UPCOMING EVENTS
Unless otherwise indicated, to rsvp for any of these events, contact Lauren Shebuski.

AGF Programs

October 25 - Nonprofit Consolidation: Opportunities and Challenges in AZ: This program will feature David LaPiana, a national expert on nonprofit collaboration, as well as local leaders who have either been involved in nonprofit mergers or have studied the impact of this movement.Speakers will share their ideas on the strengths and weaknesses of nonprofit consolidation. This program is sponsored by The Lodestar Foundation. (Luncheon ONLY open to nonprofits)
Thursday, October 25 | 11:30 a.m.- 3:00 p.m.

Other Local Programs

September 18 - And Justice for All: An advocacy conference for nonprofit and funding organization professionals. This event is sponsored by The Wallace Foundation of Arizona in partnership with the Alliance of Arizona Nonprofits, Arizona Action for the Arts, Arizona Citizens for the Arts, Arizona Grantmakers Forum, The Arizona Republic, and the ASU Center for Nonprofit Leadership and Management. Registration is closed but there may be a few spots left for funders. If interested in attending, contact Laura Atwell, wallacefoundationaz@cox.net.

October 4 - The Pension Protection Act: What Foundations Need to Know: Featuring Grace Allison, VP of Northern Trust Co., sponsored by Northern Trust.
Thursday, October 4 | 7:30 - 9:00 a.m. | Northern Trust: 2398 E. Camelback Road Suite 400

October 31 - Teaching Children the Art of Giving: The Arizona Grantmakers Forum, in partnership with a number of other philanthropic and civic organizations around Arizona, will host a conversation with noted author Susan Crites Price. The event will provide participants with information to help adults teach children - from toddlers to teens - how to use their time, talent, and money to help others. We will begin taking RSVP's for this event on August 31, 2007. For more information, click here.

Other Events of Interest...

Aug. 7-9, Council to Sponsor Conference on Rural Philanthropy  
Learn more about the challenges facing rural America and what philanthropy is doing to address them this August 7-9 in Missoula, MT.

September 16-19, Senator Byron Dorgan and top hill leaders Dean Zerbe and Michael Collins are speaking at Council on Foundations Community Foundation Conference in San Francisco, September 16-19. To register, visit www.cof.org.

September 23-26 , Environmental Grantmakers Association 2007 Fall Retreat - click here for more information.

September 26-28, The Grantmakers for Children Youth and Families 2007 Annual Conference will be held in Atlanta, Georgia. At this conference we will explore the theme, "The Power of Partnership: Building Capacity, Creating Opportunities." More conference information will be available soon on the website: www.gcyf.org.

PHILANTHROPY NEWS

U.S. Charitable Giving reaches 295.02 billion in 2006
Glenview, Ill. (June 25, 2007)—U.S. charitable giving reached a new record in 2006, an estimated $295.02 billion, according to Giving USA 2007, the yearbook of philanthropy published by Giving USA FoundationTM and researched and written by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.Donors gave an estimated $11.97 billion more than in 2005, a 4.2 percent increase (1.0 percent adjusted for inflation) over a revised estimate for 2005 of $283.05 billion. The 2005 estimate includes nearly $7.4 billion in extraordinary disaster relief giving. If disaster gifts are excluded from the 2005 total, giving in 2006 rose 6.6 percent (3.2 percent after adjusting for inflation). Read Giving USA Press Release.

$285 Billion Donated by the World's Wealthy
The world's wealthiest people donated $285 billion to charity last year, according to a new study whose results were reported by The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Hedge Fund Grow Billion Dollar Children's Foundation
When Chris Hohn and Jamie Cooper-Hohn set up hedge fund The Children’s Investment Fund (TCI) and its linked charity, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, they hoped to make a difference to children in the developing world. Mrs Cooper-Hohn told recipients of aid that the foundation may one day be able to give out $5m-$10m a year. But the foundation does not just give out money. It has adopted the “venture philanthropy” model, pioneered by New York’s Robin Hood charity, set up by legendary hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones. Read full article.

