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Grants for Youth-Led Service Initiatives |
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State Farm is teaming up with Youth Service America to offer grants of up to $1,000 to youth-led service-learning initiatives. Eligible programs will engage youth in service-learning, an effective teaching and learning strategy that promotes student learning, academic achievement, workplace readiness, and healthy communities. State Farm Good Neighbor Service-Learning Grants encourage semester-long projects (following YSA's Semester of Service framework) that launch on the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service, January 17, 2011, and culminate on Global Youth Service Day, April 15-17, 2011. Eligible candidates include teachers, service-learning coordinators, and students in a public school, or staff and youth in a community-based organization working with a public school. YSA will host two application webinars in September and October. Deadline is October 15, 2010. For more information, click here.
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Companies Donate Employees' Time & Service Instead of Cash |
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A recent survey of the nation's largest companies conducted by the Chronicle of Philanthropy and USA Today found that the dollar amount of cash grants awarded by U.S.-based corporations declined 7.5 percent, to $3.9 billion, in 2009. The survey also found that non-cash contributions of items such as computer equipment, software, drugs, and employees' time accounted for more than 50 percent of the total charitable contributions at nineteen of the companies surveyed. According to USA Today, "More than 90% of companies offer some type of formal volunteer employee program. Driving the trend is a move by some companies to make up for their lower cash donations, and to put a monetary value to non-cash services. At the same time, the Corporation for National and Community Service in 2008 launched a three-year campaign to get U.S. companies to donate $1 billion in pro bono (or free) services by 2011."
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Nonprofit Sector & Community Solutions Act |
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The Nonprofit Sector and Community Solutions Act (H.R. 5533), passed in June, is designed to strengthen communities by making the federal government a more productive partner with nonprofit organizations by establishing 1) better communication with the federal government, 2) better coordination within government, and 3) enhanced data collection. According to the National Council of Nonprofits, this Act matters because "the charitable nonprofit sector is a significant contributor to the U.S. economy. In 2008, nonprofits employed over 13.5 million individuals, making up around 10 percent of the U.S. workforce earning almost $540 billion in wages annually...Despite the importance of the nonprofit sector...no federal agency or congressional committee has responsibility for evaluating, building or maintaining the capacity of the nonprofit sector, and government does not collect the data necessary to make sound policy decisions that have measurable impacts in communities." To read more, click here. |
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Board Support is Key for Nonprofits |
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A recent report found that board support is the key to advocacy efforts by nonprofit groups. Greater involvement by nonprofit groups in advocacy and lobbying work will require support from organizations' boards of directors, according to nonprofit leaders in a new report. Participants in a "roundtable" held by the Johns Hopkins Listening Post Project "broadly agreed that they often saw board reluctance to get involved in advocacy," the report said. To see the report in its entirety, click here. |
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State Budget Crises: Ripping the Safety Net Held by Nonprofits |
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States have slashed programs left and right to deal with an estimated $194 billion shortfall in 2010 fiscal year budgets, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. These cuts will likely be deeper next year because several mitigating factors will not be available to help with the
2011 budgets.more... |
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Corporate America Favor Workplace Volunteerism for Long-Term Social Change |
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According to the 2010 Deloitte Volunteer IMPACT Survey, more than eight in 10 companies (84 percent) believe that volunteerism can help nonprofits accomplish long-term social goals, and are increasingly offering skills-based volunteer opportunities to employees. To see the report in its entirety, click here. |
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Condition of Education Report Released |
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A federal report shows that the share of public schools with high concentrations of poor students jumped from 12 to 17 percent in eight years. For the entire report on the "Condition of Education", click here. |
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