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Archive for January, 2010
Teach for America Study Finds No Link to Greater Lifetime Activism
Jan 4th
People who participate in Teach for America, the fast-growing program that sends new college graduates into schools with large numbers of needy students, do not necessarily get involved in other areas of civic life, such as voting and charitable giving, as they grow older, The New York Times reports.
According to a study conducted by Stanford University sociologists at the suggestion of Wendy Kopp, Teach for America’s founder, graduates of the nonprofit teacher corps vote, give, and participate in other civic activities at lower rates than those who were accepted into Teach for America but either declined or dropped out before finishing the two-year term.
Ms. Kopp disagreed with the findings, saying the study did not dig into deeper issues of civic engagement. But Doug McAdam, a Stanford professor who co-authored the study, said it proved wrong “the somewhat naïve consensus among educators, policy folks, and scholars” that youth activism invariably leads to greater lifetime social and political engagement.
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Fla. Nonprofit Group Pays $200,000 in Bonuses on Eve of Merger
Jan 4th
A Florida social-services organization paid more than $220,000 in employee bonuses just before merging with another nonprofit group, the St. Petersburg Times reports.
Family Service Centers made the payments to about 100 staff members on November 30, the day before it united with Suncoast Center, which provides mental-health and other support to clients. Suncoast gave out much smaller bonuses, amounting to $30,000 for approximately 200 employees.
Officials with the Pinellas County Juvenile Welfare Board, which approved the merger and will give the newly combined organization $5-million this fiscal year, criticized the payout by Family Service Centers.
In other compensation-related news, many charities in the Austin, Tex., area are forgoing annual bonuses this year, as well as cutting executive pay and freezing staff salaries, says the Austin American-Statesman.
Medical Marijuana Providers Quietly Increase Giving in Bay Area
Jan 4th
The heads of lucrative Bay Area “pot clubs,” which dispense medical marijuana, have been upping their charitable giving but are maintaining a low philanthropic profile due to the legal gray area surrounding their finances, says The New York Times.
While California voters approved cannabis use for medical purposes in a 1996 referendum, it remains a federal crime, and medical-marijuana advocates maintain the U.S. government keeps tabs on what they do with their money.
Tim Patriarca, executive director of the San Francisco AIDS hospice Maitri, said gifts from pot clubs have grown over the years from the odd $100 donation to as much as $20,000 in a year, helping offset the charity’s loss of state money. But one Oakland food bank refused a donation from a marijuana dispensary for fear that the link could jeopardize its federal grants.
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Early 2010 WordCamps
Jan 4th
Rested up from the holidays? I hope so, because the new year has begun and a lot is going to be happening with WordPress in 2010, and you definitely want to be a part of it. Later this week the scope for version 3.0 (featuring the addition of MU functionality to the WordPress codebase) will be decided in the IRC developer chat*, based on feedback provided by users like you. But it’s no fun to live by IRC alone, which is why we love WordCamps. Attending a WordCamp gives you a chance to meet people in your local community who are working with WordPress, as well as core contributors, theme designers, plugin developers, Codex writers, support forum moderators and other WordPress volunteers who’ve made WordPress what it is today. Add this New Year’s Resolution to your 2010 list if it’s not on there already: Attend a WordCamp, meet at least 5 new local people, learn something new, and if you have the chance, buy a drink for someone who’s volunteered their time and expertise to the WordPress open source project. To help you keep your resolution, here is a list of the upcoming WordCamps for the next three months, followed by what I know so far about each one.
January 8–9: WordCamp Atlanta
January 23: WordCamp Boston
January 30: WordCamp Greece in Thessaloniki
January 30: WordCamp Indonesia in Jakarta
February 27: WordCamp Fukuoka
March 6–7: WordCamp Ireland in Kilkenny
March 27–28: WordCamp Toronto
NORTH AMERICA
January 8–9: WordCamp Atlanta. First WordCamp of the year, and it’s already sold out — twice! They changed to a bigger venue based on demand, from Georgia Tech to the Atlanta campus of Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). They’re still letting people onto the waitlist, if you’re interested. A guaranteed way to get in would be to sponsor the event, and they’re taking last-minute sponsors right now. Atlanta will have sessions on Friday evening and all day Saturday. I’ll be opening the Saturday program with WordPress Resolutions: What to Expect in 2010. After a day of design, development and content track sessions, Lead Developer Mark Jaquith will take the closing slot for a Town Hall-style Q&A. The attendee list (follow link, scroll down) includes a number of WordPress core contributors, theme/plugin developers, and support providers as well as proof that Atlanta has a strong WordPress user base.
