Philanthropy Today

Nonprofit News From Elsewhere Online

A nonprofit developer was key to California’s hopes for quickly building housing for homeless people, until its projects went into foreclosure, leaving $114 million in state grants in limbo. Step Up On Second Street inspired the state program for turning hotels and motels, emptied out by the Covid-era tourism crash, into apartments for homeless people. But it partnered with a for-profit company, Shangri-La Industries, that took out private loans, alongside state grants, and then defaulted. The state is suing both entities to get back its grant money, and Step Up projects in California, Colorado, and North Carolina have been aborted. (Los Angeles Times)

• Plus: AIDS Healthcare Foundation settles class-action tenant case over squalid living conditions (Los Angeles Times)
• Background from the Chronicle: Affordable Housing: A Concern for Every Cause

Tech billionaire Emmet Stephenson Jr. and his daughter, Tessa Stephenson Brand, are putting $150 million into research on pancreatic cancer four years after their wife and mother, Toni, died of the disease. The gift will go to California’s City of Hope, where Toni Stephenson was treated. To be spread out over 10 years, the money will fund an annual $1 million prize to a leading innovator as well as grants, an annual symposium, and a facility that collects tissues, blood, and other materials needed for pancreatic cancer research. (Los Angeles Times)

More on Big Philanthropy

• Duluth Nonprofit Receives $9 Million Gift From Philanthropist Billionaire (WDIO)
• MacKenzie Scott gives $9 million to Minnesota’s Entrepreneur Fund (Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal)
  
  • Background from the Chronicle: The Ripple Effects of MacKenzie Scott’s Philanthropy
• As National Zoo Awaits New Pandas, David Rubenstein Pledges $10 Million (Washington Post)

Arts and Culture News, Commentary

• Why Are Museums So Afraid of This Artist? (New York Times)
• Minnesota Museums and Theaters Target Youngest Audiences, Giving New Meaning to ‘Art Crawl’ (Minnesota Star Tribune)
• In Long Beach and Beyond, Micro-Galleries Turn Neighborhoods Into Mini-Art Districts (Los Angeles Times)
• Book Review: An Old White Billionaire Mentors a Young Black Woman in the Art of Philanthropy (New York Times)

Note: In the links in this section, we flag articles that only subscribers can access. But because some journalism outlets offer a limited number of free articles, readers may encounter barriers with other articles we highlight in this roundup.