Selected Clips
Nature & Ecology
As the height-of-summer floral abundance fades, goldenrods and asters fill the landscape with hits of yellow, purple, pink, and white. Beyond the beauty they provide, these late bloomers are a critical food source for several native species of wild bees.
During late summer and fall, many specialist wild bees are active, said Spencer Hardy, a biologist at the Vermont Center for Ecostudies and project coordinator for its Vermont Wild Bee Atlas.
(For Northern Woodlands)
“Gardening is always such a hopeful act,” says Lisa Bagwell, manager of Kula Urban Farm, a project of the social-services nonprofit Interfaith Neighbors, which serves Monmouth County, N.J. Sprawling across formerly abandoned lots in Asbury Park, the farm offers a jobs program, educational opportunities, and free produce to the local community.
(For The Chronicle of Philanthropy)
A few ledges along the Connecticut River are home to a rare plant commonly known as Jesup’s milk-vetch (Astragalus robbinsii var. jesupii). In fact, this species, which has been listed as federally endangered since 1987, only grows at six sites along a 16-mile stretch of the river in New Hampshire and Vermont. But conservationists are working to boost the plant’s presence.
(For Northern Woodlands)
Concerns about the rise of “karoshi” — which means “death from overwork” — as well as high rates of suicide and an increasingly urban population led Japanese researchers back to the connection with nature that has been prominent throughout their country’s culture and history. In The Nature Fix, Florence Williams writes of forest bathing, “It’s not about wilderness; it’s about the nature/civilization hybrid the Japanese have cultivated for thousands of years.”
With its abundance of public parks and stretches of forests, D.C. is an ideal place to try to bridge the gap between the stress of city life and the expansiveness of nature.
(For 730DC)
Billion Oyster Project is working to engage 1 million New Yorkers in an ambitious goal: to re-establish oyster reefs in New York Harbor. The nonprofit aims to introduce 1 billion oysters by 2035, enough to filter all the water in the harbor every three days. Thus far, Billion Oyster Project has returned 122 million oysters to New York City’s waters. It plans to add another 84 million this year.
(For The Chronicle of Philanthropy)
Ambreen Tariq first explored U.S. public lands after she and her family immigrated to Minnesota from India when she was 8 years old. Camping with her family, Tariq found solace from the challenges of growing up as an immigrant in a place where so few of her classmates looked like her and where even simple tasks, like doing laundry, had to be relearned in the so-called American way.
“When we got to that campground,” Tariq remembers, “Our world sort of shifted onto very tangible problems and empowerment and positivity.”
(For Women’s Wire)
This honors senior thesis analyzes how social and environmental inequalities have interacted throughout Washington, D.C.’s history to shape the Anacostia River and its Southeast waterfront into urbanized and industrialized landscapes. Drawing on the principles of environmental justice, urban political ecology, and environmental history, I examine the construction of urban rivers and waterfront space over time. I link the ecological and social decline of the Anacostia River and Near Southeast neighborhood to a broader national pattern of environmental degradation and social inequality along urban rivers that resulted from urban industrialization and federal water management. Finally, I discuss the recent national trend in redevelopment of formerly industrial urban waterfronts.
(For Scholarship @ Claremont)
Future of Work
There is a period of Becky Endicott’s life that she refers to as “the time when I lost my marbles” — her euphemism for a mental-health crisis she experienced four years ago.
Endicott is a former fundraiser and co-founder of We Are for Good, a company that produces a podcast and offers professional development resources for nonprofit workers. She made that career change after a nervous breakdown she blames on “almost two decades of burnout and grind.” Her health crisis pushed her to take 12 weeks of medical leave in 2019 — pressing pause for the first time in her career and transforming her outlook on the nonprofit sector.
(For The Chronicle of Philanthropy)
Trekking 20 miles a day through California, Oregon, and Washington on the Pacific Crest Trail, Elizabeth Atwell rediscovered an identity as a curious individual, an explorer — not just a mission-driven professional. The experience was transformational.
“A lot of my sense of self is tied up with my work,” Atwell says. On the trail, that all fell away. Atwell was completely disconnected from the nonprofit work that had come to define their identity and values. They even assumed a new name — Golden. Rather than asking new acquaintances about their jobs — “a pretty serious faux pas,” Atwell says — they bonded over their favorite hiking equipment and what they planned to eat the next time they resupplied in a town.
