Must Reads and Resources
To help connect people across various subsectors and fields, Cynthia sends out periodic "must reads" and other resources--including trend information, data/research studies, and important reports--to a large list of contacts. Emails are segmented to reach: 1) folks who are working on those issues or are in those fields and 2) folks who are in other spaces but might appreciate the information/articles.
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Click on the titles below to reveal a list of articles in each category. Once revealed, simply click on any article title to read it in full.
Nonprofits
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A Pattern of Lavish Spending at a Leading L.G.B.T.Q. Nonprofit
Would a Nonprofit Group Opposed to Police Blow the Whistle on Its Founder?
A Nonprofit Tried to Fix Tech Culture But Lost Control of its Own
Significant New Federal Grant Rules for Nonprofits
2024 Cause Awareness & Giving Day Calendar for Nonprofits
Nonprofits, foundations adjust to the post-pandemic era
Are We Mistaking Collaboration for Commoning?
Funders: A Note of Gratitude & Word of Warning from Nonprofits
Growth of Social Sector Infrastructure Organizations Poses Challenges
Funding for Small Nonprofits: State Surpluses Lead to Creative Thinking and Advocacy
Are Charities/DAFs Unwittingly Promoting Misinformation?
14 Job Boards for Nonprofit Professionals Worldwide
Another Uncomfortable Conversation—Part I: Foundation Funding of Nonprofit Infrastructure
Another Uncomfortable Conversation—Part II: The Risks of Underfunding Nonprofit Infrastructure
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More Women Work in Nonprofits. So Why Do Men End up Leading Them?
The State of Diversity in the Nonprofit Sector
2024 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report
The Top 10 Cited Articles in Nonprofit & Voluntary Sector Quarterly
Has the Fiscal Cliff Arrived for Nonprofits?
REPORT: Fiscal Sponsorship is on the Rise
Communities Suffer as Nonprofit Workforce Shortage Crisis Continues
As Pandemic-Era Funding Slows, Nonprofits Face Greater Demands
Washington Post Tries to Break Down Nonprofit Employment Data
Where is More Infrastructure Needed to Support the Real Needs of All Nonprofits?
Americans Know Little About Charities — and Very Few Think Nonprofits Can Solve Problems, Poll Finds
New Study: What Do Community-Based Organizations Need?
4 Critical Threats Nonprofits Will Face in 2023 — and How to Prepare for Them
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A Sil Con Valley Funder Diversified its Board. Big Changes Followed
Let's Have Better Board Meetings
Board passages: Three stages in a nonprofit board's life cycle
Good governance policies for nonprofits
Nonprofit board responsibilities: The basics
Resource library - Governance & leadership
Trustees & Staff Don't Always See Eye to Eye: Two Efforts Trying to Bridge that Gap
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Reports Find That Decline in Charitable Giving is Due to Tax Policy
Gen Z Donors are Coming. Here's What Nonprofits Need to Know
Local Govt's with More Staff & Big Budgets More Likely to Receive Federal Grants
Giving is Flat, but Fundraisers are Missing Opportunities to Solicit
What's the Current State of Fundraising? (June 2024)
Spare Change Donated at Checkout is Adding Up to Millions for Charities
Chronicle of Philanthropy: 50 Biggest Donors Issue - March 2024
How the Next Generation of Mega Donors Will Give
2024 Cause Awareness & Giving Day Calendar for Nonprofits
Outlook 2023: Perspectives on Year-End Giving
It’s Real: Charitable Giving Plummeted Last Year
5 Fundraising Trends to Watch for in 2024
18 Year-End Giving Statistics with Surprising Facts [2023]
Why I Stopped Donating to Your Organization (and fundraisers’ responses)
What's Behind the Drop in Charitable Giving?
Fundraising Guide for Nonprofits (Nonprofit Finance Fund)
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Nonprofit Branding Cheat Sheet
12 Communications Traps Democrats & Independents Should Avoid
9 Signs of a Successful Media Strategy for Nonprofits
Top 10 Digital Marketing, Social Media & Fundraising Posts in 2023
10 Digital Marketing & Fundraising Trends to Prioritize in 2023
The Difference Between Branding and Marketing: A Nonprofit’s Introduction
19 Digital Marketing & Fundraising Research Reports for Nonprofits
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Philanthropy
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Matching Fund Requirements Hurt Small Nonprofits
Spare Change at Donated at Checkout Counters Adding up to Millions for Charities
A Canadian Perspective on Philanthropic Intermediaries
Is it Time to Rethink the Concept of Philanthropy?
