This Public-Private Partnership Is Using Arts and Culture as a Catalyst for Racial Justice in Oakland

This Public-Private Partnership Is Using Arts and Culture as a Catalyst for Racial Justice in Oakland

The City of Oakland is partnering with local foundations to combine organizing and arts and culture work in pursuit of racial justice. The latest round backs BIPOC-led business cooperatives and more.

Read More

This Nonprofit Is Using DAF Money to Combat Inequities in Venture Capital

This Nonprofit Is Using DAF Money to Combat Inequities in Venture Capital

The $200 billion-plus accumulating in donor-advised funds is mostly invested traditionally. Inspire Access wants to mobilize some of that money to support start-ups founded and led by women and people of color.

Read More

Six Questions for Jason Lee, Founder of Hollywood Cares Foundation

Six Questions for Jason Lee, Founder of Hollywood Cares Foundation

Jason Lee’s Hollywood Unlocked media brand has millions of followers, but he got his start in unions. He’s returned to his organizing roots by launching a charity that supports underserved youth.

Read More

A Conversation With Jim Shelton of Blue Meridian Partners

A Conversation With Jim Shelton of Blue Meridian Partners

Jim Shelton is president of Blue Meridian Partners, a funding collaborative backed by multiple billionaire donors. We talk about his fascinating career path, what drew him to education, and his views on the role of philanthropy.

Read More

How This Accessible Chicago-Based Funder Targets Entrepreneurship, Health and Disabilities

How This Accessible Chicago-Based Funder Targets Entrepreneurship, Health and Disabilities

Established in 1951, the Coleman Foundation focuses on entrepreneurship, health and rehabilitation, and intellectual and developmental disabilities. We take a closer look at this accessible place-based funder.

Read More

The Robin Hood of the West: Inside the Antipoverty Work of Tipping Point Community

The Robin Hood of the West: Inside the Antipoverty Work of Tipping Point Community

Modeled on NYC’s Robin Hood Foundation, this grantmaker draws support from high-profile California donors as it takes on problems around housing, early childhood, education and employment in the Bay Area.

Read More

Bloomberg Backs New High Schools Tailored to Boost the Healthcare Workforce

Bloomberg Backs New High Schools Tailored to Boost the Healthcare Workforce

To address a nationwide shortage of healthcare workers, Bloomberg Philanthropies is plowing $250 million into an initiative to underwrite public high schools that’ll pair regular academics with specialized job training.

Read More

“Central to a Just Economy.” How a Collaborative Fund is Supporting Labor Rights in Brazil

“Central to a Just Economy.” How a Collaborative Fund is Supporting Labor Rights in Brazil

Backed by the Ford Foundation, Laudes Foundation and Open Society Foundations, the Labora Fund is working to advance workers’ rights in Brazil, where nearly half of the labor force is made up of informal workers.

Read More

Gates Sticks With U.S. Antipoverty Giving, But Deeper Structural Questions Remain

Gates Sticks With U.S. Antipoverty Giving, But Deeper Structural Questions Remain

In a year-end update, the Gates Foundation announced $100 million in new stateside antipoverty commitments. But amid sky-high wealth inequality, the chances that billionaire giving will get to the roots of the problem remain slim.

Read More

Here’s What You Need to Know About MacKenzie Scott’s 2023 Giving

Here’s What You Need to Know About MacKenzie Scott’s 2023 Giving

In a new letter published on MacKenzie Scott’s Yield Giving site, she announced $2.2 billion in donations to 360 organizations in 2023. Who were the big winners? What were her top priorities? We crunched the numbers.

Read More

Military Experience Is Less Common Today, But These Funders Are Staying True to Veterans

Military Experience Is Less Common Today, But These Funders Are Staying True to Veterans

Philanthropy for veterans often stems from personal or family experience, making a decline in the percentage of Americans who’ve served a cause for concern. But these veterans-focused funders bucked that trend in 2023.

Read More

Major Philanthropies Launch $50 Million Fund to Shepherd Federal Dollars on Jobs, Climate

Major Philanthropies Launch $50 Million Fund to Shepherd Federal Dollars on Jobs, Climate

With the launch of BuildUS, another intermediary fund enters an increasingly crowded field of regrantors, in the climate space in particular. We learned more about how this one will work, and the rationale for its creation.

Read More

Is the Cleveland Foundation’s New Headquarters the Future of Place-Based Philanthropy?

Is the Cleveland Foundation’s New Headquarters the Future of Place-Based Philanthropy?

The Cleveland Foundation’s new building is anchoring a developing innovation district in an underserved part of the city. Lililan Kuri, the new president and CEO, explains how it could redefine the role of institutional philanthropy.

Read More

Six Questions for Nina Revoyr, Ballmer Group's Executive Director, Los Angeles

Six Questions for Nina Revoyr, Ballmer Group's Executive Director, Los Angeles

The philanthropy of Steve and Connie Ballmer has become a major funder of antipoverty work, including in Los Angeles County. The head of Ballmer’s L.A. office tells us about her work, career path and second job as a novelist.

Read More

Eight Questions for Maria Kim, President and CEO of REDF

Eight Questions for Maria Kim, President and CEO of REDF

This unique funder supports businesses that provide jobs to people facing barriers to employment. We spoke with CEO Maria Kim about going from grantee to funder, the challenges in helping people get on their feet, and more.

Read More

Here Are Seven Grantmakers Backing Rural Communities in the South

Here Are Seven Grantmakers Backing Rural Communities in the South

The rural South faces outsized needs, but receives limited funding that doesn’t always make it to the groups on the ground. We’ve rounded up some of local funders dedicated to supporting rural communities.

Read More

On the Ground with the Ballmer Group, One of LA's Leading Antipoverty Funders

On the Ground with the Ballmer Group, One of LA's Leading Antipoverty Funders

Over the past few years, Steve and Connie Ballmer have continued ramping up their commitments in Los Angeles. We took a deep dive into how a vast tech fortune is being put to use to scale up local economic mobility.

Read More

How Wall Street Winner Anne Dinning Backs Anti-Poverty Work and More

How Wall Street Winner Anne Dinning Backs Anti-Poverty Work and More

This leader at quantitative investment firm D.E. Shaw & Co. has been a big backer of the Robin Hood Foundation, along with public health work and other causes. With a fortune of $900 million, expect more giving to come.

Read More

Lessons from Across the Pond: How the Living Wage Foundation Is Exporting Its Success to the U.S.

Lessons from Across the Pond: How the Living Wage Foundation Is Exporting Its Success to the U.S.

This U.K.-based organization has had some success pushing funders to cover living wages for their grantees’ employees — and doing the same for private sector employment. Its new U.S. affiliate is also off to a promising start.

Read More

In Three Decades’ of Efforts to Fund the True Costs of Nonprofits, Where Are the Workers?

In Three Decades’ of Efforts to Fund the True Costs of Nonprofits, Where Are the Workers?

The sector has long been grappling with the “nonprofit starvation cycle,” in which organizations are never able to cover the full costs of their work. One key component of the problem has received too little attention — labor.

Read More