The Chronicle of Philanthropy

Eric Schmidt in Chronicle of Philanthropy | Google CEO Named Chairman of New America Board

Communications — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 17:41:00 -0500

New America in the News:

Google CEO Named Chairman of New America Board (Chronicle of Philanthropy)

Eric Schmidt, chairman and chief executive officer of Google, will become the chairman of the New America Foundation’s Board of Directors on June 1, the group announced. He plans to mark his new role by making an an unrestricted $1-million donation to the group.

Mr. Schmidt has served on the foundation’s board since its founding in 1999, but he has not been as actively involved in philanthropy as many of his fellow billionaires.

He says he was attracted to the group from the beginning because “they would try to do things that were unconventional. They were like Google, but before Google existed.”

Even when he disagreed with work produced by the scholars and journalist at the foundation, he says, he still found the work worthwhile and provocative. more

Steve Coll in Chronicle of Philanthropy | 'Journalist Leads Think Tank'

Communications — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 08:49:00 -0400

New America in the News:

A Foreign Correspondent Takes Over a Washington Think Tank (Chronicle of Philanthropy)

Steve Coll's introduction to the button-down world of the think tank was tinged with a bit of glamour. Mr. Coll,a well-traveled journalist, won his second Pulitzer Prize in 2005 for his book Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, From the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001. After the Pulitzer, Mr. Coll's grasp of history and elegant writing style landed him arguably the most coveted of assignments: staff writer at The New Yorker, where he has produced articles on international politics for the past two years.

So it may have been only fitting that he heard he was being considered for the presidency of a nonpartisan think tank made up largely of journalists and policy experts — the nine-year-old New America Foundation, in Washington — while enjoying a glass of wine at midnight with a terrorism expert at an Italian streetside cafe. ... (more)

Museum's $10-Million Lesson: Stewardship Matters

Articles — Thu, 08 Aug 2002 00:00:00 -0400

The art world is all abuzz with the news that a vacationing Scottish museum director, searching through boxes of drawings at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, in New York, came upon what everyone now seems to agree is undeniably a work by Michelangelo. The drawing represents one of only a handful of works by the Italian master in this country and is probably worth more than $10-million.

To the delight of the Cooper-Hewitt, Michelangelo's drawing of a massive candelabrum, replete with ornate architectural details, was bought in 1942 along with a group of other decorative drawings from a London dealer… more

Good Performance Is Not Measured By Financial Data Alone

Articles — Thu, 30 May 2002 00:00:00 -0400

I recently interviewed a foundation trustee about her institution's payout policy. In explaining why her foundation never strayed very far from the legally required minimum disbursement, she made a telling observation. It went something like this:

The charitable world has few good measurements of social impact and effectiveness. Staff members often contend at board meetings that programs are working. But when pushed, they really can't document performance very well or show what the money is buying in terms of programmatic results. On the endowment side, however, the situation is totally different. We all know the… more

Sex Scandal Puts Onus on Catholic Donors to Demand Change

Articles — Thu, 04 Apr 2002 00:00:00 -0500

Who should pay for misconduct in a charity? That is the question that the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston faces as it continues to reel under the ever-darkening cloud of sexual misconduct by a significant number of its priests.

After the recent conviction of the archdiocese's most notorious pedophile, John Geoghan, the archdiocese settled the legal claims of a first group of his victims for an estimated $30-million. More priests have been named and more lawsuits are coming. By the time the legal storm clears, the ultimate cost to Boston's archdiocese could well be more than $100-million. Finding funds to cover… more

A Nonprofit Manager's Resolve: Pledges for Doing Better in 2002

Articles — Thu, 10 Jan 2002 00:00:00 -0500

The New Year brings with it the promise of change, reform, and renewal. For the harried and often unappreciated nonprofit manager, the list of possible resolutions is long. Though often muttered quietly and grudgingly, here are some resolutions I have heard nonprofit people whispering in the hallways in recent weeks.

I resolve to:

Figure out a way to use volunteers sensibly. This year, I won't bend to the pressure of my yuppie volunteers to have that big blowout clambake at the end of a half-day of work that nearly bankrupted me last time around.

Get my board to behave decently. I won't allow… more

Alter the Tax Code to Avert Elder-Care Crisis

Articles — Thu, 13 Dec 2001 00:00:00 -0500

For all the public debate about the strains that the retirement of the baby-boom generation will place on our Social Security and Medicare systems, surprisingly little debate has occurred about the looming crisis in caring for the elderly. After all, the huge number of baby-boomer retirees will require not only their monthly pension and Social Security checks, but also unprecedented amounts of time-consuming and expensive individual care in their final years.

Providing American families with the help they need to care for the growing number of elderly will be a joint responsibility of the government and private organizations, including charities.… more

Nonprofit Groups Should Lead Debate on Rights, Safety

Articles — Thu, 13 Dec 2001 00:00:00 -0500

The effect of the war against terrorism on civil liberties presents one of the most important challenges facing nonprofit leaders.

On issues ranging from profiling at airports to the use of national identity cards to new limits on Internet privacy, difficult choices await a thoughtful resolution. Rather than approach the issue from the extreme edges of the policy spectrum, nonprofit officials should call for a national discussion about where a middle ground might be found that could guide the nation's political leaders.

In numerous areas, the tensions between civil libertarians and those seeking to maximize national security are great. Consider the serious… more

How Strategic Mistakes Derailed the Bush Faith-Based Plan

Articles — Thu, 15 Nov 2001 00:00:00 -0500

The events of September 11 eclipsed President Bush's plan to funnel more government money to religious charities, and in recent weeks the White House has decided against fighting to get Congress to approve its entire plan. In the short run, at least, the President will try to persuade Congress to pass a few noncontroversial measures, such as tax incentives to encourage people and corporations to give more.

But the president's faith-based plan was in trouble even before the national zeitgeist shifted to terrorism, homeland security, and war. It narrowly passed in the House last summer, and faced renewed opposition in… more

Nonprofit Groups Must Meet the Challenges of a World in Tumult

Articles — Thu, 04 Oct 2001 00:00:00 -0400

In the wake of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, donations of time, sweat, courage, and cash should do more than just make us proud of Americans' capacity for caring. They should ultimately prod us to fashion a new way of thinking about the relationship between public and private action, one that escapes the rigid ideological positions that have taken root over the years.

For much of the past two decades, we have been beholden to two concepts of the relationship between nonprofit and voluntary action and government priorities. The first vision has been grounded in the… more