> Skip to content
FEATURED:
  • Philanthropy 50
  • Nonprofits and the Trump Agenda
  • Impact Stories Hub
Sign In
  • Latest
  • Commons
  • Advice
  • Opinion
  • Webinars
  • Online Events
  • Data
  • Grants
  • Magazine
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Data
    • Reports
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
    • Webinars
    • Featured Products
    • Data
    • Reports
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
    • Webinars
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Career Advice
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Career Advice
Sign In
  • Latest
  • Commons
  • Advice
  • Opinion
  • Webinars
  • Online Events
  • Data
  • Grants
  • Magazine
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Data
    • Reports
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
    • Webinars
    • Featured Products
    • Data
    • Reports
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
    • Webinars
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Career Advice
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Career Advice
  • Latest
  • Commons
  • Advice
  • Opinion
  • Webinars
  • Online Events
  • Data
  • Grants
  • Magazine
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Data
    • Reports
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
    • Webinars
    • Featured Products
    • Data
    • Reports
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
    • Webinars
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Career Advice
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Career Advice
Sign In
ADVERTISEMENT

Philanthropy This Week

This newsletter featured a roundup of the most important news, opinion, tools, and resources of the week. The last issue ran on May 31, 2025 and was replaced by Need to Know This Week.

October 23, 2021
Share
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Show more sharing options
Share
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Copy Link URLCopied!
  • Print

From: Stacy Palmer

Subject: Helping Kids Learn; Foundations Should Give More as Assets Grow (Opinion)

Good morning.

We count on philanthropy to be several steps ahead of what society needs — and this week our senior writer Olivera Perkins brought you a story about a prescient effort kicked off by Tulsa’s George Kaiser Family Foundation.

Three years ago, Kaiser funded an effort to offer cash incentives to lure people who could work from anywhere to move to Tulsa and stay there. The idea was to infuse the city with people who had good paying jobs and who would add to the region’s quality of life.

We're sorry. Something went wrong.

We are unable to fully display the content of this page.

The most likely cause of this is a content blocker on your computer or network.

Please allow access to our site, and then refresh this page. You may then be asked to log in, create an account if you don't already have one, or subscribe.

If you continue to experience issues, please contact us at 571-540-8070 or cophelp@philanthropy.com

Panorama High School and Magnets drama teacher Patricia Francisco is teaching on Zoom in her classroom where she has set-up stage lighting within the black-box theater. Two stage lights brightened her face as she speaks to her camera with students logging in from home, others were scattered in classrooms around the campus. Panorama High School on Thursday, May 6, 2021 in Los Angeles, CA. (Al Seib, Los Angeles Times, Getty Images).
Al Seib, Los Angeles Times, Getty Images

Good morning.

In nearly every household with school-age children, there’s no escaping the pain that Covid has inflicted on learning.

Now a growing number of grant makers like Walton, Carnegie, Schusterman, and Chan Zuckerberg are trying to do what they can to seize the opportunity to transform education — and especially to help the hardest-hit youngsters: those who come from low-income families as well as students of color.

Alex Daniels talked to foundation officials and education grantees about what they are doing and why it’s so important for philanthropy to act even though the federal government is already pouring billions into the schools through measures like the American Rescue Plan Act.

Dan Weisberg, chief executive of TNTP, a nonprofit that provides teacher training in 300 school systems, says he hopes the rescue plan money will go to expand test projects foundations have supported to minimize the long-term damage caused by missed classes. That would be better for the long-haul process of improving education, he says, than using it to pay substitute teachers and supply laptops.

The losses and the disruption of the pandemic won’t be made up for in a single academic year, Weisberg says. But given the amount of money that is available now to close learning gaps, concerted action from government and philanthropy could make a big difference.

“If we can’t help students excel who are coming to us with learning gaps, then probably the whole rationale behind public education being the great equalizer, and an avenue for kids to reach the American dream, is called into question,” he says. “This is a year with enormously high stakes.”

HERE’S WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW

Husock-101921-art.jpg
iStock

The criticism of donor-advised funds for “warehousing” charitable gifts instead of putting them into the hands of working charities in a timely way should be redirected to big foundations.

