tfdl

A consortium of foundations have invested in a new initiative to provide grants for working artists that mirrors (in a vague way considering the amount of the awards) the MacAurthur Foundation’s “genius” awards.

Four foundations — Ford, Rockefeller, Prudential and the Alaska-based Rasmuson— have put up a total of $20 million to create the organization and seed its initial operations, but the goal is for it to become a conduit between artists and individual donors.

Here are the details in the Paper of Record.

Posted by Edd at 1:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As good as their boards seems to be the correct answer. At least that is the gist of a commentary by Laura Otten from the La Salle University Non-Profit Center in Philadelphia. Good read.

Also here is a link to a podcast featuring Dr. Otten on WHYY's Radio Times.

Posted by Edd at 9:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A new pre-emptive volunteer site, HelpinDisaster.org, is due to launch this Sunday. Individuals who wish to volunteer to help in a disaster will be able to pre-register with the site and then those skill sets can be matched up when they are most needed. The site is sponsored by the Points of Light Foundation & Volunteer Center National Network. Looks like this may be one way to avoid having kind-hearted, generous folks form just showing up in a disaster area and becoming more of a drain than and asset.
Here are the details.

Posted by Edd at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

ACORN, a national volunteer organization, is seeking a few good people to help with the post Katrina cleanup work in low-income neighborhoods of New Orleans. Get all the details here.

Posted by Edd at 10:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Deborah Finn has an interesting article, Consolidate or Die, about the technology infrastructure challenges facing small non-profits on her blog. Maybe some consolidation is necessary - and even desirable. What is lost, though, when these small one to three person or so organizations fade away?
Here is the posting.

Posted by Edd at 9:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Is it the staff? The board? Just who is accountable when a small, but influential, non-profit goes bust? These and many more questions are bubbling up following the closing of the Association for Volunteer Administration (AVA).
Larger non-profits with their Policies and Procedures and so forth have some level of insulation (although, as we know, those organizations have some pretty week weld spots in their infrastructures as well).
The demise of the AVA may well be an important cautionary tale for many small organizations out there trying to do good work.
Have a read here.

Posted by Edd at 10:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Norton J. Kiritz, founder of the Grantsmanship Center, died last month In Los Angeles at 70. He was a major force, perhaps the major force, behind streamlining the grant writing process. More here in the LA Times.

Posted by Edd at 7:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Connections Between Faith Communities and Their Non-profits, a pilot research project looking at the “dynamic relationship between various faith communities and the non-profit organizations they create” was recently released. The researchers focused on a number of factors in this relationship including “the important role of culture in social capital connections between faith communities and the non-profits they create”. Interesting reading with lots of important policy implications.
Here is the link.

Posted by Edd at 3:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Just how powerful is local TV news in shaping how we see the world? Well consider this: over 60% of the American public indicates that local TV news is their SOLE source of news. Since 1990 the University of Delaware’s Local TV Media Project has been developing a database of local television stories from 61 stations in 20 markets. So far they have over 10,600 stories catalogued. This is quite a treasure trove as researchers study how local television is a factor in shaping public policy. The project site is here.

Posted by Edd at 2:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)