Nonprofit news for the week of 7/26/2021. Bezos Blasts Off Into Space, Donates $200 Million Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and the world’s wealthiest human, has announced a $200 million donation to the activist Van Jones and humanitarian chef José Andrés. The money, with no strings attached, was part of Bezos’ new “Courage and Civility Award.” Bezos announced the award shortly after returning to earth from a ride to space via his aerospace company Blue Origin’s spaceship. Read more ➝ New Report On T...
Jul 28, 2021•21 min•Ep. 213
Nonprofitnewsfeed.com 200 Nonprofits Close In Minnesota, Indicative of Larger Trend Between April of 2020 and March of 2021, 186 nonprofits stopped operations, according to data from the state of Minnesota. Hundreds of other nonprofits are believed to have downsized operations dramatically, indicating a substantial trend. Health, arts, and religious organizations were hurt most substantially. While this data only reflects nonprofits within Minnesota, Candid estimates that nearly one-third of non...
Jul 20, 2021•20 min•Ep. 212
Online Fundraising Platforms Face Fresh Scrutiny New scrutiny is being applied to the donation fundraising tactics of political fundraising platforms. After a New York Times expose highlighting potentially deceptive practices was released in April, fresh criticism has come in the form of an open inquiry being led by four democratic state attorneys general . The inquiry is into both the Republican platform WinRed and the Democratic platform ActBlue. Nonprofits, particularly those in the political...
Jul 13, 2021•18 min•Ep. 211
Summary of nonprofit news . Supreme Court Throws Out Nonprofit Donor Disclosure Law Last Thursday the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in a 6-3 ruling that California could no longer require nonprofits to submit donor information to the state. Advocates of the law say it adds donor and transparency to the finances of organizations that may serve as a vehicle for unscrupulous influence, while Americans for Prosperity (which brought the case) argues that such donations are a first amendmen...
Jul 07, 2021•16 min•Ep. 210
An exit interview with Ann, Technical Creative Director of WholeWhale.com reflecting on lessons over 7 years with the company. Ann Nguyen Technical Creative Director On Social https://www.linkedin.com/in/nguyenann https://twitter.com/annnnnguyen Ann joined Whole Whale in 2013 and has been making splashes since then in the areas of design, development, and A/B testing. She keeps the New York team afloat and works directly with clients on using design and tech to scale their impact. During her tim...
Jul 02, 2021•44 min•Ep. 209
Nonprofit news for the week of 6/28/2021 Warren Buffett Gives Away $4.1 Billion To Charity, Steps Down From Gates Foundation Warren Buffett, one of the richest people in the world, has announced a donation of nearly $4.1 billion to charity . This donation comes on the heels of other massive philanthropic donations from wealthy individuals like MacKenzie Scott. Buffet has previously said he seeks to give nearly all his money away to philanthropic causes. Also last week it was announced that Warre...
Jul 01, 2021•15 min•Ep. 208
We interview Quincy Larson, the founder and a teacher at freeCodeCamp.org . freeCodeCamp is a nonprofit community that helps millions of people learn to code 100% for free helping thousands of people find their first coding job. Quincy shares how the organization got started, built a strong volunteer base and grew its amazing educational library course by course. Learn more and support at: https://www.freecodecamp.org/...
Jun 28, 2021•53 min•Ep. 207
Nonprofit news summary for the week of June 22nd, 2021. Charitable Giving Reaches All-Time High In 2020 - Report A new Giving USA report says that U.S. charitable giving reached an all-time high of approximately $471 billion. Driven by factors such as an unprecedented pandemic and a broad reckoning over racial violence , giving increased 5.1% from 2019 to 2020 (3.8% when adjusted for inflation). Experts note that a strong finish by financial markets including the S&P 500 (changes in which tr...
Jun 22, 2021•12 min•Ep. 206
Nonprofit news summaries for the week of June 14th, 2021. Featured product: A new Inclusivity Language Tool from Whole Whale. Helping organizations check their websites for inclusive language. New Federal Legislation Aims To Speed Up Donor Advised Funds’ Impact To Charities New proposed legislation introduced by Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) seeks to speed up the process by which donor-advised funds (DAFs) would be disbursed to nonprofit organizations. While contro...
Jun 15, 2021•16 min•Ep. 205
Interview with Sarika Bansal, Editor and Author of Tread Brightly , a series of curated essays on Ethical Travel. George Weiner interviews Sarika about the themes and topics covered by some of the essays. They also dive into the creation and closing of Sarika's nonprofit BRIGHT Magazine. About Tread Brightly Are there ways we can turn travel from passive consumption to an active exchange? Is it possible for our travel to leave a positive impact on the lives of others? This book of seventeen orig...
