BREAKING NEWS!
The Catalogue for Philanthropy Class of 2011-2012 has been selected! Check out our 70 new and re-listed charities, as well as those who have been “re-certified” to remain on the web. (Several of whom have grown so much in the past few years that their budget renders them too large for the print catalogue!) Check them out right here. Congratulations!
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Welcome to Wednesday! Here comes a sample of non-profit news …
Reactions to the demise of the Kansas Arts Commission — As you likely have read, Gov. Sam Brownback (R-Kansas) vetoed funding for the Kansas Arts Commission over Memorial Days weekend. An override was unsuccessful. But Create Equity does find something of a silver lining: “this controversy has revealed genuine, broad-based public support for funding the arts … the dogfight over the Arts Commission was the top story on the Topeka Capital-Journal’s website. I don’t mean it was on the front page, I mean it was the #1 story in all of Kansas.” In other words, arts have real political power. Maybe more than imagined.
The Giving Pledge Goes Hollywood — Inspired by Bill & Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett, “Laurence Fishburne, Kim Kardashian, Richard Gere, Ricky Martin, and Justin Bieber, have joined dozens of other entertainers and sports figures … to use their fame to promote their favorite charities and encourage their fans to donate time and money.” While celebrities directing their star power towards charitable causes certainly deserves acclaim, will interest in the cause or the celebrity be the driving force behind donations from fans? Interesting discussion topic …
10 Great Social Innovation Reads – Looking for a couple clever ideas? Stop by Social Velocity‘s run-down of the 10 Great Reads from the previous months. What do you think about #7, “crowd-sourcing versus community-sourcing,” or #10, “Nonprofit Finance Fund … directing $10 million in ‘change capital’ to 10 performing arts organizations”?
A Student Raps About His Teacher — Looking for an uplifting message about education? Check out this rap by a DC high school student, written for his Teach for America teacher towards the end of his tenure at the school. It’s supremely clever and cheering, as evidenced by this snippet:
“He actually got me more interested in books, libros
Helped me realize knowledge is lethal
And constant studying will make my brain cerebral
In this class I realized that being the greatest was conceivable…”