Philanthropy This Week

Tracie Van Auken for The Chronicle

Good morning.

Generation Z may be the trickiest group ever to welcome into the nonprofit work force. People born around 1997 to 2012 shun long work hours but want good pay and benefits and an informal work culture, reports Ben Gose, who writes frequently about issues in nonprofit leadership. That’s a tall order for many groups, and some zoomers are eyeing higher-paying jobs in business, maybe opting to volunteer for charities on the side.

Some experts pin the blame on the multiple crises that Gen Z members faced in their formative years. They grew up in an era of school shootings. They saw their parents grapple with the 2007-8 recession. And they were cut off from friends and sometimes school during the pandemic.

But nonprofits do appeal to a lot of Gen Zers, in part because they distrust government and saw businesses fail during the pandemic. Those workers tend to be progressive and idealistic and see charities as nimble.

Once on the job, these young workers aren’t afraid to make demands of nonprofit leaders — especially women and people of color — contributing to burnout and turnover at the top.

Says Bianca Anderson, co-CEO of ProInspire: “The message ‘Change it now or else’ can be dehumanizing for a leader. You can’t fix all these things overnight.”

More about jobs. After years of a staffing crisis, some nonprofits are finding ways to keep workers in the fold — like offering shorter workweeks, more time off, and training in DEI.

The Utah Nonprofits Association saw success by reducing the workweek from 40 hours to 32, with no cut in pay, and drew a record number of job applicants impressed by the group’s commitment to giving employees a balanced life, reports Jim Rendon as part of our special report on 2024 trends.

Here’s what else you need to know:

Getty Images

Far too many foundations that had been making strides in grant making for racial equity are now running scared as conservative activists ramp up attacks in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision on college affirmative action (opinion).

“Many racial-justice leaders and program officers report being pressured to censor their language, obfuscate or narrow their strategies, and drop their principled stances on multiple issues,” write Lori Villarosa, Ben Francisco Maulbeck, and Gihan Perera of the Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity.

Through workshops and conversations with grant makers, the organization found that groups are scrubbing racial-justice language from their websites, cutting back on advocacy for fear it will be construed as political lobbying, and pausing their internal DEI work.

Write the authors: “Grant makers need to draw a clear line between inoculating themselves against attack and giving up at the first serious challenge.”

The JPB Foundation

Under the new leadership of a longtime progressive activist, the JPB Foundation will increase its grant making by 20 percent and shift its focus from poverty, the environment, and medical breakthroughs to building power for marginalized people.

“The underlying issue underneath all the problems we face, from housing to health care to climate injustice, is really an imbalance in power,” Deepak Bhargava told Alex Daniels, who covers grant making and policy.

Bhargava has recruited other progressive activists to the foundation and has big plans to support groups that strengthen democracy, fight misinformation, and boost the power of people of color, LGBTQ people, and workers.

The choice of an activist as leader is a rarity among major foundations, which more often go for academic leaders. Bhargava was already serving on the foundation’s board, but his appointment as president will be a “lightning bolt” for philanthropy and raise JPB’s profile as an agent of change, Patrick Gaspard of the Center for American Progress told Alex.

Sarah Jones for The Chronicle

A.I.’s ability to automate tasks will someday likely change the nature of people’s jobs — in some cases, beyond recognition — but it can’t replace human skills like empathy, social connection, and adaptability. At least for now.

Data analysts, office managers, and others whose work centers on digital tasks may well see changes down the road. But for now, A.I. is most useful for its ability to do mundane tasks and free people up for the work that requires a human touch, writes Sara Herschander.

Dangers of A.I. in the nonprofit workplace right now lie in integrating it too quickly or not instituting safeguards and transparency. Such missteps could undermine a group’s mission or erode the trust of staff, donors, and others — as happened with the chatbot-run helpline that famously gave callers bad advice.

Trooper Sanders, CEO of Benefits Data Trust, Sanders compares A.I. to a sharp knife that, depending on how it’s used, “can do a lot of great things but can also cause a lot of damage.”

— Marilyn Dickey, Senior editor for copy

WHAT WE’RE READING ELSEWHERE

Legal Issues

Federal prosecutors have charged another 10 people in Minnesota in what they say was a $250 million conspiracy to defraud federal programs meant to feed poor children, bringing the total number of accused to 70, some of whom have pleaded guilty. (Minnesota Public Radio)

South Dakota has apologized and agreed to pay $300,000 to a nonprofit that provides social services to LGBTQ people, after the organization sued the governor and former health secretary for terminating a $136,000 grant. The state cited contract violations, but the Transformation Project called the cancellation political, as officials rescinded the grant after South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem told a conservative media outlet that the state did not support the group’s efforts. (Associated Press)

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the nonprofit behind the Supreme Court case to keep Donald Trump off the ballot in Colorado, has been around since 2002, scraping by with a skeletal staff on a modest budget, but when fundraising took off during the Trump presidency, it began to deal with demands from partisan donors while striving to call out corruption wherever it finds it. (New York Times)

Uncertainty around Pennsylvania’s drug laws cost one rural addiction-recovery nonprofit its $150,000 share of the state’s opioid settlement money, when local officials revoked the grant over fears the organization’s provision of syringes to clients could run afoul of a vague ban on “illegal drug paraphernalia.” (Spotlight PA)

More News

Harvard and several other wealthy universities in Massachusetts are the targets of state bills that would levy an excise tax on endowments above $1 billion — Harvard’s stands at $51 billion — and assess fees on schools that give preferential admissions treatment to the children of alumni, with the proceeds funneled to community colleges. (Bloomberg)

Employees of some Jewish nonprofits say they have faced disapproval from their bosses, or even left their jobs, after calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, partly reflecting a generation gap in views on Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks. (Forward)

As in many places around the country, Boston’s nonprofit theaters are struggling to survive as attendance and revenue dwindle and they face the challenges of inflation, aging audiences, the loss of pandemic-era aid, and keeping their audiences and employees safe from Covid. (Boston Globe)

A program to help severely mentally ill people who are homeless in New York City lacks oversight or even a way to measure its own success, according to a recent audit, which found that the nonprofits contracted to work with clients sometimes lose track of them or don’t have the staff to do the job, among other shortcomings. (New York Times)

A successful campaign to prevent the United States from expanding its already-considerable exports of liquefied natural gas received major backing from big grant makers including Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Rockefeller Family Fund, which offered support to grassroots groups as well as national environmental organizations. (Wall Street Journal — subscription)

Nearly three-dozen small, nonprofit newsrooms have formed the Alliance of Nonprofit News Outlets to advocate for more funding and attention from donors and industry groups, which they say too often favor larger players and have unrealistic expectations of how much money many outlets can raise from their own communities. (Nieman Lab)

NEW GRANT OPPORTUNITIES

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

Companion Animals: Maddie’s Fund: 2024 Open Arms Challenge is open to animal shelters, foster-based organizations, and public charities focused on keeping pets and people together who want to increase inclusivity and provide a welcoming environment. The Challenge is an opportunity for organizations to pilot a new practice or expand upon a current program that has already been started, with the goal of increasing inclusivity and providing a welcoming environment for all staff (paid and unpaid) and community members. Registration period to participate in the challenge will be open from February 26 to March 6; $510,000 in grant prizes are available.

Visual Art: The Henry Luce Foundation’s American Art Program aims to advance the role of the visual arts in a more open and equitable society, and supports museum projects that foreground diverse experiences and perspectives to challenge accepted histories, elevate underrepresented voices, and promote critical conversations. Through its Responsive Grants, the American Art Program supports a wide range of collection-based projects that advance the understanding and presentation of art of the United States. No deadline for concept notes.