The Daily Tell

Women are an increasingly powerful force in philanthropy, and they have the grant money to prove it.

A new report by the Foundation Center and the Women’s Funding Network revealed that philanthropic efforts by and for women have increased dramatically, at an even higher rate than general philanthropy.

According to the report, philanthropy directed towards women and girls soared 223 percent between 1990 and 2006, compared to an increase of 177 percent in general philanthropic giving. This represents an increase from $412.1 million in 1990 to nearly $2.1 billion in 2006.

In addition, giving by women’s funds to women-focused programs and initiatives grew by 24 percent between 2004 and 2006, compared to an increase of 14.8 percent in foundation giving overall.

“Women are a rising force in philanthropy,” said Christine Grumm, president and CEO of the Women’s Funding Network. “This report demonstrates the power women-led solutions have in creating sustainable change in communities.”

Guided by this idea that women can be a powerful catalyst for change, 98 percent of women’s funds reported that social change is their top priority. Accordingly, almost half of grant dollars are directed towards health-related initiatives.

Tourists looking for an eco-friendly outing on their next trip to New York City may want to stop at 33rd Street and 7th Avenue to check the reading on a new 70-foot-tall digital carbon counter.

The recently unveiled, real-time carbon counter was launched by Deutsche Bank’s Asset Management division and is sponsored by DB Climate Change Advisors group, the financial services company’s institutional climate change investment and research arm.

The counter is part of the group’s Know the Number campaign which aims to make a very public statement about the total long-lived greenhouse gases in the environment. Since people don’t see greenhouse gases, it’s easy to forget they exist.

With Deutsche Bank putting the number in a crowded spot near the heavily traveled area of Madison Square Garden and Penn Station they hope to inspire people to make changes.

“The Carbon Counter is a bold new experiment in communicating climate science to the public,” said Ronald Prinn, professor of Atmospheric Science at MIT. Scientists at the renowned university are responsible for the calculations behind the carbon counter measurement.

“With climate change in the news around the world, it is useful to have an up-to-date estimate of a single integrating number expressing the trends in the long-lived greenhouse gases contributing to that change,” he added. “This number can help convey how fast these greenhouse gases are increasing, and the progress, or lack thereof, in slowing the rate of increase.”

Recent estimates from the carbon counter show 3.64 trillion metric tons of long-lived greenhouse gases are currently in the environment. This figure is expected to increase by nearly 2 billion metric tons per month.

Low-energy lights and carbon offsets are part of the power design for the actual carbon counter. Its reading can be found anytime on an official website or on Twitter.

In a prosperous intersection of philanthropy and finance, the LeapFrog Financial Inclusion Fund announced today that it has raised $44 million.

The Fund, which is the world’s first microinsurance investment firm, invests in businesses that bring insurance and financial services to low-income residents of developing countries.

The theory behind the Fund is as noble as it is profitable. Based on the work of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, who believed that credit is a “fundamental human right,” the Fund is fueled by the enormous potential of the microinsurance market.

“The best part about microinsurance is that we can reach millions of people, swiftly,” said said Dr. Andrew Kuper, President and Founder of LeapFrog. “Microinsurance is both profitable and scalable. We can think big. We don’t have to choose between money and meaning.”

Low-income consumers have a purchasing power of $5 trillion annually, according to the International Finance Corporation and the World Resources Institute. In addition, the market for microinsurance has been estimated at one billion people, less than three percent of which currently have any form of insurance, according to the 100 Country Landscape Report by the Microinsurance Center.

Many investment firms have begun to capitalize on the largely untapped potential of this market, which currently serves 150 million customers. Deutsche Bank estimates that microinsurance investment will soar from $5 million to $25 million by the year 2015.

The LeapFrog investment team, which consists of former CEOs as well as insurance and investment professionals, is joined in partnership with a variety of private and public investors, including the European Investment Bank (EIB), FMO, Omidyar Network, Triodos-Doen, Hivos-Triodos Fund, ACCION International, Calvert Large Cap Growth Fund and wealth manager Felipe Medina.

The microinsurance market remains poised for futher growth, as its strong demand remains largely non-correlated to the economic downturn, said Kuper in a piece written for Forbes.

The James Irvine Foundation – dedicated to providing opportunities for the residents of California to participate in a vibrant, successful and inclusive society – announced the approval of more than $21 million in new grants.

The 21 new grants are divided into three areas of development: the arts, youth and civic engagement.

The largest grant, totaling almost $11.4 million, will go toward the development of the California Multiple Pathways District Initiative, which aims to increase the number of pathways available to California students in preparation for college and a career. The project is backed by ConnectEd, an independent, nonprofit organization established by the Irvine Foundation in 2006.

