Nonprofit News From Elsewhere Online
Even as a stock-market tumble dented the net worths of the country’s richest people, big philanthropists upped their giving in 2022, according to Forbes’s annual rundown of the top 25 givers. The most generous in absolute lifetime numbers was Warren Buffett, who Forbes reckons donated about $5.4 billion worth of Berkshire Hathaway stock last year, for a lifetime total of $51.5 billion. Bill Gates gave $20 million to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation last year, but Forbes counts only gifts to ultimate beneficiaries and not to way stations such as donor-advised funds or donor-controlled foundations. Newcomers to the list were Google co-founder Sergey Brin ($2.55 billion) and hedge-fund magnate Ken Griffin ($1.56 billion). And in the past three years, MacKenzie Scott’s donations, at $14.43 billion, have outpaced everyone else’s except Buffett’s, the Gateses’, and George Soros’s. (Forbes)
Activists who made their name propagating the lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen raised funds last year to start a mobile hospital in Ukraine that never materialized. Gregg Phillips and Catherine Engelbrecht, leaders of the True the Vote nonprofit in Texas, launched an appeal after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to erect a mobile hospital there, but Phillips’s lawyers said in December that a March visit to the country put him off the idea. Still, Phillips continued to raise funds for it as late as June, and his lawyers now say the abandonment of the hospital was a more gradual decision. At some point, the project’s website said it had raised half of the $25 million needed, but his lawyers said that was an in-kind donation from the mobile hospital manufacturer — who denies making such a gift. Lawyers said the pair had raised $268 for the project and returned it all to donors. A marketing firm hired for the project complained to the state’s attorney general about not getting paid, and True the Vote has now settled those invoices. (ProPublica)
More News
- Russia Calls Sakharov Foundation ‘Undesirable’ (Associated Press)
- Elevate Prize Expands to 12 Winners in 2023 for Strong Field (Associated Press)
- The Organizer of an Annual Charity Raffle to Win a Tesla Says He’s Struggling to Sell Tickets This Year Because of Elon Musk’s Antics (Insider)
AmazonSmile’s Demise
- AmazonSmile Charity Program Ends. Will Amazon Help Other Charities? (Deseret News)
- Looking for Amazon Alternatives for Ethical Shopping? Here Are Some Ideas (NPR)
Arts and Culture
- $20 Million Worth of Looted Art Returns to Italy From the U.S. (New York Times)
- Don’t Say ‘Mummy': Why Museums Are Rebranding Ancient Egyptian Remains (CNN)
- The Philip Guston Hoard: A Boon or Overkill? (New York Times)
- The Paris Opera to Stage Its First Auction (New York Times)