New Research Shows Corporate Philanthropy Continues to Rise Despite Drop in Disaster-Relief Funding in 2006
Contrary to expectations, new research finds that corporate philanthropy remained strong in 2006, increasing on average 4.7% for top companies. After a spike in corporate giving in 2005, due in part to beyond-budget disaster-relief funding in the wake of Katrina, the Tsunami, the South Asia earthquake, and other natural disasters, corporate philanthropy could have been expected to decline in 2006. However, according to new research by the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy (CECP) on $10.6 billion in philanthropy data from 113 companies, including 44 of the Fortune 100, giving continued to climb above 2005 levels.  To read more, go to http://www.corporatephilanthropy.org/press/cecppr/PR017.pdf.

Foundation Leader Says Foundations Should be Guided By Donors and Trustees, not Government
Government has little control over foundation assets, in much the same way it isn't in charge of the money in individuals' 401(k) plans, which also involve tax–exempt contributions, argues Carl Schramm of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.  Further, a foundation is not a "passive bank," beholden to constituencies or stakeholders, such as grantees or community activists. A foundation's actions should be tied to the donor's intent and guided solely by trustees, according to Schramm's paper in the most recent issue of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy. Schramm writes in his article that an implicit private–public treaty must exist among donors, trustees, and the government that favors allowing foundations "wide latitude and tolerance" to carry out their efforts to improve society – which has, at least historically, been to help to "smooth the rough edges of the capitalism of their time." Read full article.

USEFUL RESOURCES

BOOK SAYS ADVOCACY SHOULD BE AN UNQUESTIONABLE FUNCTION OF FOUNDATIONS
If foundations take seriously the causes their mission statements proclaim, they "absolutely must participate in public policy," according to Hodding Carter, formerly of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Echoing Carter's claim, Emmett Carson of Silicon Valley Community Foundation argues that foundations should ask themselves how often they take risks consistent with the aspirations of their mission statements, especially those that are change–oriented. If seldom or never, they should ask why. Carter and Carson make their claims in the new book Power in Policy: A Funder's Guide to Advocacy and Civic Participation published by the Fieldstone Alliance and Grantmakers for Effective Organizations.

FOUNDATIONS SHOULD HELP STRENGTHEN PUBLIC'S INVOLVEMENT IN WORKING TO IMPROVE SOCIETY
"The power of enormously resourced foundations in setting the course of the conversation is alarming," according to Dave Bergholz, formerly of the George Gund Foundation, referring specifically to public discussion about improving the nation's public schools.  Bergholz sees this reality as a reflection of the nation's increasing divide between rich and poor, and says foundations must be willing to better understand their role in democracy and work to strengthen the public's involvement in choosing courses of action that improve society. That's a recurring theme of a book that asks people to dream about their ideal world and explore what would be involved in making it real. Peter Karoff, founder of the nonprofit consultancy The Philanthropic Initiative, talked to more than 40 people, many of them foundation leaders, for this book which he plotted out based on their observations. The World We Want: New Dimensions in Philanthropy and Social Change, co–authored with TPI's Jane Maddox, serves as a follow–up of sorts to the 2004 book Karoff edited, Just Money – A Critique of Contemporary American Philanthropy, which was more narrowly focused on foundations.

PROMISING PRACTICES FOR HEALTH COVERAGE OF LOW-INCOME FAMILIES
A new report from the Southern Institute on Children and Families shares promising practices in breaking down barriers to provide health coverage for low-income children and adults.  Among the efforts highlighted are outreach initiatives in Alabama, Louisiana, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Virginia.  For example, the Children’s Coalition for Northeast Louisiana hosted a lunch meeting of human resource directors for the major businesses in the area to raise awareness of health coverage issues.  Five of the attending business subsequently held enrollment events for their employees.  Arkansas and North Carolina are also recognized for efforts to simplify application procedures, and Louisiana for inter-agency coordination.  Download the report, Promising Practices, at  http://www.thesoutherninstitute.org/docs/publications/CKF%20Promising%20Practices%204-07.pdf.

BOOK EXPLORES HOW FAMILY FOUNDATIONS PERPETUATE INEQUALITY; GUIDES YOUNG FAMILY MEMBERS IN ALTERING PRACTICES
Only a small percentage of family philanthropy resources support low–income citizens, women, people of color, and other minorities, according to a new book.  And a key reason for the shortage: funding priorities derive primarily from donors' personal interests and networks. As long as decision–making authority is based solely on proximity to wealth, family philanthropy will be unable to truly support social change. This book hopes to help change the situation. Distributed in partnership with the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, Creating Change Through Family Philanthropy: The Next Generation, was written by Alison Goldberg and Karen Pittelman of Resource Generation and explores how institutional practices in family philanthropy actually perpetuate, rather than ameliorate, inequality.