The other youth programs receiving grants are dedicated to the mission of increasing the number of low-income youths who complete high school and obtain a postsecondary degree by the age of 25.

Another $3.3 million will be dedicated to the arts, with the mission of pioneering new ways to deepen audience engagement. The money will be divided among a number of museums, cultural centers, and arts foundations, including the American Conservatory Theater Foundation, the Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center, the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego and the Oakland Museum of California Foundation. This also includes a grant of $180,000 to support radio broadcasts of the San Francisco Symphony’s 2009-2010 season concerts.

In the interest of encouraging civic engagement and involvement with California democracy, $2 million in grants will go primarily to programs focused on the involvement of low-income residents in public policy decision-making. The recipients include the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice, the Center on Policy Initiatives and the Center on Race and Poverty and Environment.

The Irvine Foundation has supported more than 3,000 nonprofit organizations with over $1 billion in grants since its establishment in 1937.

Much is reported on the status of school lunches. Celebrity chefs, parents and policy makers around the country have argued that America’s youth need to be eating healthier with more servings of fresh food including fruit and vegetables.

But another important component to combating childhood obesity and ensuring that the young kids of America stay physically fit is exercise.

Once the final school bell rings for the year and gym classes are officially done until September, where are students at home for summer supposed to play?

Although some might immediately point to a backyard or community park, that isn’t always an option for some families living in the city or parts of town where playgrounds are run down.

KaBoom, a national nonprofit focused on encouraging communities to build playgrounds, recently polled parents of children age two to 12 and found that 59 percent say their children don’t have access to a community park.

Among the lowest income bracket surveyed, 60 percent of kids are without an outdoor space to run around.

Parents seem to understand the importance of physically activity for their children and most are willing to do something to rectify the situation.

Over half of all parents surveyed say they’d volunteer their time to build new playgrounds or organizes fundraisers to pay for equipment, jungle gyms and other park toys.

One step parents may investigate more seriously is asking schools to open their playgrounds in the summer or during non-school hours.

KaBoom notes that even the president recognizes the importance of kids having a safe outdoor environment to run and play. President Obama commented in a recent speech that playgrounds are an important way to help ensure kids develop healthy habits.

The nonprofit organization helping six million youngsters across American learn leadership, citizenship and life skills has received $1.5 million to help build its volunteer program.

The donation recipient is 4-H, a group that early on helped rural youth and those working in agriculture develop new techniques and experiments but now more broadly focuses on life skills development for its members – especially in healthy living and science and technology.

The $1.5 million gift came from a company with ties to the nonprofit’s world.

Monsanto Company is a global provider of technology-based solutions and agricultural products that improve farm productivity and food quality. The company’s substantial donation to 4-H will help expand the group’s volunteer network and improve recruitment and retention strategies.

“We are proud to support the dedication of 4-H volunteers across the country as they help youth become active citizens and community leaders,” said Ernesto Fajardo, vice president of Monsanto’s U.S. commercial division. “As a company 100 percent focused on agriculture, Monsanto is committed to investing in our youth who represent the future of the agriculture industry.”

Currently, the 4-H volunteer network includes more than 514,000 people who mentor young adults.

“Volunteers have always been the strong backbone of the 4-H system, and in today’s tough economic times, volunteerism is more important than ever,” said Donald T. Floyd, Jr, National 4-H Council president.

Monsanto’s donation comes at a time when many nonprofit organizations are struggling to make ends meet yet are finding an increased demand for their services and assistance.

Volunteering is one way for people to give back and support the groups that do so many things to help communities thrive.

In his internationally-televised speech from Cairo earlier this month, President Obama pledged to work with American Muslim groups to help them fulfill their religious obligation “Zakat,” by which Muslims must donate at least 2.5 percent of their income to charity.

Obama’s remarks were welcomed by Muslim organizations who have said federal rules intended to prevent financing of terrorist activities have put a chill on charitable giving to the Muslim world. This week, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) issued a report stating that those laws unjustly target Muslims.

“Government actions are creating a climate of fear that’s chilling American Muslims’ exercise of their religion through charitable giving called Zakat,” said Jennifer Turner, a human rights researcher with the ACLU and the report’s author, according to Religion News Service.

But the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service say they are reaching out to help Muslim charities in the U.S. to comply with the rules.

In Chicago this week, the IRS, the MacArthur Foundation, the Better Business Bureau and a legal education group called Muslim Advocates led a training session on how Muslim groups can report the collection of foreign funds and keep bookkeeping transparent, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Last August, Muslim Advocates and the Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance launched the initiative to assist American-Muslim charitable organizations and nonprofits meet the standards of legal compliance, financial accountability and good governance, through a series of trainings and educational support.