Philanthropy Needs to Trust the Real Experts—the People it Supports (Rebuttal to City Journal critique of TBP
Beyond Regranting: Working With Intermediaries Strategically & Reciprocally
Philanthropy in America is Broken
Patagonia’s Profits are Funding Conservation — and Politics
Foundations & the 5% Payout Rule: An Overview
Is it Time for Philanthropy to Invest in People Power?
A Family Fund’s Response to the Racial Reckoning: Give All Its Assets to One Black-Focused Nonprofit
The Thorny Questions Raised by Charitable Giving
The Forbes Philanthropy Score 2023: How Charitable Are The Richest Americans?
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Five Charitable Giving Trends to Watch
Philanthropy Outlook Report 2024
What's Behind the Drop in Charitable Giving?
The Greatest Wealth Transfer in History is Here W/Familiar (Rich) Winners
The Future Is Now: Young Donors Are Challenging What It Means to Be a Philanthropist
11 Trends in Philanthropy for 2023
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An Alternative Approach to the DAF Debate?
Philanthropy Spent $11 Million to Prevent Changes to DAF Rules
What’s the Latest on Regulating DAFs?
SURVEY: Public Wants More DAF Reform
The $10 Billion Charity No One Has Ever Heard of
A Short History of the Fast and Furious Rise of DAFs
More than Half of America’s 20 Top Public Charities Are Donor-Advised Funds
A Guide to Donor Advised Funds
Three Questions We Have About a Philanthropic Future Dominated by DAFs
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This Foundation Ended a Bold, 8-year Experiment in Participatoy Philanthropy. What Did It Learn?
Group of Citizens PIcks 77 Charities to Receive Heiress's Fortune
Philanthropy Needs to Trust the Real Experts—the People it Supports
Participatory Grantmaking Breaks Through with Mega Donor
‘Just Trust Us’: A Critique of Trust-Based & Participatory Grantmaking
Participatory Grantmaking: Has Its Time Come?
Women's Funding Network Gave $600M Through Participatory Grantmaking
Evaluating the Anti-Racist Grantmaking Model of an Experienced Participatory Grantmaker
Family Philanthropy and Participatory Grantmaking
What Does it Look Like to Truly Shift Power in Philanthropy? Here Are 3 Real World Examples
Philanthropy: We Need to Talk About Power
How This Omaha Foundation Embraced Community-Led Participatory Grantmaking
Sharing Power? The Landscape of Participatory Practices & Grantmaking Among Large U.S. Foundations
Can Philanthropy Ever Truly Be Democratized?
What Does it Look Like to Truly Shift Power in Philanthropy? Here Are 3 Real World Examples
Thinking Differently about “Conflict of Interest”
Deciding Together Shifting Power and Resources Through Participatory Grantmaking
The Historical Case for Participatory Grantmaking
Participatory Grantmaking Resources (Candid)
A Primer for Participatory Grantmaking
A Tool for Grantmakers to Assess Participatory Practice
Participatory grantmaking resource database (PGM community of practice)
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The Deaths of Effective Altruism
The Case for Less Effective Altruism
Big Philanthropy Is a Scam That Makes the Rich Look Better, Conceals Their Crimes
Woman-Led Philanthropy is Cutting Billionaires out of Climate Funding Decisions
Foundation to Redistribute Assets Because if of its "Role in Colonial Capitalism"
MacArthur Foundation withholds $625K grant from San Francisco — DA charges racism
Four Increasingly Dubious Reasons Funders Are Still Not Giving Unrestricted Support
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Has the Long Friendship of Bill Gates & Warren Buffett Reached Its Final Act?
How to Get Billionaires to Pay Their Fair Share
US Trust 2024 Report on Multi-Millionaire Giving
Forbes 2024 Richest People in the World List is Out
The Bill Gates and Big Philanthropy problems—and oursMacKenzie Scott: Please Stop Ignoring Small Nonprofits Like Mine
MacKenzie Scott Announces ‘Open Call Winners
More charity money is coming from the ultra-wealthy
Elon Musk’s Self-Serving Philanthropy
How the Next Generation of Mega Donors Will Give
What the Data Tell Us about MacKenzie Scott’s Grantmaking
Giving Pledge Billionaires’ Charity is Decreasing
How's Jeff Bezos Doing as a Philanthropist?
Inside MacKenzie Scott’s Zillion-Dollar Giving Machine
The Young Billionaires Who've Pledged Away Their Wealth
Behind the Scenes of MacKenzie Scott's Open Funding Call
Is MacKenzie Scott the Leading Social Justice Funder? Yes and No.
Bill Gates Has Perfected Managerial Philanthropy
Billionaire philanthropy is a ‘PR scam,’ says CEO who raised his workers’ minimum pay to $70,000
MacKenzie Scott: What We Know About Her Priorities
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Arts
Class/ Meritocracy
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Want to Help Trump? Keep up the White Rural Rage Stereotyping
Democrats, Let Me (Re)Introduce You to the Working Class
What Does the Working Class Really Want?
