Nonprofit News From Elsewhere

Crime tends to go down in areas hit by natural disasters, while surrounding communities tend to make more donations to charity. Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem who looked at natural disasters in the United States from 2004 to 2015 said that instead of widespread looting or other lawlessness, disaster-struck communities actually see a slight decrease in crime. They said the increased giving "could be driven by a shared sense of empathy and solidarity that neighboring communities have." The study was published in the journal Natural Hazards. (Jerusalem Post)

Historically Black colleges and universities have been essential to building a Black middle class, but they still get a fraction of the government and philanthropic support that goes to predominantly white institutions. Even as some recent eight-figure gifts to HBCUs have made headlines, their nearby counterparts have been receiving donations that are sometimes more than 10 times bigger. One education think tank calculates that four-year colleges that largely serve people of color get a little more than $860 per student in private gifts and endowment return, compared with just under $6,600 per student for other institutions. That disparity is layered on top of lopsided federal funding that favors predominantly white institutions. (Atlantic)

A new generation of wealthy donors is looking for more personal interaction and less sales and marketing from the causes they support. For most of these younger, wealthy supporters, traditional galas and glossy annual reports are less important than fundraisers who get to know them and find opportunities for them to give in a way that resonates with them, according to a new study. For example, a major donor who had attended Texas A&M University for its more generous financial aid gave $500,000 to help students stay in school whose parents had lost jobs during the pandemic. This group of donors is generally more interested in solving a problem than seeing their names on buildings. (New York Times)

About Nonprofit Innovation

• Boy Scouts Celebrate the First Group of Female Eagle Scouts (Associated Press)
• How the New Orleans Resilience Corps Helped the City Fight the Pandemic (Fast Company)
• Guaranteed Income Is Having a Moment. The Last Time It Did, It Was Because of Martin Luther King Jr. (Fast Company)
• Nonprofits Step Up to Protect Fertility for Cancer Patients (Associated Press)

Disaster Aid in Texas

• Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Raises Nearly $5 Million in Texas Relief Efforts (CNN)
• Pantries and Charities Scramble to Get Food to Dallas Residents Under Freezing Conditions (Dallas Morning News)

Arts and Culture

• Metropolitan Opera Backstage Workers Ask Donors and Government to Withhold Funds Over Labor Dispute (NPR)
• How the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles Is Diversifying Music (NPR)
• Penn Museum Has Hired its First Black Director, Who Pivoted From Physics to Antiquities (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Nonprofit News and Philanthropy

• The Reliable Sources podcast featured Report for America co-founder Steven Waldman on the role of philanthropy and nonprofit news outlets in solving the nation's disinformation and local news crisis. He also was asked to discuss an opinion piece he wrote for the Chronicle.