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. The Opportunity Zone tax incentive–passed in amended form as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017–is a potentially powerful new tool for helping low-income communities. By providing breaks for certain investments in distressed areas, it has already led to the creation of nearly $1 billion in new funds. Officials from the Treasury Department expect $100 billion in private capital will be deployed through the incentive. But the policy may fail to achieve its goals unless foundations guide investments in the right direction. Their deep experience in struggling local communities around the nation prepares them for the challenge. Read more from the Stanford Social Innovation Review
2. A new report examines how the recent federal government shutdown affected New York City’s emergency food network. The Food Bank For New York City put out the new report, which found that a residual “SNAP Gap” could leave many New Yorkers hungry because they ended up receiving their food benefits early in recent weeks. “While the government shutdown may be over, the worst is yet to come,” Margarette Purvis, president & CEO of the nonprofit, said in a Feb. 5 press release. “The significant lapse between SNAP disbursements presents an unanticipated financial hurdle and disruption for those already dealing with food insecurity and will place additional strain on emergency food providers across the five boroughs.” Read more about the longer term effects of the shutdown here
3. The 2019 annual census update from Terri Ann Lowenthal, a nationally recognized expert on the census and FCI consultant, has just been released. This overview provides a snapshot of last year and a preview of the year ahead, including updates on funding, Census Bureau leadership, the citizenship question, and congressional oversight.
4. Complex change strategies can benefit from the expertise of funders, intermediaries, and evaluators, in addition to community partners. This collective expertise is even more essential today — as more funders acknowledge the complexity of social problems and target investments to improve outcomes for entire communities, rather than direct funds to support single organizations.But harnessing this collective expertise requires navigating and overcoming common partnership tensions. What are common tensions in funder-intermediary-evaluator partnerships, and how can we overcome these tensions to harness collective expertise to advance complex change strategies? Read more here
5. This article spells out which governing documents need to be updated on a regular basis, and gives additional resources for a system to ensure they remain current. They include things like the articles of incorporation, a public document with basic information about the organization and its membership structure; bylaws, which lay out rules and procedures and are considered the organization’s legal guide; and other governing documents like policies and procedures

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