Vol. 6, Issue 49
   December 5, 2000

OMB Watch Posts Recommendations for Strengthening Nonprofit Sector

The recommendations were developed by a group of 30 nonprofit sector leaders brought together by the Advocacy Institute , the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, the Union Institute's Office of Social Responsibility, and OMB Watch. Development of the recommendations was guided by results from an Internet-based survey that asked nonprofits to rank, in order of their importance, actions that the next president should undertake to strengthen nonprofit social justice initiatives.

According to OMB Watch, major themes emerging from the draft set include an emphasis on improving the relationship between government and nonprofit organizations working on social justice issues; a belief that the president can play a significant role in addressing a wide range of societal inequities, most importantly those arising from the central role money currently plays in the political process; and a conviction that the federal government can do more to support the causes, constituents, and issues worked on by nonprofit organizations.

OMB Watch is seeking input and comment on the recommendations before they are presented to the president-elect and his staff. To read the full text of the recommendations, visit: http://www.ombwatch.org/npadv/2000/transdraft.html

"The Nonprofit Agenda: Recommendations to President George W. Bush (Al Gore) to Strengthen the Nonprofit Sector." OMB Watch 12/4/2000.

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Aspen Institute Releases Statement on Nonprofit Advocacy Role

Entitled "The Nonprofit Contribution to Civic Participation and Advocacy," the draft statement is the result of discussions by the Institute's Nonprofit Sector Strategy Group. The pamphlet assesses how well nonprofits are performing their advocacy functions and makes recommendations for strengthening activities in this area.

The group's recommendations for next steps include assessing the effect of existing laws and regulations on nonprofit advocacy; expanding the resource base for advocacy; and increasing support for the advocacy function within nonprofit organizations.

The pamphlet, which also includes an introduction to the work of NSSG, is available online at http://www.aspeninstitute.org/nppf/nssg.pdf (19 pages, PDF format), or by contacting Giulia Campanaro at (202) 736-2298 or giulia.campanaro@aspeninstitute.org.

Aspen Institute Announcement 12/5/2000.

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Robin Hood Foundation Honors Heroes in Fight Against Poverty

This year's winners, each of whom will receive a $50,000 award for their organization, are Nancy Addison Altman, a former soap opera star who is now battling cancer and volunteers her time at the Incarnation Children's Center, where she works with children with AIDS who have been orphaned, abandoned, or removed from their families; Alexie Torres-Fleming, the director of Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice, who quit a high-paying job in Manhattan to move back to the Bronx and establish a youth program that works to break the hold of drug dealers and gangs on embattled neighborhoods; Verona Middleton-Jeter, a social worker at the Henry Street Settlement who has pioneered efforts to improve conditions and services for homeless families and battered women for almost three decades; and Dr. T. Berry Brazelton, a pediatrician and director of the Touchpoints Project, who is working with families in Harlem to improve the lives of young children through improved parenting skills.

Since its inception in 1988, the Robin Hood Foundation has distributed more than $100 million in grants, goods, and services to organizations fighting poverty in New York City. Because the group's board of directors underwrites all administrative costs, all donations go directly to help those in need.

"The Robin Hood Foundation Honors New York Heroes." Robin Hood Foundation News Release 12/5/2000.

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More Dot-Com'ers Seeking Nonprofit Jobs

Sam Huey, who earns $80,000 a year working as the business administrator for the Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, joined the trend a year ago when he left his $250,000 a year job at Internet portal Lycos, Inc. Huey, who became a millionaire through his stock options, believes the move was a healthy one. "I felt that after my success at Lycos, it was time to redeploy myself and serve the church community by bringing my business and leadership skills to work here."

According to the Journal, as more nonprofit organizations move online, they are able to offer Internet executives and technology administrators relatively competitive salaries and technology-focused work.

Other dot-com employees have traded in their jobs for positions in the nonprofit sector as a result of dissatisfaction with the for-profit world's emphasis on stock options and profitability. Jason Willett left his job at e-commerce site Petstore.com after two days during a period last January when the now-defunct company's stock was doing well and opted instead for a position as director of communications for San Francisco-based Volunteermatch.org, a nonprofit organization that helps match potential volunteers with community service opportunities at charities and nonprofits. Says Willett, who abandoned 15,000 unvested stock options when he left Petstore.com, "I didn't know anything about 'vesting' anyway."

Dunham, Kemba J. "Dot-Commers Go Where Profits Truly Don't Matter." Wall Street Journal 12/5/2000, p. B1, B16.

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Falling Stock Market Begins to Affect Charities

Many community trusts report that donations are down 10 to 20 percent so far this year, and a few are experiencing downturns as large as 30 percent. At the same time, national charities like the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army also are suffering significant decreases in donations. Says Maj. Gary Miller, development director for the Salvation Army's eastern region, "It doesn't look like it's going to be a banner year. Hopefully we'll hold our own."

Since charitable giving is closed linked to the performance of the economy, it follows that donations will drop off when the stock market falls. According to the Journal, the organizations most dramatically affected by a slowing economy are usually the smaller, community-based groups that are most dependent on individual donations for their day-to-day operating expenses.

Officials at the American Red Cross also noted that other factors, such as fewer natural disasters, may have affected the level of donations this year. And many wealthy donors may be waiting to see whether the estate tax, which has acted as an incentive for charitable giving by the wealthy, will be rolled back as promised by George W. Bush if he becomes president.

Gubernick, Lisa. "Giving: The Big Charity Chill-A Season of Uncertainty Takes its Toll on Donations; The Ghost of Tech-Stocks Past." Wall Street Journal 12/1/2000.

