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Nonprofit News From Elsewhere
Warren Buffett’s departure from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation hangs another question mark over the organization’s future. Given that Buffett’s resignation leaves only its divorcing founders as trustees, earlier speculation that the Gateses will create a board seems increasingly on target. “It points to the possibility of a future, healthier board where personal relationships are less salient,” philanthropy expert Benjamin Soskis said. Foundation CEO Mark Suzman has told staff he will have more to say on the matter next month. Meanwhile, Buffett also used the announcement to defend the deliberate pace of his philanthropy — at 90, he is worth an estimated $105.3 billion and has given away only half of what he intends to donate to charity. Buffett “seems to be arguing that the benefits of compounding interest have justified his gradual approach to selling off his [Berkshire Hathaway] shares,” Vox writes. (New York Times and Vox)
With a new pot of $80 million in pandemic relief, the National Endowment for the Arts aims to support organizations and artists who do not usually get NEA funding. Unlike with an earlier relief round that the agency sought to hand out quickly, it is not requiring applicants to be past recipients of its funds, and it is dropping its usual rule that recipients match the grants. Organizations can apply for $50,000, $100,000, or $150,000 grants, which can be used on operating expenses. Larger sums are available to local governments or their nonprofit partners that support local arts organizations or artists. The agency especially wants to help small and medium-size groups that “serve populations whose opportunities to experience the arts are limited by ethnicity, economics, geography, or disability.” The deadline is July 22. (Washington Post)
More News
- This Native-Led Fund Aims to ‘Decolonize Philanthropy’ in the Northwest (Northwest News Network)
- ‘100 Black Men of Jackson,’ in Miss., Is the Target of Federal Welfare-Fraud Investigation, Officials Say (Clarion Ledger)
- UC Regents Tighten Their Rules on Deals With Catholic Hospitals (Los Angeles Times)
The Arts
- ‘A Level of Abuse’: Laying Bare Theater’s Dirty Secrets (New York Times)
- Theodore Roosevelt Statue at New York Museum to Be Relocated (Associated Press)