That’s the view of Howard Husock, an American Enterprise Institute scholar who conducted a study that found that endowments at many of the biggest 15 foundations saw double-digit returns on investment from 2018 to 2019, but payout rates stayed just under 6 percent, on average.

By contrast, he writes, the National Philanthropic Trust estimates that the average payout rate of donor-advised funds in 2019 was 22.4 percent.

He also questions whether foundations should operate in perpetuity, saying Congress should require foundations to at least stipulate whether they plan to do so and why. “This would prompt boards of directors to reflect on whether it is appropriate, even ethical, to continue to oversee ever-growing pools of assets.”

A new law in California aims to ensure that charities receive online donations promptly and that solicitations have accurate information about nonprofits.

The measure will apply to sites that raise money, such as GoFundMe, Network for Good, and Facebook, and to retailers that invite shoppers to add a charitable contribution to their payment, writes Eden Stiffman. Those sites and retailers will no longer be allowed to hide fees or use nonprofits’ names in fundraising without their permission.

The law is the first of its kind in the United States and could be a harbinger of further efforts to regulate online fundraising, say experts.

“It’s going to increase people’s confidence in using online fundraising mechanisms for making donations to nonprofits,” Lucy Salcido Carter, public-policy director at the California Association of Nonprofits, told Eden. “It’s also going to protect recipient nonprofits.”

Firefighters battle flames at a burning apartment complex in Paradise, north of Sacramento, California on November 09, 2018.
Josh Edelson, AFP, Getty Images

Philanthropy needs to go beyond its Band-Aid approach to wildfires and climate change, says a California grant maker.

Instead of putting so much emphasis on disaster response and relief, foundations should put more money toward preventing or mitigating “mega-fires,” droughts, and other climate disasters — and do so in a way that supports “equitable disaster relief and long-term recovery, especially for the most vulnerable communities,” said Alan Kwok, director of climate and disaster resilience at Northern California Grantmakers, in an interview with Eden.

Most foundations that support health or housing or criminal-justice efforts don’t think of climate change as part of their mission, but that needs to change, he said.

“Funders need to start thinking about integrating a climate lens to everything that they do,” he explained, “because if a climate-related disaster happens, all of the previous investments that they’ve made will go to waste.”

Angela Williams.
United Way Worldwide

And if you have time to read just one piece, make it Dan Parks’s interview with Angela Williams, who is the new head of United Way Worldwide. Williams talks about what’s next for the organization, which was hit by a workplace bias scandal amid the challenges of the pandemic -- but also about what she sees as the future of nonprofit leadership by women and people of color as she becomes the first Black female to head such a large charity network. “This is a moment in time where I hope that organizations do not go back on their commitments to diversity, equity, inclusion, and access,” she says. “This is the time rather to lean into it.”

But if you feel more like listening than reading, we highly recommend the latest podcast from our partners at the Center for Effective Philanthropy, who talked to Elizabeth Alexander, leader of the Mellon Foundation.

Look-ahead for the week: Join our colleague Margie Fleming Glennon on Wednesday for a free discussion about the steps nonprofits can take to attract fundraising leaders from diverse backgrounds. And if you didn’t have a chance to read Eden Stiffman’s cover package about making fundraising offices more inclusive, we urge you to take a look now.

And on Friday, October 29, at 11 a.m Eastern our partners at GrantStation are offering a demonstration to help you use the service better and find the support that will power your mission. Free access to GrantStation is a benefit all Chronicle subscribers get automatically — so that is another reason to subscribe if you have not yet done so.

We hope you have plenty of time to read, listen, rest, and recharge this weekend.

