University of Chicago

September 3, 2009, Washington, D.C. — Ronald J. Schiller, currently Vice President for Alumni Relations and Development for University of Chicago, will become NPR’s top fundraiser later this month. NPR’s CEO and President Vivian Schiller announced today that Ron Schiller (they are not related), has been appointed to the position of Senior Vice President for Development of NPR and President of the NPR Foundation. His appointment will begin on a full-time basis on October 15, and he will report directly to Ms. Schiller.  He will lead NPR’s fundraising programs – including major and planned giving, and foundation grants, which currently account for NPR’s third largest source of revenue. The NPR Foundation is a private, non-profit organization whose mission is to raise financial support for NPR, Inc. The Foundation holds the NPR Endowment, including the majority of the $230 million bequest made by Mrs. Joan B. Kroc in 2003.

August 24, 2009, Crain's Chicago Business — Fundraising has been called an art and a science, but, most of all, it's a crapshoot.

August 21, 2009, The Wall Street Journal — College endowments, reeling from their worst annual performance in decades, are questioning their faith in investments that fueled huge returns before backfiring last year.

Despite a worldwide economic decline, the nine-figure gift is not dead.

Faith-based charities, which provide an enormous array of private social services to the nation's sick, elderly and poor, are facing unprecedented cutbacks from one of their biggest funders: the government.