Another book also offers tips for grantmakers in funding social change efforts. Ronald Clement of the Haigh–Scatena Foundation wrote this small, lively book, Funding Social Change: From the Inside Out to encourage greater discourse on the relationship between private foundations and social change. It's designed in some measure as a parting gift from the foundation, which will finish spending out its assets this year. Incorporating the knowledge he gained as a social change agent prior to taking his foundation position, Clement offers perspectives from both sides of the relationship on other common practices in philanthropy.

NCRP AIMS TO SPARK 'GRASSROOTS UP' DIALOGUE ON NEED FOR MORE OPERATING SUPPORT FROM FOUNDATIONS
Foundations have become better at stretching their definition of general operating support and continue to apply restrictions to these grants, undermining the real value of this kind of funding. NCRP calls on all foundations, regardless of size, mission, and geography, to allocate at least 50 percent of their grants in the form of operating support, and to include indirect costs in project–specific grants. NCRP has been calling for this 50 percent operating support minimum for several years now, but the organization says little has changed. So now, NCRP hopes to help spark a "grassroots up" dialogue, mobilizing thousands of nonprofits to speak up in their own self–interest. A Call to Action: Organizing to Increase the Effectiveness and Impact of Foundation Grantmaking, written by former NCRP executive director Rick Cohen, includes comments from over 120 grassroots nonprofits, voices it says are rarely heard in national philanthropic circles.

FEW FOUNDATIONS FOCUS ON SOCIAL ASPECTS OF HEALTH, SUCH AS RACE, CLASS; PUBLICATION REVIEWS 25 YEARS OF HEALTH FUNDING
Few foundations concerned with health issues focus their grantmaking beyond the medical care system, health promotion, and disease prevention, to include other social aspects that affect health, including race, class, adequacy of housing, and the environment. That's according to a new publication from Grantmakers in Health examining trends in health since the affinity group's inception a quarter–century ago. Knowledge to Action: Critical Health Issues and the Work of Health Philanthropy over 25 Years reviews the critical health issues of the period, from access to care to aging to mental health.

New Report on Foundation Evaluation
A new report From Insight to Action: New Directions for Foundation Evaluation, highlights emerging approaches to evaluation that increase the effectiveness of both foundations and their grantees, illustrated by two dozen real-life examples from foundations of all sizes. It identifies a fundamental transition in the way foundations evaluate their grants. Increasingly, foundations are moving beyond traditional third-party outcome studies toward more real-time, performance-centered approaches that provide actionable insights while grant-funded projects are still underway. An electronic copy is available at www.fsg-impact.org.

Two New Foundation Reports Tell the Truth About Grantmaking Mistakes
It is an undeniable truth that foundations rarely admit to their mistakes, yet two recently-released reports counter that longstanding tradition. Both reports, one from the James Irvine Foundation and one from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, critically assess the execution of multi-year, multi-million dollar efforts to strengthen communities. Such efforts, often called “comprehensive community initiatives,” are characterized by big money, deep involvement by foundation staff, longer timelines, and the courage to focus not on symptoms, but on root problems. In an era in which new philanthropists are bringing growing resources to increasingly ambitious aspirations, the importance of this “truth-telling” by those who have undertaken such efforts cannot be underestimated. Read Truth and Foundation Evaluation.

 

EDUCATION RESOURCES

Highlights From Carnegie Conference on using Assessments to Improve Education
The Education Testing Service (ETS), Winter 2007 Policy Brief includes highlights of the Carnegie Centennial Conference, Improving Quality and Equity in Education: Inspiring a New Century of Excellence in Teaching and Assessment. The presentations and sessions focused on several major themes including the use of assessments to influence education outcomes, build accountability and initiate action. Acclaimed education researchers from across the U.S. shared their ideas on increasing access to higher education. Freeman Hrawbowski, President of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County asked attendees, "How can we encourage the academy not to be content with the status quo?" Her presentation encouraged more data collection in higher education, information that could be used to improve the quality of higher education, assess what students are learning, while ensuring students are retained and making progress towards their degrees.  For the complete report click here.