Learn How to Diversify Your Donors
Join our webinar tomorrow. See below.
Nonprofit News From Elsewhere
The national foundation atop the Black Lives Matter network is making its finances public after criticism from some local groups about funding and transparency. The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation raised more than $90 million last year, which it had not yet been required to disclose because it received nonprofit status only in December and therefore had not filed an Internal Revenue Service Form 990. It ended the year with more than $60 million in the bank after committing $21.7 million to grants for official and unofficial BLM chapters and 30 Black-led local groups, making other charitable gifts, and paying expenses of $8.4 million. The foundation would not disclose the names of major donors. Leaders of 10 local chapters say the foundation has provided little to no support, but foundation leaders say most of those groups are not “recognized as network affiliates” and that the organization has only recently had the funds to make meaningful grants. (Associated Press)
A progressive effort to counter right-wing disinformation will channel money to nonprofit media companies. The Good Information Project is being launched by Democratic strategist Tara McGowan, who has worked for several years to develop local media organizations in targeted markets. McGowan is seeking to raise $25 million for the effort. It will live under the same umbrella with Good Information Incorporated, for which McGowan is trying to raise $35 million for investment in for-profit media. McGowan previously launched Courier Newsroom, a network of eight websites for local news, which is now funded by a political organization but will receive funds from the corporate arm of Good Information. (Vox)
An interfaith group in southern Africa is accusing the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation of supporting “revolutionary” farming methods that could do more harm than good in the region. The Southern Africa Faith Communities’ Environment Institute said the foundation is pushing large-scale farming that relies on heavy machinery and large, single-crop fields, leading to environmental damage and squeezing out small farmers. They also say that approach to farming leads to a less diverse food supply that is more vulnerable to shocks. In response, the Gates Foundation said its approach “is guided by what smallholder farmers and local agriculture businesses say they need to succeed and by the priorities their governments have embraced in their national agriculture investment plans.” (Catholic News Service)
News About the Pandemic
- Art Galleries Discover That Their Business Model Is Covid-Proof. Museums? Not So Much. (Bloomberg)
- What Is Covax and How Will It Deliver Covid-19 Vaccines to Poorer Countries? (Wall Street Journal — subscription)
- Pandemic Drives Nonprofit Media Boom (Axios)
More News
- He Had to Drop Out of College. Then He Gave It $20 Million. (New York Times)
- Boy Scouts Seeks to Extend Halt to Lawsuits Against Local Groups (Associated Press)
- S.D. Lawmakers Advance Bills Limiting Disclosure of Nonprofit Donor Information (Ballotpedia)
- N.J.’s Nonprofit Hospitals Must Make ‘Community Service’ Payments Under New Law (NJ Advance Media)
Opinion
- I Led the Indianapolis Museum of Art for 5 Years. Here’s How Charles Venable, Its Recently Ousted President, Failed the Institution (Artnet News)
- Calif.’s Failed Policies Are Crushing and Driving Out Nonprofits (Orange County Register)
