Dickin Medal Awards, A Great Philanthropic Initiative
This article originally appeared in Philanthropy Daily on August 2, 2018. A remarkable fact of nature is that animals sometimes save our lives—and when they do they deserve credit for…
Philanthropy
A Cautionary Tale Against “Tech Startup” Mentality in Education
This article originally appeared in Philanthropy Daily on July 26, 2018. My book on education, Angry Classrooms, Vacant Minds, was published in 1994, but if I were to revise it,…
New USDA Opioid Map Leverages Local Efforts
This article originally appeared in Philanthropy Daily on July 19, 2018. “Do you remember that woman Marie who went through our drug recovery program last year?” Of course, I…
Voluntary Sector Played Lead Role in Disaster Recovery Last Year
This article originally appeared in Philanthropy Daily on July 12, 2018. We’re in the middle of hurricane season again and we have a lot to learn from last year’s…
Charter School Funders: Look Out for “Turnaround Consultants”
This article originally appeared in Philanthropy Daily on July 3, 2018. When charter schools first began to be created a quarter-century ago, donors who wondered what would happen to…
Funders Who Understand Regional Differences are Better Suited to Help
This article originally appeared in Philanthropy Daily on June 19, 2018. What makes a strong community? If you asked donors interested in civil society what a “strong community” might be, they’d…
Philanthropy and America’s “Social Capital” Divide
Ask a sociologist or a political scientist what tasks foundations ought to be doing, and they’ll likely answer that one would be building up “social capital”—the ties that link neighbors…
Are the Programs You Support Building Trust—Or Destroying It?
This article originally appeared in Philanthropy Daily, June 5, 2018. Megan McArdle, to my mind, is one of America’s more thoughtful and intelligent commentators on public policy and economics.
Joel Fleishman Muddies the Waters of Philanthropic History
This article originally appeared in Philanthropy Daily, May 30, 2018. It’s one of the critical moments in the history of philanthropy. In 1976 Henry Ford II resigned as a…
The Spectacular Failure of One Laptop Per Child
This article originally appeared in Philanthropy Daily, May 24, 2018. It’s a problem that continually recurs in development. Every few years someone comes up with a device that will…