Tag Archive for "Philanthropy"

Posts Tagged Philanthropy

The Ford Foundation is now fighting inequality — and what that means for us

Ed. note: This post was originally published on the Community site.

This past Thursday, the Ford Foundation, the United States’ second largest philanthropy, announced an overhaul of its grantmaking programs to focus on inequality and to double the amount of general support grants it distributes.

Ed. note: This post was originally published on the Community site.

This past Thursday, the Ford Foundation, the United States’ second largest philanthropy, announced an overhaul of its grantmaking programs to focus on inequality and to double the ...

By Vanessa • 11 years ago

On April 8th, let’s create a more feminist future

Remember that impact paper I mentioned in my retirement post that I’m co-authoring with fellow Editor Emerita Courtney about online feminism? Well, we’re just about ready to unveil it to the world. On Monday, April 8th, we’ll be releasing the paper online (along with some awesome visuals via Megan Jett — a sneak peak above) and celebrating its launch at Barnard College in New York. Time to rally, y’all.

The birth of this paper was actually sparked when Courtney retired from Feministing, as she pledged to herself that she would create something meaningful about the sustainability of online feminist work. As many know, Feministing and dozens of other blogs and online organizations ...

By Courtney • 13 years ago

Where hip gear and global economic development meet

My column this week is on the one-to-one businesses, TOMS being the most well-known, sprouting up all over the place. But before you go shoe shopping with a big, guiltless smile on your well-intentioned face, read a bit about some of the important distinctions between different types of approaches. An excerpt:

To begin with, giving a kid a pair of shoes manufactured elsewhere undermines the economic vitality of that kid’s community, as many bloggers have noted. Further, as Saundra Schimmelpfennig, a blogger at Good Intentions Are Not Enough, points out, shoes are already manufactured fairly cheaply in countries like Argentina, where Mycoskie was traveling when he decided to start TOMS. Expanding the manufacturing industry in poor countries is often seen ...

By Chloe Angyal • 13 years ago

On giving and misgivings

Not long ago, I was making my way home from Manhattan to Queens after meeting a friend for dinner. In the passage way between the 4-5-6 trains and the 7 train was a young woman, sitting with her back against the wall, with a backpack beside her. Against her legs she had propped a sign:

“7 months pregnant, boyfriend left me, stranded.”

I walked right past her, ignoring the twinge of concern and guilt and pity I often feel when I see a homeless person asking for help. I walked right past her, as you have to learn to do when you live in a big city like New York. I walked right past her, and, as you also learn to do ...

Not long ago, I was making my way home from Manhattan to Queens after meeting a friend for dinner. In the passage way between the 4-5-6 trains and the 7 train was a young woman, sitting with ...

By Courtney • 13 years ago

Gaga for good works

There has been no shortage of analysis of Lady Gaga on this blog and so many others. From the meat dress, to the egg crackin’, to, well, to everything disappointing, performative, and courageous about her–she gets folks talking.

I could not be happier that her latest gimmick is actually not really a gimmick at all. She is teaming with the Robin Hood Foundation, an amazing entity, to donate $1 million to five organizations serving youth: The Door, Hetrick-Martin Martin Institute, Lawyers for Children, Safe Horizon, and SCO Family of Services.

At a time when there has been no shortage of truly bad examples of celebrities trying to make their mark for the ...

By Courtney • 13 years ago

Dean Spade drops knowledge

Dean Spade, founder of the Sylvia Rivera Law Project and the first openly trans tenure-track law professor in the U.S. (Seattle University) has all kinds of super smart and important things to say. Thankfully, Spade’s saying them in lots o’ places: the Enough blog (which I’ve written about before, via my friend Tyrone), a forthcoming book on South End Press, and this awesome interview in Guernica.

Spade, for example, on the limits of the law to make widespread social change:

But the hard thing is that few lawsuits actually have those effects. On one hand, a lot of laws are not enforced or never implemented. For example, in a lot of places it’s illegal to fire or ...

By Courtney • 14 years ago

A neophyte philanthropist’s guide to giving

As I’ve written before, when people think of philanthropists, images of Warren Buffet and Bill Gates often come to mind. In truth, the most quintessential philanthropist looks more like your grocery clerk, 7th grade teacher, or heck, you! Across nearly all income levels women are more likely to give and on average give more than men.

Whole books have been written about what’s wrong with the current philanthropic model. For a primer, check out my profile of the amazing Tyrone Boucher in Do It Anyway, or his thought-provoking blog, Enough. Until we revolutionize the system, I believe it’s worth our while to give up some of our resources (even very small amounts). It’s intimidating, however, to figure ...

By Courtney • 14 years ago

New study confirms that women give more money than men

When you hear the word “philanthropist,” what do you imagine? Probably a person sort of like this:

Isn’t that picture of Bill Gates amazingly silly? In fact, you would be more accurate to imagine a person like this:

Those are some women protesting with the Domestic Workers United. Here’s the deal: The Women’s Philanthropy Institute at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University has just released a study that concludes that across nearly all income levels women are more likely to give and on average give more than men. Here some of the data breakdown by annual income level:

$23,509 or less-women are 28% more likely to give

When you hear the word “philanthropist,” what do you imagine? Probably a person sort of like this:

Isn’t that picture of Bill Gates amazingly silly? In fact, you would be more accurate to imagine ...