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Ken Berger, who led the country’s most prominent nonprofit watchdog, Charity Navigator, for almost seven years, abruptly left his job this week after the board decided to find a leader with more expertise in technology. "Charity Navigator has been going through a planning process and doing a lot of thinking about where we’re headed next," Berger said in an interview. "As part of that, the organization is increasingly seeing itself as a technology company."
Here are three ways the qualities of millennials, often seen as negative, can be leveraged for nonprofit success.
The Red Cross botched key elements of its mission after Superstorm Sandy and Hurricane Isaac, leaving behind a trail of unmet needs and acrimony, according to an investigation by ProPublica and NPR. The charity’s shortcomings were detailed in confidential reports and internal emails, as well as accounts from current and former disaster-relief specialists.
What’s more, Red Cross officials at national headquarters in Washington, D.C., compounded the charity’s inability to provide relief by “diverting assets for public relations purposes,” as one internal report puts it. Distribution of relief supplies, the report said, was “politically driven.”
Spring is here and so is the event fundraising season! Events that raise money for causes and nonprofits can take many forms from 5k runs and walk-a-thons to endurance bike rides. In recent years, nonprofits have expanded these activities to include mud runs, polar plunges, even head-shaving! But just like any large undertaking, planning a fundraising event has its benefits and challenges. They can bring in a lot of revenue for the organization, but can also put tremendous strain on a nonprofit’s resources.
More than 120 of the world’s billionaires have committed publicly to giving at least half their wealth to charity, including 19 on this year’s Philanthropy 50 list. But while the number of people who have signed the Giving Pledge has been growing, so too are concerns about whether the effort is channeling enough new money to urgent causes today and whether some people are motivated to join for public-relations purposes.
Will opening up the field of crowdfunding business affect the market of donors to nonprofits? Some only see an upside, but will the ability of people with less wealth to contribute to development of business “crowd out” contributions to nonprofits? We would love to hear your thoughts on the matter.
Check out recent posts from the Rantitude and WhatGives!? blogs.
Qgiv, an online and mobile donation solutions provider, released "Technology's Impact on Charitable Giving Trends," its first annual report highlighting how a donor's technology choices impact charitable giving. Based on the analysis of more than 320,000 donations across 165,000 users, Qgiv found that Gmail, Safari and Mac OS users averaged more per donation than their technology counterparts.
AOL Impact and Cause Marketing Forum, a company that educates nonprofits and businesses on doing well by doing good together, announced National Geographic's 'Cause An Uproar' campaign as the winner of the 2012 'Share Your Cause' contest. The campaign will receive high-profile exposure across AOL's owned & operated properties, including AOL.com and AOL Mail.
LIFT-Philadelphia, a local anti-poverty organization, has selected David Eisner, the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, to receive its inaugural Lifting Communities Award in recognition of his exceptional commitment to civic engagement and service. The award will be presented at LIFT-Philadelphia’s annual Spring Celebration on April 12 at the Racquet Club of Philadelphia.