Education

The United Negro College Fund has announced fellowship awards to eighteen African-American students through its Social Entrepreneurship K-12 Education Fellows Program, the inaugural project of UNCF's Social Entrepreneurship initiative.

Supported by a $1.08 million seed grant from the Walton Family Foundation and funding from the Wachovia Wells Fargo Foundation, the fellowship program is designed to build a pipeline of talented African-American college graduates equipped to enter careers that apply innovative, sustainable models to elementary and secondary education reform. Although research has demonstrated that reform efforts are more likely to be successful when their leadership includes members of groups likely to benefit from reform, organizations dedicated to school reform often lack diversity in their leadership.

While newsrooms cut back on staff and funds to cover stories, nonprofit news outlets have been proliferating at a remarkable rate, picking up where newspapers left off with donations and financial backing from foundations.

This week, the Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media at Columbia University's Teachers College launched The Hechinger Report, a news outlet that covers national education issues through a website and collaborations with other news sources, according to a press release on Poynter.

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service today released an interim report summarizing responses to compliance questionnaires sent to 400 public and private colleges and universities in October 2008. Colleges and universities make up one of the largest nonprofit segments in terms of revenue and assets.

The interim report contains preliminary information on the respondents’ organizational structures, demographics, exempt and unrelated business activities, endowments, executive compensation as well as governance practices. Respondents are divided into three groups based on size of student population.

(Chicago, IL) — The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation today announced grants totaling $5.6 million to ten universities in eight countries to establish new Master’s in Development Practice (MDP) programs. The programs combine training in the natural sciences, social sciences, health sciences, and management to help practitioners address global challenges such as sustainable development, climate change, and extreme poverty. The universities were selected through a competitive process that included reviews by experts outside the Foundation.

No matter what cause you raise money for, you know what the across-the-board challenges are. The economic downturn. More and more 
competition for donor dollars. Rising mail costs. The delicate balance between old and new strategies. Figuring out how much people power to devote to things that might raise some money in the future but aren't bringing in the bucks just yet. Finding, training and keeping good fundraisers. Etc., etc., etc.

April 27, 2010, Press Release — A new sociology course, “Philanthropy and Social Change,” lived up to its name this spring when its students decided to distribute $31,000 to nonprofit organizations.

The course came about after Kathy Kretman, director of Georgetown’s Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership, received a call from the Sunshine Lady Foundation, a private family foundation established by Warren Buffett’s sister, Doris.

April 19, 2010, Washington Post — More U.S. graduates are likely to work with aid groups and charities after an overhaul of the country's student loan program lessens their debt repayment burden, former U.S. President Bill Clinton said.

With U.S. unemployment at 9.7 percent as the country emerges from the worst recession since World War Two, Clinton said graduates could find work with aid groups at home and abroad which would improve their career prospects.

Fundraising is, by its nature, a selfless endeavor. The work is all about raising money to help others, and any good fundraiser knows the efforts are all about the donors and the missions. So when fundraisers acknowledge one of their own, it's no surprise for the honoree to credit others for his or her achievement.

November 18, 2009, The New & Advance — The Virginia University of Lynchburg is launching the biggest fundraising effort in its history Thursday in support of the ongoing restoration of its campus.

November 13 2009, The Financial Times — The holiday season has come early at New York University’s Stern school of business, which has received a $20m gift from hedge fund founder John Paulson. Mr Paulson is an alumnus of the school, graduating with a bachelor degree in 1978.