I Am Forming a New Political Party for Smug Elites Like Me
What Trump Gets Right about Harvard
Polarity Reversal: The Socioeconomic Reconfiguration of Partisan Support in Knowledge Societies
The problem with America’s upper-middle class and meritocracy
What Killed the Blue-Collar Struggle for Social Justice
A Simple Theory of Why Trump Did Well
A Belief in the Meritocracy is Not only False; It's Bad For You
Race or Class – the Debate Continues
Ivy League Democrats and State School Republicans
These are the Americans Who Live in a Bubble
How McKinsey Destroyed the Middle Class
The 9.9 Percent is the New Meritocracy
Disdain for the Less Educated is the Last Acceptable Prejudice
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Democracy
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Is It Time to Change the Constitution?
Politicians: Voters Know our System is Broken
Two Riots Shake Democracy. Two Very Different Results
Expert Congressional Testimony: Harnessing AI to Improve Gov't Services & Customer Experience
Why Fewer Voters Matter in 2024 Presidential Race
Are We Sleepwalking Toward a Dictatorship?
The Atlantic: 24 Writers on the Perils of a Second Trump Presidency
Voters See Democracy in Peril, but Saving It Isn’t a Priority
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Unique Process Explores How to Defend Against an Authoritarian President
Top individuals & donors pumping millions into the 2024 presidential election
PEW DATA: Culture Issues and the 2024 Election
Views of Representative Democracy Around the World
The State of Pro-Democracy Institutional Philanthropy
Americans’ Views of Government
What do Americans Really Think of Politics?
Polarization, Democracy & Political Violence in the US: What the Research Says
Mapped: The State of Democracy Around the World
How Democratic are Ordinary Citizens in Western Democracies?
DATA: Social Media & Democracy
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Philadelphia is Increasing Civic Engagement by Letting the People Decide
Will Civic Dialogue be More Integrated into News?
RESEARCH: Participatory Budgeting
Practitioner Tips for Avoiding the Pitfalls of Public Decisionmaking/Citizen Assemblies
Are We Mistaking Collaboration for Commoning?
Who's Making Land-Use Decisions? The Usual Suspects, Mostly
Is it Time for Philanthropy to Invest in People Power?
Free Speech of Out of Order: Officials Try to Tame Public Content
Community Input is Bad, Actually
Power to the People: New Process Gives Providence Residents a Real Voice
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PEW DATA: Culture Issues and the 2024 Election
DATA: Changing Partisan Coalitions in a Politically Divided Nation
Catholic Charities & Three Major Nonprofits Team up to Counter Polarization in the US
America is Fractured into Four Parts: Is Reconciliation Possible?
Polarization, Democracy & Political Violence in the US: What the Research Says
Showcasing Solutions for Better Campus Discourse
The Country has Come Apart. Rural America Has a Cure?
Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid
America Pulls Back From Values That Once Defined It, WSJ-NORC Poll Finds
Reducing Polarization: What's Not Working & Why?
Authentic Connections Among Strangers Still Happen - A Fun Story
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Economic/Community Development
(Urban & Rural)
Education
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Elite Private Colleges are Losting Esteem and They Deserve It
Showcasing Solutions for Better Campus Discourse
Why Americans don't trust university researchers
Donating to Ivy League Schools Is Ineffective and Unnecessary, and It Reinforces Inequality
New National Campaign to End Elite School Legacy Preferences for Alumni Children
The Admissions Scandal and the Meritocracy Trap
What Could Wealthy Colleges Do to Promote Equity? Give Money to Poor Ones
Student Loan Forgiveness Program Nonprofit Workers Need to Know About
Environment
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A Climate Change Success Story? Look at Hoboken.
How Hot Is It Around the World (& Some Resources for Dealing w/it)?
Woman-Led Philanthropy is Cutting Billionaires out of Climate Funding Decisions
The Case for Caring about Climate Change
Climate Change Pushing One-Third of Humanity Out of Livable Environments
Inside the Little-Known Group Setting the Corporate Climate Agenda
Young People Bring Landmark Lawsuit To State Gov't on Climate Change
The audacious PR plot that seeded doubt about climate change
Quantifying the human cost of global warming
In Montana, It’s Youth vs. the State in a Landmark Climate Case
Who's Funding Disruptive Climate Protests? Oil Heirs, Mostly.