— Marilyn Dickey and Stacy Palmer

More News and Opinion

  • Ford Foundation President Darren Walker attends a reception at the Charles H. Wright Museum in Detroit, on Tuesday, June 16, 2015. Ford Foundation, one of the largest private foundations in the United States, announced Monday, Oct. 18, 2021 that it will divest millions from fossil fuels, following similar investment decisions made by other sizable foundations in recent years.
    Foundation Giving

    Ford Foundation to Divest Millions From Fossil Fuels

    Associated Press October 18, 2021
    For years, climate activists have pressured endowed institutions like Ford to divest. Now the grant maker will invest in alternative and renewable energy.
  • In this Aug. 2, 2016, file photo, Laurene Powell Jobs arrives for a State Dinner at the White House in Washington. Philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs is gearing up to invest $3.5 billion into climate-focused initiatives in the next ten years. But if the donation patterns of her foundation continue, the public might never know where that money is going.
    Individual Giving

    Who Will Get Laurene Powell Jobs’s $3.5 Billion Gift for Climate Work?

    By Haleluya Hadero October 18, 2021
    Much of her philanthropic work is done through the Emerson Collective, a limited-liability company, or LLC, which means she doesn’t have reporting requirements.
  • This May 5, 2019 file photo shows Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates in Omaha, Neb. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation says it will spend $120 million to boost access to generic versions of drugmaker Merck’s antiviral COVID-19 pill in lower income countries, if the drug gets approved by regulators. The private foundation said in a statement released Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2021 it hasn’t determined how it will allocate the money, but will use the funds to “support the range of activities required to develop and manufacture generic versions” of the drug, molnupiravir.
    Foundation Giving

    Gates Foundation to Spend $120 Million on Access for Covid-19 Pill

    Haleluya Hadero, Associated Press October 20, 2021
    The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced it will spend $120 million to boost access to generic versions of drugmaker Merck’s antiviral COVID-19 pill for lower income countries, if the drug gets approved by regulators.
  • Donor Sentiment

    Donors Appear Eager to Give Generously, Poll Finds

    By Dan Parks October 21, 2021
    Despite increasing economic anxiety among America’s middle class, a greater share of people who gave at least $20 during the previous 12 months plan to continue giving than at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the results of a survey released this week.
  • Volunteers Mike Kitz, left, and Steve Jenkins distribute food during a Giving Tuesday event at Gleaners Food Bank, 3737 Waldemere Ave., Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2020. This year's need has been extreme due to the COVID-19 pandemic..
    Tool Kit

    How to Make the Most of GivingTuesday or Any Giving Day

    April 2, 2020
    Some nonprofits spend months planning creative digital campaigns for the fundraising sprint. Others use the day to thank donors or inspire their supporters to give back in other ways.
  • Salih Booker.
    Transitions

    Ford Foundation Hires Senior Program Officer for International Cooperation

    By M.J. Prest October 22, 2021
    Also, the Frist Foundation will promote its vice president of programs to CEO at the end of the year, and the Lemelson Foundation has also chosen its next executive director from within.
  • Fela Barclift poses for a photo in New York in Oct. 4, 2021. Barclift is one of the winners of the year's David Prize.
    Leadership

    New York City Activists, Residents Awarded $1 Million Prize

    Haleluya Hadero, Associated Press October 20, 2021
    This year’s winners the David Prize, an annual $1 million award for York City residents have been announced. The prize is named after billionaire real estate developer David C. Walentas and financed by his Brooklyn-based family foundation.
  • HHMI Hanna Gray Fellow Florentine Rutaganira (left) speaking with her mentor HHMI Investigator Nicole King at the University of California, Berkeley.
    Grants Roundup

    Howard Hughes Medical Institute Commits $2 Billion to Diversify Pipeline of Scientists

    By M.J. Prest October 20, 2021
    Also, Lululemon Athletica pledged $75 million to make grants for health and well-being through exercise, mindfulness, and advocacy, and Bloomberg Philanthropies gave $43 million to create the Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation at Johns Hopkins University.
  • Eric Rigaud is a managing partner at Bouyant. He’s worked with non-profits to help with their equity messaging in their marketing efforts.
    Equity in Action

    Telling Stories About Equity Often Forces Groups to Turn Inward, Says Communications Expert

    By Drew Lindsay October 5, 2021
    Once a brand manager at Procter & Gamble, Eric Rigaud now helps organizations document their work to become more equitable. See the rest of our profiles spotlighting people who are driving conversations about equity.
  • Mrs. Daisy E. Lampkin, Field Secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People holding an Anti-Lynching Poster, New York, New York, early to mid 20th century.
    Opinion

