General Motors

When Federation and Employment Guidance Services announced that it planned to close amid a $20 million revenue shortfall, the nonprofit world was shocked. But the ruinous series of decisions that wrecked FEGS—one of New York’s largest, most well-regarded social services organizations—was years in the making.

A Capital review of the nonprofit’s financial disclosure forms and yearly tax returns reveals an agency engaged in risky long-term behavior and slowly drowning in debt.

Some charities that have received money from U.S. financier Jeffrey Epstein said they are reviewing their relationships with him or will decline to accept any future gifts from him in the wake of recent allegations he forced an underage girl to have sex with Britain's Prince Andrew and other powerful men.

Epstein, who pleaded guilty in 2008 to procuring an underage girl for prostitution, has burnished his reputation as a philanthropist through a series of foundations that he says have given millions of dollars to charity.

Innovation and technology among nonprofits have long been underfunded with traditional funders often feeling averse to risk and more often seeking to fund specific types of existing programs. Momentum has been building for the past decade for funders pursuing venture philanthropy, said Matt Bannick, managing partner of the Omidyar Network founded by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar.

Seeking out ideas to fund, rather than existing projects, turns traditional notions of philanthropy on its head, Bannick said.

Recent tweets from folks you should be following.

A seven-figure gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts from former General Motors group vice president Roy Roberts and his wife, Maureen, has put a spotlight on the relative dearth of high-profile African-American philanthropists, Crain's Detroit Business and the Detroit Free Press report.

In recognition of the first seven-figure contribution to DIA by an African American, the museum will rename one of its galleries after the couple.

June 2, 2009, The Philadelphia Inquirer — Less.

In a country where General Motors declares bankruptcy, Americans are learning to deal with less of everything.

Our region has less, too, including a dwindling pool of generous benefactors and civic leaders.

OREM, UT, April 30, 2009 — Omniture, Inc. (NASDAQ: OMTR), a leading provider of online business optimization software, today announced that Feed The Children, an international nonprofit relief organization serving children and families in need, has selected the Omniture Online Marketing Suite™ to improve and streamline its online presence. Feed The Children will utilize Omniture SiteCatalyst®, Discover®, SearchCenter™ and Test&Target™ as an integrated portfolio of optimization applications for online analytics, visitor acquisition and conversion.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation has announced the selection of Joanne Kogan Krell of Pleasant Ridge, Michigan, as vice president for communications and an officer of the Foundation.

Doreen Bolger sees her new exhibit of circus drawings by Pablo Picasso and other 20th-century artists as just right for the times.

May 23, 2006 By Abny Santicola, editor, FS Advisor The most traditional form of cause marketing occurs when a company promotes a product whose sale benefits a charity in some way. A prime example is an offer that Hewlett-Packard was promoting that promised to donate $50 to the Lance Armstrong Foundation with every purchase of a specific HP laptop. But Richard Wong, president and CEO of Alexandria, Va.-based Gifts in Kind International, a charitable organization that channels product donations from for-profits to nonprofits, says that organizations should open themselves up to in-kind giving from corporations as well. "Right now over 48 percent of