WHAT WE’RE READING ELSEWHERE
Big Philanthropy
Taking advantage of a surging share price, Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings has donated about $1.1 billion worth of stock in the streaming company to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, a charity popular with technology billionaires that holds most of its $10.1 billion in assets in donor-advised funds and is tight-lipped about its donors’ giving. (Wall Street Journal — subscription)
With his $1.1 billion stock donation to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation last week, Netflix billionaire Reed Hastings will likely be in for a hefty tax break, as it can offset his income tax, allow him to avoid paying capital gains tax on a much-appreciated asset, and reduce his taxable estate. (Fortune)
Hedge-fund billionaire and Harvard alum Ken Griffin, who has given $450 million to the university over the past decade, said he will stop donating to the school unless Harvard abandons its diversity, equity, and inclusion “agenda”; takes more seriously rising antisemitism on campus; and refocuses on “educating young American men and women to be leaders and problem solvers.” (Bloomberg)
Nearly a year and a half after Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard and his family gave away the outdoor-clothing company, it has set up a network of nonprofits and put $71 million into conservation and political causes, including protecting nearly 163,000 acres of land globally and helping elect Democrats to Congress and down the ballot this year. (New York Times)
More News and Opinion
Lawyers defending the venture capital Fearless Fund’s grant program for women entrepreneurs of color told a skeptical appeals panel of three judges Wednesday that the grants are an exercise of free speech, akin to targeted charitable donations. The program is the object of a lawsuit filed by the same group that persuaded the Supreme Court to strike down affirmative action in college admissions. Here it argues that the grants are contracts given out on a discriminatory basis. (Associated Press)
Opinion: While Big Philanthropy, with enormous sums at its disposal, sometimes seems to tilt at windmills, community foundations provide a model for how to bring people together and get things done, with their local outreach a possible way back to the participatory rituals that an atomized American society desperately needs, writes former Indiana governor Mitch Daniels. (Washington Post)
Community health centers, which provide primary care and some social services to 1 in 11 Americans, are struggling with inadequate and unpredictable federal funding and an exodus of physicians as they treat 45 percent more people than a decade ago, many of whom are poor, uninsured, or homeless. (Associated Press)
Facing the end of pandemic-era relief funds, Cleveland public schools have terminated a $20 million grant program, funded by a 2022 gift from MacKenzie Scott and administered by students, to help plug a yawning budget deficit. (Cleveland.com)
As climate-related disasters escalate, the sums raised via GoFundMe campaigns for affluent survivors tend to dwarf the donations to their poorer counterparts, thanks largely to the wider and better-heeled social networks that middle-class and wealthy survivors enjoy, according to researchers from the universities of Colorado and Wisconsin. (New York Times)
Reflecting a nationwide trend, the median pay for CEOs of Minnesota’s health-care nonprofits jumped by 25 percent in 2022, even amid losses, as boards recognized non-financial benchmarks such as quality, safety, and patient experience. (Star Tribune)
NEW GRANT OPPORTUNITIES
Your Chronicle subscription includes free access to GrantStation’s database of grant opportunities.
Native Languages: First Nations’ Native Language Immersion Initiative provides grants to build the capacity of and directly support Native-controlled nonprofit organizations and tribal government programs actively advancing Native language immersion programs in tribal communities. Ten grants of $45,000 to $75,000 will be awarded; application deadline is March 4.
Youth Changemakers: The Taco Bell Foundation Ambition Accelerator connects young changemakers to resources such as funding, a network of peers and mentors who are leaders in the social impact space, and personalized feedback on their idea or venture. Support will be provided to young people ages 16 to 26 whose ideas are enacting positive change in their communities. 250 awards of $500 will be provided, plus additional awards up to $25,000 for the Grand Prize winner. Application deadline is March 14/15.