    To Create a More Inclusive Future, Philanthropy Should Examine the Overlooked Chapters From its Past

    By Kathleen W. Buechel October 18, 2021
    Women, Black people, and immigrants — not just wealthy industrialists — fueled 20th-century philanthropy in cities like Pittsburgh. Understanding their historic role is critical to developing more just and equitable philanthropic practices today.
  • Lancaster Pennsylvania.
    Gifts Roundup

    Lancaster Community Foundation Receives $65 Million

    By Maria Di Mento October 18, 2021
    Plus, Howard University lands $5 million from the Baltimore financier Eddie Brown and his wife, Sylvia.

WHAT WE’RE READING ELSEWHERE

Bank of America is putting another $22.1 million into its largest philanthropic effort, which supports nonprofits in “communities facing economic and social challenges.” (Bloomberg)

The McKnight Foundation says it will reduce its investments in polluting industries while expanding holdings in clean technologies to achieve a “net zero endowment” by 2050, although that doesn’t necessarily mean it will purge all of its fossil-fuel investments by then. (Reuters)

The Art Institute of Chicago’s plans to diversify the corps of people who welcome visitors and lead tours have pulled the museum into the culture wars. ” (New York Times)

North Carolina’s Catawba College, with 1,200 undergraduate and undergraduate students, has received an anonymous $200 million donation. (WBTV and Associated Press)

NEW GRANT OPPORTUNITIES

Your Chronicle subscription includes free access to GrantStation’s database of grant opportunities.

Preservation. The National Endowment for the Humanities helps cultural institutions preserve large and diverse holdings of humanities materials for future generations. The program helps cultural repositories plan and implement preservation strategies that balance effectiveness, cost, and environmental impact. Optional drafts are due December 9. The application deadline is January 13.

Health. The Department of Health and Human Services offers funding to provide information, education, technical assistance, and peer support to families of children and youths with special health-care needs and the professionals who serve them. This program promotes care systems that promote shared decision-making between families, health professionals, and state and community organizations. The application deadline is January 5.

Stacy Palmer
Stacy Palmer is chief executive of the Chronicle of Philanthropy, and has overseen the organization’s transition as it became an independent nonprofit in April 2023.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
  • Explore
    • Latest Articles
    • Get Newsletters
    • Advice
    • Webinars
    • Data & Research
    • Podcasts
    • Magazine
    • Chronicle Store
    • Find a Job
    • Impact Stories
    Explore
    • Latest Articles
    • Get Newsletters
    • Advice
    • Webinars
    • Data & Research
    • Podcasts
    • Magazine
    • Chronicle Store
    • Find a Job
    • Impact Stories
  • The Chronicle
    • About Us
    • Our Mission and Values
    • Work at the Chronicle
    • User Agreement
    • Privacy Policy
    • California Privacy Policy
    • Gift-Acceptance Policy
    • Gifts and Grants Received
    • Site Map
    • DEI Commitment Statement
    • Chronicle Fellowships
    • Pressroom
    The Chronicle
    • About Us
    • Our Mission and Values
    • Work at the Chronicle
    • User Agreement
    • Privacy Policy
    • California Privacy Policy
    • Gift-Acceptance Policy
    • Gifts and Grants Received
    • Site Map
    • DEI Commitment Statement
    • Chronicle Fellowships
    • Pressroom
  • Customer Assistance
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise With Us
    • Post a Job
    • Reprints & Permissions
    • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
    • Advertising Terms and Conditions
    Customer Assistance
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise With Us
    • Post a Job
    • Reprints & Permissions
    • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
    • Advertising Terms and Conditions
  • Subscribe
    • Individual Subscriptions
    • Site License Subscriptions
    • Subscription & Account FAQ
    • Manage Newsletters
    • Manage Your Account
    Subscribe
    • Individual Subscriptions
    • Site License Subscriptions
    • Subscription & Account FAQ
    • Manage Newsletters
    • Manage Your Account
1255 23rd Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037
© 2025 The Chronicle of Philanthropy
  • twitter
  • instagram
  • youtube
  • facebook
  • linkedin