AmeriCorps is soaring, and supporters say their help is needed to deal with pandemic relief and recovery efforts, writes Michael Theis. However, a big expansion of AmeriCorps would require an act of Congress. That won’t be easy: Conservatives don’t want more government spending, and liberals “prefer in many ways not to have what they regard as untrained amateurs providing services,” says Leslie Lenkowsky, professor emeritus at the Lilly School of Philanthropy at Indiana University and a former head of the Corporation for Community and National Service.

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— Stacy Palmer and Dan Parks

What We’re Reading Elsewhere

Here are some of the articles that attracted our attention in the past week. We provide these summaries every day in our free Philanthropy Today newsletter. (Sign up now)

Some wealthy supporters of the University of Texas at Austin are threatening to pull their donations if the institution jettisons its controversial fight song. “The Eyes of Texas,” which used to be played at campus minstrel shows and has links to a saying by Confederate General Robert E. Lee, is traditionally played after football games. Recently, some players have walked off the field during its playing, and some students have petitioned the university to stop using it. In angry emails and social-media posts, some donors have derided those with concerns about the song as “woke,” “Marxist,” “politically correct,” and “snowflakes.” Calling the song part of Texas tradition, some alumni have considered rescinding seven-figure gifts. (Texas Tribune)

The Federal Trade Commission and 38 states’ attorneys general have shut down a charity scam they say bilked victims out of $110 million. Associated Community Services in Michigan contacted 67 million people with 1.3 billion calls, most of which were illegal robocalls. The organization pretended to raise money for charities helping firefighters, veterans, and children, but at most, about 1 percent of donations went to those causes. In a settlement with the six defendants, each was ordered to pay $110,063,843. In addition, some were required to pay five- and six-figure sums and the proceeds from the sale of a boat and a vacation house. (WILX)

Boy Scouts of America is offering $300 million from its local councils to settle tens of thousands of sexual-abuse claims by former Scouts. The offer is part of a bankruptcy plan that aims to deal with as many as 85,000 claims while allowing the group to emerge from Chapter 11 by fall. Lawyers for some of the claimants say the figure is too small considering the organization’s declared assets of $1 billion. Among those assets: a collection of nearly 60 Norman Rockwell paintings that will go on the auction block to raise money for the settlement. (Washington Post and New York Times)

People who received direct-cash payments in a California experiment were more likely to get full-time jobs than their counterparts who did not, researchers found. Twenty-eight percent of the recipients in the Stockton, Calif., program worked full-time when it began in February 2019. A year later, that figure had grown to 40 percent, according to a study by researchers at the Universities of Tennessee and Pennsylvania. By comparison, full-time employment in a control group rose by 5 percent. The Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration, which gave people $500 a month for two years, was run by a nonprofit and funded by private donations. Mayors across the country are watching closely as they consider similar approaches in their cities. (Associated Press)

The family of the late Baltimore Ravens owner Art Modell is demanding that the Modell name be taken off the city’s opera house. In 2010, Modell and his wife, Patricia, committed $3.5 million to the Lyric, to be paid over 10 years. Both have since died, but family members say the couple believed their names would grace the building in perpetuity. Others involved in the negotiation say that stipulation was never mentioned, and it does not appear in writing. Officials at the Lyric say the agreement conferred naming rights for a decade and have asked for an additional $300,000 a year to keep the Modell name on the building beyond the initial deal. With the Modell family and officials at the Lyric at an impasse over the issue, the family has held back the last $300,000 payment and is seeking to sever ties with the institution. (Baltimore Sun)

New Grant Opportunities

Your Chronicle subscription includes free access to GrantStation’s database of grant opportunities. Among the latest listings:

• Youths and racial healing. The Power of Youth Challenge: Youth Leading Racial Healing, an effort of America’s Promise Alliance, is a leadership and service opportunity supporting youth-designed projects that promote racial equity and address systemic racism. Teams of people ages 13 to 19 will have access to a $250 mini-grant to support a Covid-safe service project. Funded projects may encompass a range of activities such as establishing a school anti-racism committee or bolstering the availability of books and resources by racially and ethnically diverse authors in a local library. The deadline to submit project ideas is April 30.
• Music education. The D’Addario Foundation supports efforts to improve access to music education. The focus is on programs that bring music back into communities and schools and get kids playing early and often, with students receiving instrument instruction multiple days a week throughout the year and for as many years as possible. Cash grants average $2,500, and product donations are available. Interested applicants should submit a letter of inquiry; invited grant applications will be due June 15.