A Decade+ Investment Pays off with Parkinson’s Biomarker Discovery In 2010, the Michael J. Fox Foundation made a BIG bet on investing in researching a biomarker for Parkinson’s Disease (PPMI project) . On April 12th it was announced that the bet paid off. Researchers announced that with the α-synuclein seeding amplification assay (αSyn-SAA) , they now have a tool capable of detecting abnormal alpha-synuclein, a key pathology in Parkinson's disease (PD). The breakthrough marks a significant shift...
Apr 18, 2023•27 min•Ep. 333
Activists & Nonprofits Mobilize In Response To Shooting & Increase In Child Gun Deaths In Nashville, Tennessee, student activists from March For Our Lives and Students Demand Action (associated with Everytown for Gun Safety) have been protesting for gun reform and school safety, following a school shooting on March 27 that killed three children and three adults, as reported by Mashable . Their protests have intensified after the state's Republican majority voted to expel two young repres...
Apr 11, 2023•28 min•Ep. 332
"Please Pause AI" Open-letter from Future of Life Institute The Future of Life Institute has come out with a letter about AI systems with human-competitive intelligence that may pose risks to society and humanity calling for a pause on the training of such systems more powerful than GPT-4 for at least six months. During this time, AI labs want independent experts to collaborate to create shared safety protocols for advanced AI development, which should be rigorously audited and overseen by indep...
Apr 04, 2023•24 min•Ep. 331
Scott Announces “Open Call” For No-Strings Grants MacKenzie Scott is launching a $250 million open call for community-focused nonprofits through her organization, Yield Giving, as reported by the Associated Press and others . The initiative aims to provide unrestricted $1 million donations to 250 selected nonprofits with operating budgets between $1 million and $5 million. This marks the first time nonprofits can directly apply for funding from Scott, who has previously donated over $14 billion ...
Mar 28, 2023•29 min•Ep. 330
We interview Libby Hikind, CEO and founder of GrantWatch.com and GratnWriterTeam.com about what nonprofits need to know about applying for grants. About Libby Hikind Find on LinkedIn Libby Hikind is the Founder and CEO of GrantWatch.com, the leading grant funding search engine for nonprofits, businesses, and individuals. Libby holds a post master’s degree in Educational Administration and Supervision and is a wife, mother, grandmother, and great grandmother. Libby is often referred to as the "Qu...
Mar 23, 2023•46 min•Ep. 329
State of California Partners With Nonprofit Drugmaker To Produce Affordable Insulin California Gov. Gavin Newsom has announced a $50 million, 10-year contract with nonprofit drugmaker Civica Rx to produce the state's own line of affordable insulin, CalRx, according to reporting from NPR and other sources. Upon FDA approval, these insulins, which are expected to be interchangeable with popular brand-name insulins, will be priced at no more than $30 per 10ml vial and $55 for a box of five pre-fill...
Mar 21, 2023•25 min•Ep. 328
NGOs Call On U.N. To Advocate For Reproductive Rights In United States Nearly 200 human rights organizations, including major international NGOs like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have sent an "urgent appeal" to the United Nations (UN), calling for the international body to intervene and ensure that the United States protects reproductive rights, as reported by The Washington Post . The appeal follows the Supreme Court ruling in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ca...
Mar 14, 2023•29 min•Ep. 327
Nonprofitnewsfeed.com EleutherAI Seeks To Make Open-Source AI Research a Nonprofit Enterprise As reported by TechCrunch , The EleutherAI community research group is starting a nonprofit research institute, the EleutherAI Institute, which could have significant implications for safe and ethical AI development. The institute will be funded by donations and grants from various sources, including AI startups and former tech CEOs, allowing the organization to engage in longer and more involved projec...
Mar 08, 2023•28 min•Ep. 326
Train Derailment & Environmental Fallout In East Palestine Leads To Political & Legal Frenzy The train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio has led to a frenzy of political activity, criticisms, lawsuits, investigations, advocacy demands, and conspiracy theories as the fallout from the derailment continues to maintain prominence in the national conversation. The derailment has prompted criticism of both the Biden and former Trump administrations, ensnarled politicians like Gov. WeWine and ...
Feb 28, 2023•24 min•Ep. 325
Project Veritas CEO Ousted By Board Of Directors James O’Keefe, founder and CEO of the conservative organization Project Veritas has been ousted by the group’s board of directors, according to reporting from The Washington Post and other outlets. O’Keefe was ousted on concerns that his antics threatened the organization's IRS 501(c)3 tax-deductible status, according to a memo released by the board. O’Keefe alleges that he was unfairly ousted in what, according to reports, might be a power strugg...