(For The Chronicle of Philanthropy)
Hiring fundraisers is never easy, but for many nonprofits the situation is becoming dire.
Organizations are posting ads — sometimes for six-figure director of development positions — and getting few if any qualified applicants. They’re leaving money on the table because they don’t have the people they need to ask for all the gifts they could bring in. And the fundraisers who remain are overworked and overwhelmed. Some are leaving the profession altogether.
(For The Chronicle of Philanthropy)
Nonprofits & Philanthropy
The messy and confusing distribution of vaccines has prompted a broad array of nonprofits and volunteers nationwide to step in to fill the gaps.
Disaster-relief charities are providing both their equipment and their logistical skills. They know how crises can exacerbate existing inequities — and how their expertise can make a big difference.
Meanwhile, organizations that serve people of color, LGTBQ people, the homeless, elderly and others are jumping into the fray. They are seeking not only to reduce the fear of vaccines but also to help local and state governments vaccinate more people.
(For the Associated Press)
A strong stock market in December 2021 buoyed giving to colleges and universities during the last financial year, which ran from July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022. Institutions raised $59.5 billion in gifts from organizations and individuals during the 2022 financial year — a 4.7 percent increase, adjusted for inflation, over the previous year’s totals. That’s the most growth in giving since 2000. The findings come from the latest Voluntary Support of Education survey, which polled 826 institutions. The Council for Advancement and Support of Education has conducted the survey since 1957.
Colleges and universities were fortunate that the calendar year-end — when most donors give — fell during a multi-month period of robust stock-market growth.
(For The Chronicle of Higher Education)
For one month each summer, roughly 60 middle-school students around Mount Carmel, Pa., descend on the campus of Bucknell University to attend the Kaupas Camp. At the free day camp, organized by the local school district, Bucknell coaches run clinics in basketball, field hockey, and other sports. Campers can learn, for example, about ecology or how to play the drums. For some, it’s the first time they’ve set foot on a college campus. These opportunities are provided in large part by philanthropists who are serving long-term sentences at a nearby medium-security prison.
At the State Correctional Institute — Coal Township, about 250 men participate in the Lifeline Association, a giving circle that contributes to charities in the surrounding Pennsylvania coal region. Many of its members are incarcerated for life; the rest will have spent at least 10 years in prison by the end of their sentences.
(For The Chronicle of Philanthropy)
Nonprofits are bracing for a tough fundraising year as the first six months of 2023 demonstrate that donors are holding back their contributions. And with Tuesday’s release of “Giving USA,” the annual estimate of contributions from foundations, individuals, and corporations, it’s now clear just how big a giving hole charities will be trying to fill in 2023.
The report found that 2022 was one of the worst years in philanthropy history. Giving dropped 10.5 percent after inflation, marking only the fourth time that donations have fallen since Giving USA started keeping track in 1956.
(For The Chronicle of Philanthropy)
McPherson College, a Kansas liberal-arts institution with about 830 students, grabbed headlines in the fall when it announced a $500 million pledge to its endowment — a bigger dollar amount than any small U.S. liberal-arts college has ever received in a single commitment. The gift is the linchpin in a strategic plan the college embarked on seven years ago, which aims to seed a billion-dollar endowment, update and expand the campus, and bolster programs.
In a matching challenge that expires on June 30, the anonymous donor has pledged to contribute $2 for every $1 given or pledged to the endowment. The college must collect $250 million in commitments to receive the full $500 million from the donor. As of January 1, it had raised $146.8 million. The donor can choose to give McPherson the promised money over time or upon their death.
(For The Chronicle of Philanthropy)
In 2012, social-media sites like Twitter and Facebook were solidifying themselves as messaging clearinghouses. Some 500 million people around the world used Twitter that year, and nearly twice that number used Facebook. Nonprofits were taking note.
In New York City, staff members at the 92nd Street Y hatched a plan to harness social media as a megaphone for nonprofits. Using the hashtag #GivingTuesday, they encouraged donors to contribute to nonprofits during the week after Thanksgiving. Thanks to support from big names like Bill Gates, fundraising technology company Blackbaud, and the consumer discount company Groupon, the effort took off. That first year, donors contributed more than $10 million in online gifts to charities.
(For The Chronicle of Philanthropy)