Nonprofit News From Elsewhere
After a tough year, and months of applications and waiting, performance venues are finally receiving federal pandemic relief funds. In Massachusetts, some are using the money for overdue renovations or to adapt the spaces to a changed world, installing sophisticated air filtration, security-screening systems, and touchless bathroom fixtures. Others are restoring lost pay and bringing workers back from furloughs. The $16 billion Shuttered Venue Operators Grant provides 45 percent of a venue’s 2019 earned revenue, up to $10 million, for spaces whose ticket revenue disappeared last year. It had a rocky start of computer glitches and confusing paperwork, but midstream reforms got it going. (Boston Globe)
Former spouses Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott keep trading the spotlight back and forth by making large philanthropic gestures with their Amazon fortunes, but their approaches are distinctly different. Bezos has pledged an enormous $13 billion in gifts, of which he has given $1.5 billion publicly. That amounts to less than 1 percent of his wealth. He has also favored large, better-known organizations, such as the Smithsonian, the World Wildlife Fund, and Princeton University’s Neuroscience Institute. Scott, on the other hand, has given away about $8.5 billion, or 14 percent of her fortune, as far as we know, and tends to seek out social-justice or racial-equity causes. Many of her recipients have been underfunded historically Black colleges and universities or local groups, such as YMCAs, for which multimillion-dollar gifts can be transformational. (Forbes)
More News
- These Silicon Valley Nonprofit Execs Took Home Nearly $1 Million or More in Pay (Silicon Valley Business Journal)
- Anonymous Donor Gifts $20 Million to Schools in Diocese of Greensburg (KDKA Pittsburgh)
- Can Auctions Save the Earth? Christie’s to Fundraise for Environmental Charity by Selling Works by Cecily Brown and Rashid Johnson (Art Newspaper)
Opinion
- Giving a Boost to Nonprofits in Their Time of Need: Restoring the State’s Charitable Tax Deduction Is the Right Thing to Do (Boston Globe)
- Minding My Own Business at a Tampa Store and Hit Up for Charity at Check-Out (Tampa Bay Times)
Nonprofit Innovators
- Could a Fleet of Affordably Priced, Readily Accessible Electric Cars Help Alleviate Road Congestion and Climate Change? A Boston Startup Takes the Wheel. (Boston Globe)
- This Website Crashed When Hundreds Donated to Kids in Foster Care After a Reddit Post (Washington Post)
- What Happens to Worn Out Rock Climbing Ropes? This Teen Turns Them Into Dog Leashes and Gives All Profits to Animal Groups. (Washington Post)