Jun 14, 2021•40 min•Ep. 204
Nonprofit news summaries for June 7th Direct mail price hikes and a push for transparency in politics by nonprofits. USPS Price Increase May Lead To Headache For Nonprofits The United States Postal Services (USPS) has filed for an increase in prices averaging nearly 6.9% system-wide, according to the Nonprofit Times . As many nonprofit organizations still rely on direct mail strategies for reaching donors, the average increase of 7.8% for Nonprofit Marketing Mail (NMM) could prove to be disrupti...
Jun 08, 2021•15 min•Ep. 203
Nonprofit News for the week of June 1st, 2021. Tulsa Massacre After 100 Years: Nonprofits Part Of Efforts To Bring Justice The Tulsa massacre, one of the most egregious examples of racial violence in American history, marks its 100th anniversary. After “Black Wall Street” was destroyed by mobs of white supremacists, efforts to bring justice are underway. The Oklahoma Archaeological Survey, associated with the University of Oklahoma, will begin work to find, identify and preserve victims’ remains...
Jun 02, 2021•19 min•Ep. 202
Weekly nonprofit podcast news . Nonprofit Fights Carbon Emissions With Financial Marketplace University of Chicago professor Michael Greenstone has created a nonprofit called Climate Vault, which could revolutionize how we offset carbon emissions in the marketplace. Using the current cap and trade infrastructure to its advantage, the organization seeks to redirect capital to environmentally-conscious startups in exchange for “pollution permits.” The goal is to merge financial profit with environ...
May 25, 2021•18 min•Ep. 201
Karisha Martinez interviews Sam Fankuchen, the Founder & CEO of Golden . Volunteering is a proven driver of happiness and provides a myriad of physical, mental and social benefits, from living longer and feeling more fulfilled to increasing the chances of being hired. Because of these benefits, we believe volunteering should be a part of every self-care routine. In 2015, Golden launched to do just that by removing all barriers to engaging in service. Volunteers can sign-up for a volunteer op...
May 20, 2021•49 min•Ep. 200
Weekly nonprofit news updates . Crypto Billionaire Donates $1 Billion In Meme Coin To India The founder of the cryptocurrency Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, announced that he has donated approximately $1 billion in the meme coin Shiba Inu to nonprofit organizations battling COVID-19 in India. The announcement comes at an interesting moment as philanthropists are increasingly taking up cryptocurrency and disbursing the digital coins to nonprofits. While the volatility of cryptocurrency raises many qu...
May 18, 2021•16 min•Ep. 199
Nonprofit News Summary Bill & Melinda Gates File For Divorce After 27 years of marriage, Bill and Melinda Gates have filed for divorce, rocking one of the largest philanthropic organizations in the process. The Gates Foundation, which began working with providing internet to libraries, now manages nearly $5 billion in annual grants and employs nearly 1,600 people, tackling problems all over the world. The organization has recently given nearly $1.6 billion to fight COVID-19 globally. The New...
May 11, 2021•16 min•Ep. 198
We interview Erline Belton the Author of Your Voice Matters. Erline Belton is President and CEO of Belton’s Crossing, LLC a real estate Development Corporation and the CEO and Founder of the Lyceum Group, an organizational development-consulting firm. The mission of her consulting firm, The Lyceum Group, is to influence societal and workplace re-thinking to encourage new possibilities. Her life’s work is to be of service to others in their search for truth-based principle and strategies that sup...
May 10, 2021•44 min•Ep. 197
Nonprofit News for the week of May 4th, 2021 Democratic Nonprofit Sues Ahead of Potential Redistricting Fight Off the heels of a contentious and troublesome 2020 census, the next political fight shaping up with substantial impact might be redistricting. Acknowledging these tense political battles yet to come, a lawsuit filed by the nonprofit National Redistricting Action Fund , associated with the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, is filing lawsuits in an attempt to make the results o...
May 04, 2021•21 min•Ep. 196
Meredith Esquivel the Senior Marketing Manager at Whole Whale shares what she has learned after 5 years before leaving for business school. About Meredith Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meredithesquivel/ Meredith is fascinated by human behavior, particularly how digital “body language” can inform marketing strategies for social good. Certified in Google Analytics, Google Ads, and Pardot by Salesforce, she is a classic philomath and is always seeking new and engaging ways to communicate wi...
Apr 30, 2021•30 min•Ep. 195
NonprofitNewsfeed.com Summary of nonprofit news from the week of April 26, 2021. Supreme Court To Hear Nonprofit Fundraising Case With Broad Implications For Sector On Monday, the Supreme Court will hear a case on donor transparency and fundraising with the potential for broad implications for both traditional nonprofits and political organizations. The case centers on a dispute about whether California can mandate that tax-exempt organizations report its top donors to the government. While in t...
