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. Highlighting the work of NY Funders Alliance members, this blog post from CNY Community Foundation’s President & CEO describes initiatives and funding that help address the lead crisis across several cities. Community Foundations in Buffalo, Rochester, Albany, Mohawk Valley, and Syracuse are all engaging in creating collective impact networks to address these issues in their own regions, now sharing a common interest in and advocating for statewide policy solutions – all of which holds great promise as we start the New Year
2. Covering topics ranging from diversity, equity, and inclusion to foundation governance to equine metaphors for the sector, this roundup of the top ten most-read posts on the CEP blog in 2018 is a cohesive digest for thought-provoking reading. As you reflect and recharge, we hope this helps prepare you to head into 2019 with a renewed energy and commitment to philanthropic effectiveness
3. As the end of 2018 approaches, many Americans are considering making end-of-year charitable donations. While the new tax law contains many changes that will impact these decisions, we can look at Internal Revenue Service (IRS) data to gauge how much Americans have deducted for charitable giving in the past. See all state charitable giving statistics here:
4. As we continue to reflect on 2018 and look ahead to new projects and initiatives, we’re rounding up some of our members’ annual reports or signature accomplishments. In 2018, NYSHealth focused its attention on a few key areas: building healthy communities, empowering health care consumers, improving veterans’ health, and responding to time-sensitive and emerging issues. Through grantmaking, convening, activism, communications, and policy analysis, they made progress in each of these areas. Explore their Best of 2018 Annual Report to learn about some of their biggest wins
5. The Funders Census Initiative is pleased to continue a briefing series on census messaging results in partnership with the Democracy Funders Collaborative Census Subgroup, with the next webinar scheduled for Wednesday, January 16th. Last year, national field partners were funded to conduct get-out-the-count messaging research to identify messages that resonate with hard-to-count communities. As more national partners finalize their results, we will schedule additional briefings. You can find the webinars here: During each webinar, attendees will learn about:
   • The methodology used by each organization
   • The findings of their message testing
   • Recommended messengers and messages

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