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Gaslit by Doctors, Patients are Turning to a Shadow System of DIY Tests
Advancing Racial Equity in U.S. Healthcare
An Important Comic about Empathy in Health/Medicine
Safer Childbirth for Black Mothers Faces Obstacles in New York
US Dept. of HHS Report: Addressing Health-Related Needs in Communities Across the Country
The Top 10 Articles from Health Affairs 2022
The Overlap Between (Mis)Trust in Healthcare and Journalism
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Are We Happy Yet? An Overview of Happiness Research
2023 Scorecard on State Health System Performance
Is This the Future of Elder Home Care?
How the health care sector contributes to climate change: a research roundup and explainer
NIH Study Shows Financial Toll of Health Disparities in the US
States With Abortion Bans Are Among Least Supportive for Mothers and Children
Health
Journalism/Media
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Confused about all Those Digital News Platforms? Here’s a Map
Billionaires Wanted to Save the News Industry. It’s Not Working.
The News About the News Business is Geting Dimmer
Will Civic Dialogue be More Incorporated into News?
Press Forward Will Award $500M+ to Revitalize Local News
Local News is Flourishing but its Survival Depends on All of Us
Debate RE: “Objective” Journalism: Increasing Polarization? YES NO
Journalism fails miserably at explaining what is really happening to America
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Americans Changing Relationships with Local News
Predictions for Journalism/Media in 2024
Audiences are declining for traditional news media in the U.S. – with some exceptions
American’s Trust in Science Continues to Decline
Local News is Flourishing but its Survival Depends on All of Us
What About Philanthropy for For-Profit News? Some Noteworthy Research
Journalists: How to Report on Research (tip sheets re research/data analysis)
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Local News is Dying But Not in San Francisco. Is it a Model for Rest of the Country?
What's the Status of Nonprofit News? (June 2024)
Could the Local News Get Any Worse? Just Look at Scranton
Why All Funders/Donors Need to Give to Nonprofit News Outlets
The Country has Come Apart. Rural America Has a Cure?
More Funding Flowing to Local Journalism, Study Finds
Engagement Journalism Grows Newsroom Revenue/Strengthens Relationships
A Tiny Paper Broke the Santos Scandal But No One Paid Attention
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Stanford's Top Disinformation Research Group Collapses Under Pressure
Are we Losing the Battle Against Misinformation?
Did the Battle Against Misinformation Go Too Far?
The Overlap Between (Mis)Trust in Healthcare and Journalism
Ford Foundation-Backed Network is Focusing on Resisting Online Threats
Online Fact-Checking Efforts are Stalling
Misinformation research is buckling under GOP legal attacks
Why Americans Don’t Trust University Researchers (or Journalists)
Fewer Voters Visited Untrustworthy Sites In 2020, Study Finds
The 2023 Edelman Trust Barometer is Out
When it comes to misinformation, partisanship overpowers fact-checking, over and over again
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9 Charts about Wealth Inequality
Results Are In From One of the World’s Biggest Experiments in Fighting Poverty
Poverty Experts : Where You Grew Up Determines How You Do in Life
Preventing housing displacement: What works & where more research is needed
Vast New Study Shows a Key to Reducing Poverty: More Friendships Between Rich and Poor
Large-Scale, Myth Shattering Study on Homelessness Released
Cash Payment Programs To Curb Poverty are Spreading, City by City
Poverty
Racial Equity/Justice
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Black Americans Aren’t Enthusiastic About Reparations Yet: Here’s Why
Foundation to Redistribute Assets Because if of its "Role in Colonial Capitalism"
The Differences Between Race & Ethnicity & Why They're Hard to Define
Does the DEI Industry Need to Check its Privilege?
How a 75-Yr-Old Foundation Increased Funding for Groups Led by People of Color
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Social Justice/Movements
Technology
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Expert Congressional Testimony: Harnessing AI to Improve Gov't Services & Customer Experience
Social Media’s Influence on Young People is no Simple Matter
Modern Day Redlining? How Maps and Monopolies are Killing ‘Internet for All’
What if Ordinary Citizens Could Control A.I.?
Everything You Wanted to Know About AI But Were Afraid to Ask
Have We Finally Realized the "Metaverse" Isn't Going to Solve Complex Social Problems?
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Women & Girls
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More Women Work in Nonprofits. So Why Do Men End up Leading Them?
Women's Freedom: The Most Terrifying Thing to a Patriarchal Society?
How Women's Brains Change in Midlife
Real women are still missing from the movies — the Bechdel Test proves it
Brands Find a New Way to Reach Older Women
Women, Liberate Yourselves from Caring About Getting it All Done
Women Say Effective Altruism Has Toxic Culture of Abuse & Sexual Harassment
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Miscellaneous
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Are We Happy Yet? An Overview of the Research on Happiness
Pew Research: How Americans View 10 Major Issues (SOTU) March 2024
Pew Research: Most Striking Research Findings 2023