Apr 27, 2021•18 min•Ep. 194
NonprofitNewsFeed.com Summary of news for April 19, 2021, California Program Pays To Convert Hotels Into Homeless Shelters California’s new Homekey program will spend nearly $600 million to buy hotels and motels and convert them into homeless shelters. The program is a positive step for both addressing issues of homelessness as well as aiding a hospitality industry hit hard by the pandemic, giving owners the chance to sell properties for a good cause. The state received $550 in federal coronavir...
Apr 20, 2021•17 min•Ep. 193
Host Kariesha Martinez interviews Dan Treglia, PhD about the complexities of affordable housing and the nuance of how San Francisco ended up paying $61k per tent. About Dan Treglia Dan Treglia, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Practice at the University of Pennsylvania, Associate Director of the Partnership for Effective Public Administration and Leadership Ethics (PEPALE), Senior Research Fellow at United For ALICE, and our Research and Evaluation Whaler. His research focuses on homelessness, ...
Apr 15, 2021•27 min•Ep. 192
Nonprofitnewsfeed.com summary of the week of 4/12/2021 GOP Fundraising Platform Under Fire for Deceptive Donation Forms A recent New York Times article highlighted the potentially deceptive nature of fundraising forms hosted on the GOP’s WinRed donation platform, resulting in the Trump campaign having to issue nearly $122 million in refunds and causing a spike in fraud complaints to banks. These donation landing pages were criticized for aggressively pushing users to become recurring donors by a...
Apr 13, 2021•21 min•Ep. 191
Micaela Connery, Co-founder of The Kelsey talks about how they use financing and grants to 10x investment in affordably disability housing in San Francisco and San Jose. She also gives her reaction to the $60k per tent that San Francisco paid during the Pandemic. About Micaela Micaela co-founded The Kelsey with her cousin Kelsey, who continues to inspire and inform the mission and work today. Micaela has been working on inclusion in communities her entire life. She has seen firsthand the housing...
Apr 07, 2021•42 min•Ep. 190
Weekly nonprofit news summary from the best sector. Positive Economic Indicators Welcome News for Nonprofits Positive economic predictors should be good news for nonprofits after a challenging year, according to experts . GPD, regional economic indicators, unemployment, government spending, and changes in the stock market are all indicators that might predict the fiscal health of nonprofits. While every nonprofit’s revenue stream and expenses are different, a growing economy might be a macro-lev...
Apr 05, 2021•17 min•Ep. 189
Weekly summary of nonprofit news . Restrictive Voting Legislation In Georgia Indicative of Larger, Concerning Trend Last week, Georgia governor Brian Kemp signed into law a restrictive voting bill decried by voting rights advocates and the President alike as “Jim Crow in the 21st century.” The new legislation comes less than three months after Raphael Warnock was elected as the first black U.S. Senator from the state. A legal complaint filed by multiple voter activation and progressive advocacy ...
Mar 30, 2021•20 min•Ep. 188
Interview with Meghan Daly, Whole Whale's Paid Social Manager about the changes that will impact digital advertisers on Facebook. Simply put, iOS14 is Apple’s most current iPhone operating system . iOS14.5 is an update to this operating system that will include many things (including 200+ new emojis !), but the specific update that’s generating a lot of buzz is the launch of an in-app prompt. This prompt essentially asks users to opt-in and “allow” apps and websites to track their activity. Once...
Mar 29, 2021•28 min•Ep. 187
George Weiner interviews Maria Yuan, the CEO and Founder of Issue Voter. Issue Voter is an online service that according to their site helps people: "Track your rep's activity. We tell you how your rep voted, how often your representative agrees with you, and whether or not they’ve attended a vote. Encourage open discussion. You can share an issue on your favorite social network, without revealing your personal opinion. Act on issues that don’t make headlines. We don’t only tell you about what i...
Mar 24, 2021•42 min•Ep. 186
Weekly NonprofitNewsfeed.com summary with hosts Nick Azulay and Kariesha Martinez from digital marketing agency WholeWhale.com. NYC Owes Homeless Nonprofits Millions In Unpaid Invoices The City of New York owes its homeless nonprofit organizations over $150 million in unpaid invoices, according to a survey of homeless shelter operators. Catherine Trapani, the executive director at Homeless Services United, the umbrella organization that represents shelter operators, says “there needs to be a rec...
Mar 22, 2021•17 min•Ep. 185
Nonprofit News for the week of 3/15 summarized by Kariesha and Nick from WholeWhale.com. 2020 Saw 10% Jump In Giving According to the Quarterly Fundraising Report, nonprofit fundraising was up 10% overall in 2020 compared to 2019. While this represents the highest volume of donations in 5 years, donor retention continues to drop (approximately by 4%), even after new donors are acquired or re-activated. A decline in retained, repeat donors is a trend the industry must be aware of in 2021. Read mo...
Mar 16, 2021•20 min•Ep. 184
