Are there lessons for foundations and nonprofits from the corruption cesspool seeping out of the Illinois governor’s office? When political corruption puts its arm around charity and philanthropy, teachable moments emerge and we should all pay attention.

Prospective replacements for Barack Obama’s Illinois senate seat are running as fast and as far as they can from the recently arrested governor of the state, Rod Blagojevich. Nonprofits, foundations, and labor unions might be well advised to join the Illinois pols in creating yardage between them and the pay-to-play state executive.

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If President Obama is going to confront the depths of urban and rural poverty in the U.S., he is going to need to build the capacities of, and infuse capital into, community-based nonprofit organizations in poor communities. In addition to joblessness, lousy schools, high crime, and poor health outcomes, the least successful poor communities lack local nonprofits capable of providing ideas, expertise, and leadership for community renewal. The few localities making some progress, notwithstanding the past eight years of intentional downgrading and corrosion of federal government support, are those with functioning nonprofits—generally backed by an infrastructure of national and regional capacity-builders, financial intermediaries, and foundations.

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Imagine being an investor in the stock market—a scary thought in these times—examining investments in potential securities, but being unable to distinguish and disaggregate equities (stocks) from bonds, cash equivalents, and other assets. You may think you’re buying into a fund of large cap equities but you discover you actually just landed a bunch of U.S. treasuries or even a Real Estate Investment Trust .

Welcome to the bollixed up way we think about the similarities and differences among U.S. foundations!

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