Feb 21, 2023•21 min•Ep. 324
Devastation In Turkey & Syria As Earthquake Exacerbates Ongoing Crises In Region A devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake rocked Turkey and Syria last Wednesday, in a region already at the center of the world’s most pressing humanitarian crises. As of writing, the Associated Press reports a death toll surpassing 33,000 . The New Humanitarian reports that the region has already been torn apart by war, conflict, economic crises, and a refugee crisis as the Syrian civil war has left much of North...
Feb 14, 2023•26 min•Ep. 323
We discuss different ways to increase leads on your site through personalization with the Head of Partnerships from Optimonk, Eric Melchor. Website Personalization is the human-centric approach to CRO that focuses on the customers' needs first. It is about creating more relevant customer journeys that are unique, remarkable, and meaningful on a personal level. A journey that starts with a personalized welcome message, which is improved by relevant product messaging, and ends with an irresistible...
Feb 09, 2023•38 min•Ep. 322
Hot Take Debate: Was Mr. Beast's Cataract Surgery Video charitable? Adam Faircloth joins the debate. https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamfaircloth/ Context: MR Beast made content around paying for 1k eye surgeries, is this charitable. the video has 95million views and was sponsored by Experian. At a rate of $2.13 per CPM, the video has generated at least $200k. does it matter that it isn't a nonprofit? what if it was a nonprofit? how does this compare to flies in the eyes videos of african children ...
Feb 07, 2023•28 min•Ep. 321
Alex Wirth, Co-founder & CEO of Quorum.us - a leading public affairs software that helps map, track, change, and report on policy landscape, shares insights into advocacy approaches that will work in 2023. Alex ranks: Twitter, IRL meetings, calling, letters, videos, Meta, and billboards as just some of the methods advocacy organizations can be using to get the attention of representatives. He shares why buying Donor Voter files may be obsolete in the new advocacy landscape. About Alex Alex W...
Feb 02, 2023•51 min•Ep. 319
FDA To Further Ease Restrictions On Gay Men & Blood Donation Eligibility On Friday the FDA proposed new policy revisions that demonstrate a shift toward more inclusive regulations surrounding blood donation for members of the LGBTQ community and those of various sexual orientations, according to reporting from CNBC and others. In 2015, the lifetime ban on gay men from donating blood was eased to allow those who abstained from sex for one year to donate blood, but Friday’s announcement propos...
Jan 31, 2023•21 min•Ep. 320
Elyse Wallnutt, Founder & Principal at Agility Lab Consulting shares how nonprofit fundraising professionals need to adapt to the removal of 3rd party cookies, dealing with evolving donor privacy laws Resources on GDPR, SHEILD, and CCPA for nonprofits . Rough Transcript [00:00:00] audio1299811408: Today on the Whole Whale podcast, we have somebody who was referred to Whole Whale by none other than a, a frequent guest and teacher on whole whale, uh, Josh from Round Table. And we, uh, we tend ...
Jan 25, 2023•41 min•Ep. 318
Amazon Sunsets AmazonSmile Amid Cost-Cutting The AmazonSmile will be ending by February 20th, according to a statement from the company, as reported by NPR and others. While the program dispersed nearly $449 million to nonprofits globally, the company says that the donations were spread too thin, minimizing impact. Amazon pointed to other efforts, such as its Housing Equity Fund, which supports affordable housing efforts near its headquarters, as an example of a social impact program receiving i...
Jan 24, 2023•25 min•Ep. 317
We interview Leslie Abbey, Chief Executive Officer, Hot Bread Kitchen. In this podcast, Leslie shares how HBK is focused on reaching 1,000 "breadwinners' by 2024 and how it has been leading the organization out of the pandemic. Hot Bread Kitchen programs and services include professional skills training and career programs , job placement, food entrepreneurship and social services support. We have a built-in network of high-quality employers ready to hire women from our programs. Our food entrep...
Jan 19, 2023•49 min•Ep. 315
Nonprofits Energize & Give Back To Communities On MLK Day Nonprofits across the country worked to engage and give back to communities this MLK Day. Virginia nonprofit Rise Against Hunger worked to fill 50,000 bags of food to serve communities in need. The article notes that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke often about hunger, and was a catalyst for this organization to focus on emergency food relief. In Charlotte, communities are finding assistanc e from nonprofits like Promise Youth Develop...
Jan 17, 2023•20 min•Ep. 316
Thousands of NYC Nurses Go On Strike As Hospital & Union Talks Fall Apart A dramatic, last-ditch effort to avert a strike failed this weekend, leading nurses at two major NYC hospitals to go on strike, according to reporting from Politico and others . Approximately 7,000 nurses at Montefiore Medical Center and Mount Sinai Hospital went on strike at 6 a.m. Eastern on Monday, demanding increased staffing levels for nurses who say the staff shortage creates unsafe conditions for patients. While...
