When a prominent national leadership organization fails to take a stand on ethical issues that affect the nonprofit sector, particularly after trumpeting its own high standards, what message does it send to nonprofits and policymakers? Readers of the Cohen Report may remember our report (National Harbor, Not Safe Harbor) in June regarding the decision of the Council on Foundations to hold its annual meeting at the National Harbor complex in Prince Georges County, Maryland. Despite some press coverage pointing out the dubious arrangements underpinning National Harbor’s charitable activities, namely a philanthropic slush fund awarding grants to nonprofits linked to the County Executive of PG County, the Council remained silent in spite of, or perhaps because of, its close association with National Harbor. Fortunately the Council has been handed another opportunity to speak up, but will it?
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As we predicted in the summer issue of the Nonprofit Quarterly and in the Financial Times, the California state legislature and the state’s biggest private foundations struck a deal to scuttle the looming legislative mandate (Assembly Bill 624) that large foundations report on their grantmaking to racially diverse communities and minority-led nonprofits. The deal was struck away from the public spotlight and announced on June 24th.
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Remember when the Atlanta Journal–Constitution published a pathbreaking series on racial discrimination in awarding home mortgages? The Color of Money won a Pulitzer1 and put juice into community-based organizations, academics, and newspapers uncovering patterns of racial discrimination—or redlining—in bank mortgage and home improvement lending practices. Just as the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) requires banks to report on their mortgages and loans, should philanthropic redlining in U.S. philanthropy be remedied by a mandatory reporting regime?
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Whether one likes or dislikes the policies promoted by Barack Obama in his run for the presidency, he is impressively committed to transparency and disclosure. Obama appears unafraid of the cleansing role of sunshine in American politics, even if the disclosures spark some critical commentary.
Last month, Obama released a list of every — every! — earmark he had requested, successfully or not, in the federal budgets for Fiscal Years 2006 and 2007. In contrast, Hillary Clinton has not released her earmarks list, nor has she disclosed the names of contributors to her family’s and husband’s foundations or released her tax returns.
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There is something wrong with the debate about “diversity” that has roiled the foundation sector. The problem is simply diversity itself. Like much of modern political syntax, it is the term of art because it is increasingly devoid of meaning — or because it is more palatable than other, older, more politically charged variations on the theme.
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