Greed, greed and more greed -- investor bilks wealthy families and their foundations

A front page article in the Boston Globe  and business section of the  New York Times yesterday outline a huge Ponzi scheme run by investor Bernard Madoff. When totally uncovered it looks like this guy (a captain of wall street and pillar of the community) has bilked billions from wealthy families and some of their charitable foundations.  From time to time scandals like this erupt in the philanthropy community.  Remember the United Way scandal from years ago?  More that just stealing from the people who trusted him to manage their foundation's investments, Madoff has sparked the worst kind of cynicism  in this season of light.  When many fundraisers are working harder than ever for important causes -- this guy's GREED hurts us all.  

NPR Marketplace - series on how charities are weathering economic crisis

I think this series on NPR started yesterday -- I listen to the Marketplace podcast.  Here is the link to the web article.  Marketplace series on charities

They are interviewing a number of nonprofit folks around the country.  

Online Fundraising -- interesting article on how it is being affected by economic crisis

Here is a link to a article put out by M+R Strategies.  I was particularly interested in the response rates from messages that didn't mention the current "tough economic times" and those that did  (hint: right now its better not to remind folks in the ask...?).  

Survey on online giving and the economy

It is a small snapshot of what's happening right now -- not definitive (is anything right now) but interesting to ponder.  

Mapping economic crisis resources from The Foundation Center

The Foundation Center has a public access map of grants for economic crisis grants.  

Focus on the Economic Crisis

You can search by state (then by smaller areas in each state), recipient type and/or subject type.  

Foundation Center - new search tool for economic crisis

The Foundation Center has a new search feature where you can put "economic crisis" in the subject line for grants in a search and pull up all the big grants recently made to address the financial crisis.  You have to have a subscription or access to the Foundation Center On-line Directory to access the information.  In taking a quick look at the list it looks like the larger foundations - in my area like  The Boston Foundation -- are starting to put resources into these issues.  Hopefully we will see more of this in the coming year.  

Resources for Nonprofits planning in the Economic Crisis

I was part of a national teleconference of nonprofit fundrasiers last week.  A woman who I consider a mentor said about the current fundraising climate "Don't Panic" (I'm not sure she knew she was quoting the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe).  Her sage advice to us was  now is not the time for hair-brained schemes -- don't start new initiatives to run after funding.  Work on strengthening current relationships with donors -- keep them informed and acknowledge where we all are financially.  

Along these lines as we think and plan for the next fiscal year and beyond the Chronicle for Philanthropy has a special report section that is a collection of articles and surveys on the current financial crisis and how it will affect the non-profit world.  Some of the articles are from last year -- but the information is interesting. 

Good news for grant writers - foundations look at paperwork requirments

Interesting report from Project Streamline  titled "Drowning in Paperwork, Distracted from Purpose"  all about numerous and varied forms and reports required by the 71,000 foundations across America.  I'm thrilled to see this topic tackled in a comprehensive way and hope that foundation board and administrators are reading this report.