Jan 11, 2023•31 min•Ep. 314
Mastodon Embraces Nonprofit Status As Potential Industry Model Mastodon, an open-source microblogging site, has rejected offers from more than five US-based investors in recent months, according to reporting from Ars Technica . The platform’s non-profit status is “untouchable,” according to its founder Eugen Rochko. Mastodon has similar features to Twitter but is made up of many decentralized, independently moderated servers. Users join one server but can connect with people on other servers thr...
Jan 03, 2023•28 min•Ep. 313
Nonprofitnewsfeed.com Scott Releases Comprehensive List Grant Recipients MacKenzie Scott has released a comprehensive database of all the nonprofit organizations that have received grants from her over the past several years. Scott has in many ways upended the philanthropy sector with the sheer volume and size of the grants, as well as their “no strings attached” nature. The database denotes the name of the organization, the size of the gift, and the organization’s focus area, geographic locatio...
Dec 20, 2022•21 min•Ep. 312
Interview with co-founder and CEO of Sky's The Limit ,Bo Ghirardelli. Bo discusses how they built a youth entrepreneurship network that has supported over 40k young people. Learn how Sky's The Limit leverages corporate partners to help achieve its mission. Links: Success stories Twitter Corporate partnerships Rough Transcript [00:00:00] Today on the podcast, we have a great guest who has bravely come on, despite, frankly, Responding out of the blue to a message that we sent him cuz I found the o...
Dec 15, 2022•49 min•Ep. 311
CVS Shows “Pledges” Do Not Equal Direct “Donations” In November 2021, US pharmaceutical giant CVS’s social responsibility team announced a $10 million commitment to the American Diabetes Association (ADA) to be delivered over three years, as reported by Quartz . However, what CVS omitted is that the donations collected from customers through in-store fundraising weren’t going to be in addition to the initial pledge. Rather, they would be used in lieu of donations coming from CVS’s coffers. Custo...
Dec 13, 2022•24 min•Ep. 310
2022 Giving Tuesday Predictions: Search Is Down, Hope Is Up Whole Whale, the publishers of this newsletter, predict a record-setting $3.2 billion will be donated for Giving Tuesday this year . The prediction is the result of an analysis based on an adjusted linear regression, trends in Google Search terms around “Giving Tuesday,” and national giving trends. This method predicts an 18% or $500 million increase over 2021’s total amount raised. While this is an optimistic prediction, several negati...
Nov 29, 2022•26 min•Ep. 309
Qatar World Cup Centers International Human Rights Issues, Corruption, And Sportswashing The 2022 FIFA World Cup is underway in Qatar in a climate marred by years of controversies related to human rights issues, corruption, and influence peddling . While this is the first time the games will be held in an Arab country, Qatar’s bid was a remote possibility until it shockingly won the bid back in 2010. FIFA, the international governing body of football, is considered one of the most openly corrupt...
Nov 22, 2022•18 min•Ep. 308
Conversation with Adam Lowy, Founder and ED of Move For Hunger . Adam shares about the landscape of food insecurity in the US and the need for year-round support for food banks - not just around Thanks Giving. Move for Hunger is also succeeding with great in person truck pulling events that raise food, funds and awareness across the US. Video from the truck pull event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hwJTpFHZQ8 Rough Transcript [00:00:00] Well, we've got a returning guest, Adam Lowie, founder a...
Nov 21, 2022•35 min•Ep. 307
What The FTX Collapse Does & Does Not Mean For Crypto Philanthropy & Effective Altruism Crypto-exchange FTX, one of the largest such exchanges, collapsed last week , leaving the cryptocurrency world in disbelief as stakeholders try to piece together what happened and what comes next. The company’s founder Sam Bankman-Fried (known by the moniker SBF) was a visible proponent and donor to the effective altruism movement, as well as someone who built a personal brand as a prominent crypto-ph...
Nov 17, 2022•22 min•Ep. 306
Rob Wu, Founder of Causevox.com shares lessons learned from talking to over 100 large gift officers and donors. Learn about the BAIT approach to donor qualification. BAIT - Budget, Affinity, Intension, Timeliness About Causevox 11 years of experience We launched in 2010 and help nonprofits rally communities and raise millions every year. 1500+ customers From small community-service charities and national organizations to global development nonprofits. 75,000+ fundraisers From DIY fundraising and...
Nov 17, 2022•29 min•Ep. 305
Alexis Miller, Donor Engagement and Strategic Partnerships Lead at Endaoment.org shares how crypto DAFs work and why nonprofits should start paying attention. When compared with traditional DAF payouts, Endaoment is showing 3x payout rate of funds- 22% to 58%. We also discuss other ways crypto donors differ from traditional fiat donors . About Alexis Miller Alexis Miller is the Donor Engagement and Strategic Partnerships Lead at Endaoment, the first 501(c)3 community foundation built on the Ethe...
Nov 10, 2022•44 min•Ep. 304
