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. 

Harvard, Unbuilt and Unloved

Civil society (the local Cambridge version) puts a damper on architectural visions, while on the other side of town MIT manages to soar with the eagles. 

Carnegie Hall Evicts!

About fifty tenants of the Carnegie Hall Studio Towers are facing eviction as the organization decides to convert the apartments to its own use.

Habitat for Humanity in the U.S. Faces Mid Life Crisis

Restructuring after the dismissal of founder Millard Fuller has some affiliates longing for a more grassroots approach, but a glance at form 990s and trends in U.S. housing reveals more fundamental perils facing the organization's mission and methods in its home country. 

Head of Ex-Gay Group Exodus International Enjoys Tax-Free Lifestyle

The organization takes advantage of a little-known provision in the tax code to exempt over half of its executive director's salary from Federal income taxes.   

Homeless Dumping & The Wild World of LA Skid Row Charities

Proposals to criminalize the practice of discharging homeless hospital patients to the streets don't address the peculiar institutional structure of homeless support in Los Angeles.

Habitat Failing Humanity

Volunteer rebuilding efforts in the Gulf Coast are falling short.  The Habitat for Humanity volunteer-and-sweat-equity model is proving ill-suited to the massive rebuilding efforts needed.