Nonprofit News From Elsewhere Online
A U.S. tech millionaire bankrolls “a tangle of nonprofits and shell companies” to spread Chinese-government propaganda around the world — and could have received tax breaks for doing so. Neville Roy Singham is a socialist who founded a software consultancy in Chicago and then sold it for hundreds of millions of dollars. At the heart the philanthropy-influence operation he supports are four nonprofits that have spent millions of dollars globally. One of them, the People’s Support Foundation, has given at least $450,000 to groups that run a school for activists in South Africa that promotes Chinese-government talking points and paints the United States as a bad actor. Another has sent nearly $1.8 million to a Chinese media company that aims to “tell China’s story well.” One has also become a significant backer of CodePink, an antiwar group that once criticized China’s human-rights record but now defends the government’s internment of its Uyghur minority. Singham, who “sits in Shanghai,” said he is following his long-held beliefs and denied that “I am a member of, work for, take orders from, or follow instructions of any political party or government or their representatives.” (New York Times)
Research into nuclear risk and deterrence is losing philanthropy dollars just as the changing nuclear landscape demands urgent attention from independent donors. That’s the conclusion of Christian Ruhl, a senior researcher at Founders Pledge who manages the Global Catastrophic Risks Fund and Matthew Gentzel who co-leads Longview Philanthropy’s Nuclear Weapons Policy Program. They note that the MacArthur Foundation, a major backer in the field, winds down its grant program this year, cutting into the $47 million total that supports the work of nuclear-focused “academics, activists, and think-tank analysts.” Simultaneously, China is expanding its arsenal, Russia is making threats, and policymakers must figure out how A.I. will affect nuclear decision-making. Philanthropy, which can fund efforts immune to political cycles and defense-industry lobbying, is an indispensable complement to government research on these issues. (Vox)
More News
- Billionaire Parts With Group Behind Israel’s Judicial Overhaul (New York Times)
- ‘It Doesn’t Matter Who We’re Taking On’: Meet the Boston-Area Groups Suing Harvard Over Legacy Admissions (Boston Globe)
- San Francisco Archdiocese Says Bankruptcy ‘Very Likely’ Given Child Sex-Abuse Lawsuits (Los Angeles Times)
- ‘There’s Nobody Free From the Risk.’ Kidnappings and Violence Threaten Humanitarian Work in Haiti. (Boston Globe)
- Calif. Supreme Court Sides With Conrad Prebys’s Life Partner in Whistleblower Dispute With Foundation (San Diego Union-Tribune)
Opinion and Analysis
- Don’t Just Read the Headline About Charitable Giving (Virginian-Pilot)
- Antiabortion Zealots Are Out to Sabotage America’s Successful Global Fight Against HIV (Los Angeles Times)
- Conservative Donors: Wake Up! Right-Leaning Philanthropists Need to Think More Strategically With Their Largess — and Stop Bestowing Massive Gifts on Harvard, of All Places. (City Journal)
Arts and Culture
- Letters: How to Save American Theater (New York Times)
- After a Flood, a Ky. Cultural Center Saves Appalachia’s History Piece by Piece (New York Times)
- Reckoning With the Criticism Over the National Museum of the American Latino (Los Angeles Times)
- Long Pushed Out When Neighborhoods Change, Artists Are Fighting Back, and Getting Help (Boston Globe)