The Agitator

Yesterday we reported the quantitative results from The Agitator’s Mid-Year Fundraising Assessment survey. Those responses indicated relative calm at this stage of the fundraising year. As Tom summarized: “Being an optimist, I would characterize the results as saying that seven-in-ten ...  Read more

Sounds like something you don’t want to do, right? Wrong! Seeing data is pretty cool. The Foundation Center last week launched "Philanthropy In/Sight", a data visualization platform designed for grantmakers or anyone seeking to understand the impact of philanthropy throughout the ...  Read more

Awhile back, I posted on the 90 super-wealthy women who committed $174 million to causes and charities serving women and children. Here’s an example of women joining other women at the local level to support such causes. It’s equally important because it shows the impressive power of ...  Read more

Danny Moldovan, Director of Jobs for Change, asked for our help in promoting this effort  to provide a hub for those seeking a career in the "change" sector. Here’s how he describes the initiative: "We’re launching a site called Jobs for Change, a career service ...  Read more

All I can say is WOW! Today, the Women’s Funding Network and Women Moving Millions announced that more than 90 women have committed individual gifts of $1 million or more, with a total of $174 million raised, to improve the lives of women and girls. These funders have responded to a ...  Read more

The latest NY Times special section on giving is, as usual, a "must-read" comprehensive review of the state of the philanthropic and charity universe. Whatever your field of interest — medical research, alleviating poverty, arts & culture, education, international humanitarian ...  Read more

Usually we write about communications technology in the context of nonprofit fundraising or issue advocacy. But we saw this impressive announcement from the UN Foundation and just had to pass it along. The UN Foundation and the Vodaphone Foundation have partnered to develop and introduce software ...  Read more

London's Financial Times has just e-published an interesting series of articles (a dozen or so), called Understanding Global Philanthropy. Among the topics explored … the globalization of philanthropy as technology enables donors to become more confidently engaged with distant places ...  Read more

Holden Karnofsky at The GiveWell Blog has been making a good case that foundations should release far more information about their outcomes. How poorly or brilliantly are their grants achieving the intended goals? And what can the rest of us — nonprofits and funders alike — learn from ...  Read more

Quietly, but persistently, competition among the three major recipients of planned gifts – private “family” foundations, community foundations, and commerical donor advised funds – is heating up. The reason? Money, of course. Or to be more precise, the hundreds of billions of $$$ in capital ...  Read more