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Martin Levine of NonProfit Quarterly examines a tech-backed nonprofit accelerator and poses a round of questions asking if this philanthropic effort helps solve problems like inequality, environmental threats, forced migration, and illiteracy or its partnerships make it part of the problem.
Cueing from a Fast Company article describing a tech-backed nonprofit accelerator, Fast Forward, Levine writes that the company is available to very-early-stage nonprofit startups, providing them with $25,000 coupled with training and mentoring. Just recently, Fast Forward has announced it had secured a new round of funding and raised $5 million in new philanthropic funding from leading companies, such as Google.org and many others.
Levin points out that Fast Forward claims its network has touched 51 million individuals and received more than $100 million in funding. So skeptics might wonder if the $5 million might be better spent going directly into the nonprofits' coffers.
Levine asks, do efforts of this kind obscure the severity of the problems an out-of-control extractive economy creates?
Levine quoted Ruth Cambridge who underscored the message of Anand Giridharadas, author of Winner Take All, "It remains to be seen... whether the nonprofit sector will begin asking itself some deeply uncomfortable questions."
According to Levine, these are tough questions when money is tight and dreams and passion are high.
Selected Grant News Headlines
A customized collection of grant news from foundations and the federal government from around the Web.
"When I came to Harare from Zaka, I had nobody and knew nobody, but I had to define my career path and carve my own niche, hence the confidence that all these important people here now have in...more
The Greater Hermiston Community Foundation is accepting applications for its 2024 grant cycle. Local organizations serving Hermiston, Umatilla, Stanfield, Echo, and Irrigon are eligible to...more
Foundation: Kellogg Foundation
For more than 30 years,Henrie Treadwell has been fighting for racial equity at the University of South Carolina, where she became the school's first black graduate since Reconstruction, the...more
If you're an artist trying to break into the music business, there's a good chance you've never heard of entertainment law. But if you're a law student at Mercer University in Georgia, you may...more
Amy Reese, a veteran and CEO of ARC Business Solutions, says she's "thrilled to see the impact" her organization's "Business Boots on the Ground" program will have on military veterans in...more
The University of Colorado at Boulder is in the news this week for an unusual reason: It's hosting a two-day "staff summit" next week that's open to all staff members, reports the Daily...more
Baltimore's Mitchell family is putting its money where its mouth is, awarding a $50,000 grant to Excellence & Ambition, a nonprofit that helps young people ages 14 to 21 launch and grow their own...more
Foundation: Silicon Valley Community Foundation, California Endowment
In 2024, Los Angeles will host the Mission Investors Exchange 2024 National Conference, an annual conference that brings together more than 750 philanthropy and impact investing leaders from across...more
Foundation: California Community Foundation, California Endowment
Ava DuVernay financed her latest film with money from the Giving Pledgean initiative of the California Endowment, the largest US foundation to commit its entire $4 billion portfolio to social and...more
Foundation: Marguerite Casey Foundation, Marguerite Casey Foundation, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, Skoll Foundation, Target Foundation, Ford Foundation, Philadelphia Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation
"The US creative economy was most recently valued at over $1 trillion by the National Endowment for the Arts," per a press release, "even before considering film, fashion, video games, beauty, food,...more
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Wells Fargo Foundation
New Hampshire Charitable Foundation
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Social Entrepreneurship
Spotlight
Influencing Social Good Through Retail
When Hannah Davis traveled to China to teach English, she noticed how Chinese workers and farmers were often sporting olive green army-style shoes. Those shoes served as her inspiration to create her own social enterprise, Bangs Shoes.