January 23: WordCamp Boston. I think WordCamp Boston is trying to one-up every WordCamp the organizers have been to, including the awesome NYC from November, and it looks like they might succeed. From Doc Searls and David Weinberger as keynote speakers to the multiple-track, unconference and Ignite sessions to the sweet-looking venue and the party plans, this one has got it going on. I credit it in part to the fact that they are one of the few WordCamps to follow the advice of having an organizing team of more than just 2 or 3 people, so the work is better distributed. I see a number of familiar names on the attendee list, but even more that I don’t know, so I’m looking forward to meeting the Boston WordPress community. They’re still selling tickets, so if you’re in the northeast, you should try to make it. I’ll be at this one also, talking about how the merge with MU will affect the WordPress admin (by then we should have started figuring it out!).
March 27–28: WordCamp Toronto. The last two Toronto WordCamps have been really good. I heard there would be one in March, but their site right now is just taking emails for notification. I’ve contacted the organizer to see what’s up, and he says the site will likely go live this week. They’re looking for volunteers to help organize this year’s event, so if you’re interested, it would be a great opportunity to get involved. Believe me, volunteering at a WordCamp is one of the best ways to make sure you meet a lot of other attendees.
ASIA
January 30: WordCamp Indonesia. WordCamp Indonesia will be in Jakarta again this year. I love how they worded the beginning of their sessions page. “Come in, we’ll get you breakfast and coffee, you’ll register, there’ll be networking. It’ll be great.” There will be a single track of sessions, but there are several time slots set aside for ad-hoc discussion and breakout sessions.
February 27: WordCamp Fukuoka. WordCamp Fukuoka is just getting its site up, too, so check back periodically a little later for more information. One of their visiting speakers will be Noel Jackson, developer of the Press This bookmarklet as well as themes like P2 and Monotone/Duotone.
EUROPE
January 30: WordCamp Greece. WordCamp Greece will be held in Thessaloniki, and they expect about 100-150 people to attend.The program includes regular sessions on the usual topics (how-to, programming, SEO, multi-language sites, etc) as well as “QuickRounds,” which will showcase Greek projects based on WordPress. I’m especially intrigued by the “WordPress vs. Expression Engine” session. Whenever people compare different publishing platforms, it’s interesting to see which features they highlight. I hope someone gets video from this one and posts it to the WordCamp section of WordPress.tv.
March 6–7: WordCamp Ireland. WordCamp Ireland will be in Kilkenny, and for such a geographically small country, it’s got an impressive list of speakers, including Donncha O Caoimh, lead developer of WordPress MU. The program includes three tracks: Intro, Blogger, and Developer, and I think this will be the first WordCamp I’ve heard of that is deliberately family-friendly, with on-site child care. They’re also going to have a charging station for mobile devices, which is clever. It’s not confirmed yet, but I think I’ll be at this one, too.
If you want to attend a WordCamp but don’t know of one near you, check out WordCamp.org for the official list (updated frequently). That’s also where you would start if you wanted to organize a WordCamp in your area.
*Developer chats are held Thursdays at 21:00 UTC in the #wordpress-dev channel at irc.freenode.com.
Government and Politics Watch: Estate-Tax Changes Had Little Impact on Giving
Jan 4th
Gradual increases in the level of the federal estate-tax exemption in several recent years apparently did not cause wealthy people to change the shares of their estates that they left to charity, according to a new report from the Internal Revenue Service, reports The Chronicle’s Government and Politics Watch column.
Plus: The IRS says tax deductions claimed by Americans for charitable contributions rose to $193.6-billion in 2007, an increase of 3.7 percent from the $186.6-billion claimed in 2006.
Happy New Years
Jan 4th
I wanted to take this time to thank all of my regular readers for another great year. It has been a joy to hear from you over email and through comments. I have really enjoyed learning from you about your incredible work in fundraising. You all come from all over the world including every state in the US. From volunteering to full-time work, you are all involved in different areas and at different levels within philanthropy. It is an incredible journey for me to receive your feedback and learn from your experience. When I have a question or idea I’m thinking through, your comments have been invaluable in thinking through the process.
I want this blog to continue to be valuable resource for you. So feel free to let me know if you ever have any questions or topics you’d like me (or get a guest author) to cover. I thought I’d take today as an opportunity to get some feedback from you. (If you subscribe via my rss feed or email, I would really appreciate if you’d take 20 seconds and visit the website to take a short survey or post a comment regarding any feedback about topics or articles you’d like to see.)
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Related posts:
- A Happy New Year
- Join an Interactive Community?
- More on All Donors as Major Donors
- A Big Give Again
- FYI- Busy Exciting Week
Entrepreneurship: No Experience Necessary
Jan 3rd
6 tips for starting a business with little industry experience or business know-how
American Humanics Management Institute – preparing college students to change the world!
Jan 3rd
American Humanics (the premier organization that equips college and university students to become skilled professionals and leaders in America's nonprofit organizations) is holding its annual Management Institute (AHMI) this week in Phoenix, Arizona. AHMI is an intensive educational symposium that provides college and university students their capstone experience in nonprofit management and leadership education. I attended AHMI many years ago and really benefited from the experience. You can follow blog updates from there conference here and tweets here. (Hash Tag #AHMI2010) Go AHMI!!
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