“Charitable giving is not only an American tradition, but a religious obligation for many people of faith,” said Farhana Khera, executive director of Muslim Advocates, when the initiative was announced.

Another organization launched in November, the Charity and Security Network, aims to remove barriers to legitimate charitable work found in current counterterrorism measures.

Building on the grassroots organizing power of his campaign – and the formative work of his time as a community activist – President Obama on Wednesday announced the launching of United We Serve, an initiative to encourage and empower volunteering and service projects around the country.

The initiative stands on the shoulders of the Corporation for National Service (CNS), the federal agency created by President Clinton that launched AmeriCorps and Senior Corps. At the website Serv.gov, citizens are invited to find a volunteer opportunity or to register their own projects to recruit others.

First lady Michelle Obama echoed the president’s calls for service at a speech on Tuesday at the Greater DC Cares Annual Business and Nonprofit Philanthropy Summit, where she thanked community leaders for their hard work.

Despite the unprecedented challenges of the moment – rising joblessness, home foreclosures, lack of affordable healthcare and quality education – now is a unique time in American history, she said.

“I’m feeling it as I’m traveling not just around D.C. but around the country. But people really want to get involved. They really want to. They’re looking for a way to turn their frustration, excitement, anxiety into action,” Mrs. Obama said.

With new funding authorized under the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, CNS will expand AmeriCorps from 75,000 to 250,000 positions over the next eight years, while increasing opportunities for students and older Americans to serve.

The law is also designed to strengthen the management, cost-effectiveness and accountability of national service programs by increasing flexibility, consolidating funding streams and introducing more competition.

United We Serve is a summer-long campaign running from June 22 through September 11, which the Serve America Act designated as an annually recognized national day of service and remembrance.

Efforts to calculate the amount of foundation giving to underserved communities have frequently underestimated the level of giving due to a lack of detailed reporting, according to a new study released by the Philanthropic Collaborative.

Economist Phillip Swagel, in his report Broad Benefits: Health-Related Giving by Private and Community Foundations, found that previous estimates have greatly underestimated foundation giving to underserved groups because of inadequate coding in databases of grants.

Swagel estimated that as much as 68 percent of foundation grants target underserved groups such as minorities and the poor, double the percentage of some previous estimates based on a database compiled by the Foundation Center.

As Swagel explained, a lack of explicit coding for underserved populations in the database “does not mean that a grant provides no benefits to the underserved.”

His research examined a large sample of health related grants not coded as benefiting underserved groups to assess the extent to which they do in fact provide benefits to these groups. The result of his grant-by-grant analysis found that 53.4 percent of the dollar value of the un-coded grants supported minorities and the economically disadvantaged.

“I am gratified our assumptions about the commitment of health foundations to improving conditions for underserved and minority populations stand up to the scrutiny of empirical research,” said Lauren LeRoy of Grantmakers In Health. “With growing foundation efforts to address the root causes of poor health as well as access to care, the proportion of grant dollars focused on these groups is likely to rise.”

Based on the new research, the Philanthropic Center said the health sector is the greatest recipient of foundation monies, receiving roughly 18 percent of total grants, including $5.5 billion in health grants to underserved communities from 2005 to 2007.

June is considered the first month of summer – a chance for kids to break free from the confines of school and play all day in the sun. June also marks the widely celebrated holiday recognizing the hard work of fathers and the important role they play in the lives of their kids.

Few may know that this Sunday, June 21 marks the 100th anniversary of Father’s Day, but in recognition of dads across the country one national nonprofit organization is implementing an initiative to encourage fathers to get involved in their kids’ lives.

The American Humane Association has been dedicated to protecting the welfare of children and animals since 1877. The group’s latest efforts, partially in honor of the upcoming Father’s Day celebration, are a collaborative project with other nonprofits including the National Fatherhood Initiative and the American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law.

Together the groups have created the National Quality Improvement Center on Non-Resident Fathers and the Child Welfare System (QIC-NRF) to encourage father’s living outside the residence to connect with their children who are currently part of the welfare system.

The project was inspired by a recent Child and Family Services Reviews report called What About the Dads that said “there is very little meaningful engagement occurring between children in the child welfare system and their fathers.”

According to the groups behind the QIC-NRF, there are lots of ways dads can sneak in extra minutes with their kids – and make an important impression.

Sit down with them at meal time to talk about their day or visit the kids at their school to remind them how important an education is, advises the nonprofit.