Where Most Needed

Acorn: Where's the Oak?

Pulled down by an embezzlement scandal and a lightning rod for right-wing attacks, the deeper tragedy at Acorn is how Wade Rathke turned community organizing into a personality cult that prevented the emergence of a new generation of leadership. 

Doors Closing for Small Scale Advocacy Organizations

Changing priorities at two foundations affect funding for hundreds of small scale advocacy groups across the US.  It looks as though free lance advocacy is losing out to the broader strategic objectives of political campaigning.

Big Churches, Small Groups

Mega churches concentrate efforts on developing small group leadership skills to keep their members engaged on a personal level.  Perhaps secular nonprofits need to pay attention. 

Dawning of the Dark Side of Philanthropy

A few voices are (re)awakening to the realization that philanthropy is about public relations, not charity.  But they aren't yet ready to abandon the myth of an independent third sector or civil society. 

College Accrediting Bodies Want to Cut the Corporate Claptrap

At least one group of watchdog organizations are looking past the arbitrary divisions between for-profit, nonprofit, faith-based, and governmental  organizations. 

National Night Out Founder Thinks He's Worth a Quarter Million

About a third of the organization's budget goes to pay the president's salary, approved by a five-person board that includes his brother.   And we track down the source of its funding. 

Blogathon Demonstrates Long Tail (Up to a Point)

Shared vision is largely absent from a twenty-four-hour blogging event to raise money for charity, which could be why it wasn't more successful.  And the winner was online editor for a newspaper in Midland, Texas, who blogged from a 30-foot Genie scissors lift in a grocery store parking lot (isn't that cheating?)

Foundations Swimming through Apologies (Sorry)

Major foundations are stumbling over themselves to report lessons learned on disappointing initiatives, but there is a suprising sameness in What Doesn't Work. 

James Irvine Foundation Turns Whoops into White Paper

When a huge foundation initiative failed to show much progress, they brought in outside help to turn it around, completely revamped the project, and wrote it all up for the world to see. 

Shriners: Bookkeeping for Clowns

New York Times finds lax controls in local Shrine clubs yielding little benefit overall for the Shriners Hospitals, which rely on a huge endowment and direct contributions.