Friday Rewind

The Friday Rewind offers a snapshot of PhilanthroNews —  that means news stories, articles, events of note, or information updates — from around our network and throughout the broad world of philanthropy. Whether you take a quick skim of the material or a deep dive through each item we hope to help inform your work and inspire your thinking.

1. New examples of participatory grantmaking keep popping up, lately. More funders, it seems, have gotten the message that the top-down operations of foundations often replicate the same unequal power dynamics in society that grantmakers say they want to address. There’s also growing interest among funders in listening more closely to the “ultimate end beneficiaries” of philanthropic dollars as a way to achieve greater impact. Read the Full Story Here.
2. Four months after President Trump proposed eliminating the cultural agencies altogether, a bill to continue to finance the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities won approval this week from the House appropriations committee. Read the Full Story Here.
3. Especially with small to medium sized nonprofits with only a handful of fundraising staff, the process of filling a development position can be hard for leadership to execute. This piece for Philanthropy Daily outlines three perhaps shockingly common mistakes to avoid in the process. Read the Full Story Here.
4. Social return on investment is an underutilized yet surprisingly flexible tool for making strong resource allocation decisions that maximize nonprofit impact. So exactly how can nonprofits drive healthy growth utilizing SROI? Read the Full Story Here.
5. Author David Heinen recently wrote an Op-Ed where he asserted that President Trump’s goal to “get rid of and totally destroy the Johnson Amendment” could undermine the public’s trust in all charitable nonprofits, including food banks, hospices, child care providers, houses of worship, hospitals, arts organizations, schools, and affordable housing providers. Read the Full Story Here.

Friday Rewind is published each Friday by NY Funders Alliance staff. To submit a story for the Friday Rewind, please email programs@nyfunders.org.