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Archive for September, 2009
Environmental Groups Lead Sustainable Rebuilding in New Orleans
Sep 1st
Environmental and sustainable-development organizations have helped make New Orleans a laboratory for green building as part of the city’s recovery from the ravages of Hurricane Katrina, Time reports.
Groups such as Global Green USA, the American arm of former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s environmental charity, have spearheaded efforts to include energy-efficient homes and schools in the city’s massive rebuilding project.
Read a Chronicle of Philanthropy article on foundation and corporate giving to post-Katrina recovery efforts.
British Firm Brings Venture-Capital Principles to Philanthropy
Sep 1st
The emerging trend of venture philanthropy is spotlighted in the Telegraph, in a report focusing on the London fund Impetus and its chief executive, Daniela Barone Soares.
A veteran of the U.S. private-equity house BancBoston Capital and the global relief charity Save the Children, Ms. Barone Soares applies the due diligence and benchmarking techniques of venture-capital firms to its investment in a select group of nonprofit organizations that tackle economic disparity.
The firm provides four to five years of money after a thorough review of the charity’s personnel, operations, and objectives. “We really hold them accountable to what we agree to, without allowing them to deviate,” Ms. Barone Soares said.
In the Arts: Boston Public-Broadcasting Station Faces Budget Woes; Theaters Test Novel Ticket Strategies
Sep 1st
Two years after opening state-of-the-art new headquarters, the public broadcaster WGBH is wrestling with difficult financial choices brought on by a $7-million budget shortfall, says The Boston Globe.
Shrinking corporate and viewer donations and debt service on the $85-million construction project have taken a heavy financial toll on the Boston station, which produces more than a third of PBS’s prime-time programs. WGBH has eliminated a dozen jobs and instituted furloughs and wages freezes, with more cuts anticipated.
In other arts news, the Los Angeles Times reports on half-price subscription offers and other strategies implemented by the financially troubled Geffen Playhouse.
Monday marked the end of a financial year that saw the high-profile theater, whose productions regularly feature Hollywood stars, plead for $1-million in emergency donations and suspend in-house productions at its smaller experimental space.
Also, The New York Times reports on two Chicago stage companies’ experiment to offer patrons a full refund if they are not satisfied with the production. The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation supported the give-back option offered by Colloboraction and Teatro Vista on a recent co-production.
(Free registration is required to view these articles.)
Give and Take: Is Branding Dead?
Sep 1st
Branding used to be the hot marketing concept — but now it isn’t, says a post highlighted in Give and Take, the Chronicle’s daily digest of the best blog posts about the nonprofit world.
Live Discussion: Building a Better Board
Sep 1st
Read a transcript of today’s discussion about the best techniques to strengthen a charity’s board.
From The Chronicle: Social Capital Markets Conference
Sep 1st
Investors, entrepreneurs, financiers, foundation executives, donors, and nonprofit officials have gathered in San Francisco for Social Capital Markets 2009, a meeting that conference organizers describe as being “at the intersection of money and meaning.”
The Chronicle’s conference notebook will provide updates throughout the meeting.
From The Chronicle: A Massive Volunteer Effort to Resurrect Buffalo’s Historic Train Station
Sep 1st
When a Buffalo charity bought the Central Terminal train station for $1, it acquired a 532,000-square-foot architectural marvel listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It also got thousands of broken windows, a waterlogged concourse, and a 17-acre site long used as an illegal dumping ground. In a Chronicle article and narrated slide show, you can read about the effort and hear the stories that motivate the cadre of volunteers behind the effort.
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