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Cause-Related Marketing Catches on During Holiday Season

According to a study commissioned by the marketing firm Cone Inc., 74 percent of retailers say they have increased their participation in charitable activities over the past five years. "With price and quality of products so similar, one way for a retailer to differentiate his product is through cause marketing," said Ann Chan, an account executive in Cone's cause branding outreach division. "It creates an emotional bond between consumer and retailer."

As both retail stores and charities begin to experience the effects of a slowing economy, retailers and fundraisers are counting on their partnerships to help increase sales and donations. One popular trend is the discount-card, which gives shoppers who purchase a special $50 card from a charity a 20 percent discount at participating stores for a limited time.

The discount-card program has enabled some organizations to significantly boost their fundraising during the holidays. The Dallas-based Family Place, a shelter for battered women and their children, sold over 12,000 cards last year, raising some $600,000 in the process. And in Colorado, a similar discount card program helped the Colorado's Children Campaign raise more than $100,000.

Zimmerman, Ann. "Promotional Ties to Charitable Causes Help Stores Lure Customers." Wall Street Journal 12/4/200, p. B1, B4.

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New Report Grades States on College Opportunities

Entitled "Measuring Up 2000," the report grades states in five key areas, including how well students are prepared for college, what percentage of students enroll in and complete college-level programs, the affordability of higher education, and the economic and civic benefits a state receives as a result of the education of its residents. And while many states performed well in several areas, no state received straight As.

"Despite the accomplishments of American higher education, its benefits are unevenly and often unfairly distributed and do not reflect the distribution of talent in America," said North Carolina Gov. James B. Hunt Jr., chairman of the National Center’s Board of Directors. "Geography, wealth, income, and ethnicity still play far too great a role in determining the educational life chances of Americans."

The full report is available online at: http://measuringup2000.highereducation.org/.

Measuring Up 2000, which will be updated in 2002 and 2004, was funded with grants from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Pew Charitable Trusts.

"College Opportunity Varies Greatly by State; New Report Card Grades States on Higher Education Performance." National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education News Release 11/30/2000.

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World Health Organization and OSI Launch Health Network for Developing World

WHO has joined with the Open Society Institute and a number of other public and private partners to link scientists in the developing world to leading scientific journals, databases, discussion groups, and funding sources. Leaders of the project hope it will provide a much-needed boost to efforts designed to find solutions to the health problems of the world's poorest countries.

"If the researchers and scientists [of the developing world] can read the same journals, search the same databases, join in the discussion groups, compete for the same grants as their colleagues from wealthier countries, it will strengthen their own research, bring them into the international community of researchers and eventually improve dissemination of their own results," said Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, director-general of the World Health Organization.

Researchers, teachers, and students in Armenia, Ghana, Mali, Mozambique, Mongolia, Uganda, Tanzania, and Uzbekistan will be the first to benefit from the project. Within the next two years, WHO hopes to have 30 to 40 countries enrolled in the program.

"Life-Saving Scientific Information Boost Via Internet to Health Researchers in Africa, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe." WHO News Release 12/5/2000.

"Developing World Scientists to Get Internet Boost." Reuters 12/5/2000.

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International Trachoma Initiative Expands Efforts

A bacterial infection of the upper eyelid, trachoma has caused blindness in six million people worldwide, with another 150 million people currently infected.

"These results demonstrate that we are truly revolutionizing the control of this blinding disease," said ITI executive director Joseph Cook, M.D. The organization will report its results this week at the World Health Organization's Alliance for the Global Elimination of Trachoma by 2020 (GET 2020) conference.

The dramatic drop in the prevalence of the disease is largely due to the program's distribution of Pfizer Inc.'s antibiotic Zithromax on a massive scale in remote villages, as well as the initiative's support for an innovative health education strategy that emphasizes facial and community hygiene.

Based on its success in Morocco and Tanzania, the initiative will be expanded to reach 30 million people at risk of trachoma-related blindness worldwide. To support the program's expansion, Pfizer will donate approximately 10 million doses of Zithromax (valued at $14 per dose) and $6 million in funding for ITI's operating expenses over three years. Pfizer's partners in the efforts, the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will also increase their funding, with the former contributing an additional $6 million over three years and the latter adding $20 million over five years.

"Anti-Blindness Campaign Cuts Disease Prevalence in Half Among Millions in Poorest Regions of Tanzania, Morocco." International Trachoma Initiative News Release 12/4/2000.

Ngowi, Rodrique. "Fight Against Forgotten Cause of Blindness Expands." Associated Press 12/5/2000.

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British University to Establish Research Center on Corporate Social Responsibility

Designed to help address ethical questions facing the business community during an era of increasing globalization, the center will provide opportunities to study the social and environmental responsibilities of multi-national companies to the communities in which they operate.

Initial funding for staff and for student scholarships will include £3.8 million ($5.7 million), over three years, from British American Tobacco. The company is funding three specific areas: a professorial chair/directorship, a visiting professor from the developing world, and competitive scholarships in developing countries where the company has major corporate interests.

According to the Associated Press, anti-tobacco organizations have been highly critical of the donation, with Britain's largest cancer charity, the Cancer Research Campaign, calling the gift "another example of the tobacco companies' attempts to buy respectability."

But officials at Nottingham University defended the donation. Said university vice-chancellor Sir Colin Campbell, "British American Tobacco is working hard to address the changing expectations of society and its stakeholders."

"Nottingham University Business School to Establish International Center for Corporate Social Responsibility." University of Nottingham Press Release 12/4/2000.

"Tobacco Money Used To Finance Center." Associated Press 12/4/2000.

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The Foundation Center