Philanthropy This Week

John Bazemore, AP

Good morning.

When Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign turned an endorsement from Charli XCX into a meme, adopting the lime green color of the pop star’s album cover, it helped energize young voters and win attention for a candidate who failed to gain traction in 2020. What followed were key endorsements and record fundraising totals, writes Michael Bellavia, CEO of HelpGood, in an opinion piece.

“With a mix of humor, digestible digital content, and an awareness of trending culture, the Harris team has put memes to powerful and practical use,” writes Bellavia.

Nonprofits should take note. “When done well, the shareable and democratized nature of memes can raise up often unheard voices and spread messages that spur action,” he adds.

He speaks from experience. In 2012, when then-presidential candidate Mitt Romney proposed defunding public broadcasting, home of Sesame Street, Bellavia on impulse tweeted #MillionMuppetMarch. Later, Bellavia helped organize an actual Million Puppet March in Washington, D.C., which attracted widespread media attention.

Memes are simple to create, often done anonymously, and can be funny, sloppy, or unhinged. And because each contributor helps shape the ever-evolving message, no one controls it.

“While that may seem risky, keep in mind that every successful movement comprises a wide array of folks — agitators, quiet supporters, peaceful protesters, provocative agents of mischief, small and large donors, and those directly affected by the problem at hand,” he writes. “Developing a meme mind-set requires accepting the potential value of all those voices.”

Bellavia offers tips for nonprofits ready to use memes to spread a message — how to judge good ones from bad, gauge your audience, be nimble, and use them for social change.

“Although using memes to raise awareness about a cause is itself valuable,” he writes, “the best campaigns earn more than ‘likes’ and ‘shares’ — they change lives.”

Here’s what else you need to know:

Wolter Peeters, Fairfax Media, Getty Images

Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings has given $1.6 billion to charity this year, according to SEC filings. The gifts were in the form of stock transfers, reports Maria Di Mento — nearly $1.1. billion in January and $502.4 million last week.

Though he hasn’t named the recipient, Variety reported that an anonymous source said it went to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, where Hastings and his wife, Patty Quillin, have a donor-advised fund.

The couple, who signed the Giving Pledge in 2012 and have twice appeared on the Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 50 list of the biggest donors, have used the DAF mostly to support education. Hastings has a particular interest in education, having taught high-school math in what was then Swaziland (now Eswatini) as a Peace Corps volunteer in the 1980s and served as president of the California State Board of Education. He is a vocal supporter of charter schools.

Courtesy of Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund (SV2)

When the Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund wanted to give its grantees more power over its giving, it started by diversifying its board, reports Jim Rendon. But first the trustees had to talk it through.

Jim Basile, who was chair at the time, recalled the board’s mind-set: “We have a lot of experience in philanthropy, with a lot of experience in running businesses. We’ve educated ourselves on issues. Does it make sense to bring in people who don’t have that level of expertise?”

But in short order, the trustees concluded that they didn’t have as much expertise as they thought, and the idea was approved unanimously. Four former grantees joined the board, and now the fund makes grants to a more diverse group of nonprofits and has attracted 31 new donor partners. It raised more than $2 million in one year for the first time. And its staff is more diverse, as the trustees have shared job openings with their networks.

As Basile told Jim: “In any organization, I think more voices are better and more perspectives are better, and you get to a better solution to the problem.”

Getty Images

Grant makers are often overlooked in the search for ways to encourage small-dollar gifts, writes Andrew Dunckelman, deputy director of the Philanthropic Partnerships Team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

“By providing essential and comprehensive operating support to nonprofits, they play a vital role in strengthening organizations’ capacity to secure donations from everyday donors,” he writes.

In addition, foundations can support efforts like GivingTuesday and BackBlack to raise money from ordinary donors. Grant makers can back efforts to change public policy to foster charitable giving. They can provide funds to develop digital tools that make giving easier. And they can support data collection and analysis to help charities better understand donor behavior.

Such efforts, he writes, can “create opportunities for nonprofits to increase their impact and embrace everyday givers as fellow travelers on the road to addressing society’s most pressing problems.”

— Marilyn Dickey, senior editor for copy

WHAT WE’RE READING ELSEWHERE

Melinda French Gates, who pushed for years to make women’s experience central to some of the work of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation abroad, says she gained a sense of urgency about the plight of women in the United States following the reversal of Roe v. Wade and her daughter’s activism on abortion rights. In an interview, she also says she straddles the line between the “trust-based” approach to giving championed by her friend MacKenzie Scott and the data-driven approach of her former foundation. French Gates adds that women have not been major philanthropists long enough to judge yet whether they give differently from men, and she considers men such as Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Jack Dorsey, and Bill Ackman “nonphilanthropists,” because they have used their visibility to take public stands on issues but “have not been very philanthropic yet.” (New York Times)

To prod more disbursements from donor-advised funds, DAF payments company Chariot and some major nonprofits are introducing DAF Day on Oct. 10. Along with organizations including the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Cancer Society, Chariot is asking donors to make a gift from their DAF, to announce the recipient and the fund from which it comes, and to reveal how much they intend to give from their DAF in a single day. The idea is “to focus attention on DAFs not as a place to store money but rather as a wallet from which to give money.” (Axios)

The country’s first large guaranteed-income pilot program using public funds was “transformative” for its recipients, according to results released in Los Angeles. The 3,200 participants received $1,000 a month for 12 months from the city starting in 2022. They were able to find better jobs, leave unsafe living conditions, or escape from abusive relationships, researchers said. They could also save money, cover a $400 emergency, or avoid homelessness while waiting for other housing assistance. (Los Angeles Times)

Civic groups in several Republican-led states have scaled back or ended their voter-registration drives for fear of running afoul of new laws that make the task more difficult and levy strict penalties for slip-ups. In Florida, groups signed up 5,900 new voters in 2023 after the law was passed, compared with 16,600 to 63,200 each year from 2018 to 2022, with the drop disproportionately affecting registrations for voters of color. Officials can fine groups up to $250,000 for violating tough new rules, including a ban on helping would-be voters fill out their registrations. Other restrictions have been passed in Alabama, Tennessee, Missouri, and Kansas, where one group has called off its registration drive. A federal court is expected to rule soon on a challenge to Florida’s law by the League of Women Voters. (New York Times)

In addition to campaign contributions, California’s oil and gas companies make substantial donations to charities at the behest of the state’s moderate Democratic lawmakers, a swing bloc that can determine the fate of environmental legislation. From 2021 to 2023, five companies gave more than $800,000 combined to nonprofits at the request of lawmakers. In the last legislative session, more than a dozen pieces of environmental legislation died under heavy opposition from the energy industry. One legislator, who received more than $200,000 from the oil industry over the past eight years, also received checks from Chevron and Valero to help fund her annual Thanksgiving turkey giveaway. (Los Angeles Times)

A judge in New York has decided against imposing an outside monitor on the National Rifle Association, as the state’s top prosecutor had requested, but has laid out several reforms the group must make to wrap up litigation over self-dealing and financial misconduct. The nonprofit must make it easier for candidates to join its 76-member board, which the judge suggested should be shrunk, and should purge its audit committee of longstanding members, among other steps. Former NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre and the organization’s former finance chief were ordered to repay $7.4 million combined in misspent funds in February. (New York Times)

The former head of a defunct public-safety nonprofit in San Francisco has been arrested and faces 34 felony counts related to misusing more than $700,000 of the organization’s funds. Prosecutors say Kyra Worthy, who led the police-affiliated SF SAFE until an audit in January uncovered financial misconduct, misused public money, submitted fraudulent invoices to a city department, and committed wage theft, among other abuses. SF SAFE owed most of that money, which auditors said Worthy spent on gift boxes, a lavish party, personal expenses, and a trip to Lake Tahoe, to two other city-contracted nonprofits. (KQED)

San Francisco’s safe-consumption sites for drug users have been controversial, but the nonprofits that host them say they save lives and can bring people closer to recovery. Handing out clean supplies reduces the risk not only of transmitting disease but also of overdosing, they say. Groups that use harm-reduction approaches can also steer people toward counseling, treatment, and other health services. The interactions with outreach workers, who can “slowly nudge” someone toward treatment, are critical, an addictions expert said. (KQED)

GLAAD, one of the country’s most visible LGBTQ-rights organizations, has showered lavish perks and pay on its CEO, which are more in keeping with a for-profit company than a nonprofit, some experts say. Sarah Kate Ellis, who took the helm of the organization in 2014, when it was struggling to survive, has a pay and benefits package that could yield from $700,000 to $1.3 million annually. In addition, her expenses have included dozens of first-class flights, top-dollar summer rentals and car services, stays in luxury hotels, and an expensive home-office renovation. Ellis is credited with turning around the fortunes of GLAAD, which now has an annual budget of about $30 million. A spokesman said the expenses were directly work-related. (New York Times)

Nonprofit contractors in Los Angeles that work on reducing gang violence are getting more money and attention from City Hall, but they still have an uneasy relationship with the city. Under Mayor Karen Bass, pay for gang “interventionists,” who are typically former gang members, has risen from about $40,000 to $60,000 in some cases, and the agency in charge seems more engaged, one nonprofit leader said. But officials are still seeking better ways to measure the efforts’ effectiveness, beyond a citywide drop in gang-related slayings, and distrust between the police and the outreach workers persists. (Los Angeles Times)

NEW GRANT OPPORTUNITIES

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

Health Care: The mission of the Prevent Cancer Foundation is to empower people to stay ahead of cancer through prevention and early detection. For the 2024-2026 Community Grants cycle, the Foundation is investing in patient navigation efforts for cancer prevention and early detection. Community-based organizations throughout the U.S. can apply for a grant to develop new or implement existing projects focused on preventing cancer or finding it early through patient navigation. Grants are $100,000 over two years; application deadline is September 10.

Education: The Mockingbird Foundation provides grants to schools and nonprofit organizations in the United States that focus on music education for children. The Foundation is particularly interested in projects that foster creative expression and encourages applications associated with diverse or unusual musical styles, genres, forms, and philosophies. Grants range from $100 to $10,000; inquiries due by January 15, 2025.