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McDonald’s and its Minimalist Funding of the Ronald McDonald House
When looked at closely, the super-sized promotion of the charitable efforts of the McDonald’s Corporation conceals giving efforts that pack more publicity than punch.
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Goldman Sachs’ Rolls Out a Counter-Narrative in Philanthropic Giving
After the Wall Street behemoth’s role in the nation’s economic collapse, followed by the firm’s huge profits and millions in executive bonuses, investment banking company Goldman Sachs knew it had to...
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Corporate Money in Network of Right-Wing State Policy Think Tanks
Progress Now and the Center for Media and Democracy released a report at a news conference yesterday on the funding and interrelationships of the State Policy Network and its 63 state think tank...
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Walmart Seeking Food Donations for “Associates in Need”
As you celebrate National Philanthropy Day, consider this: In a Cleveland Walmart, management has set up bins for employees to donate food to…fellow Walmart employees.
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CEO Change at Walmart as Shopping Season Starts—Employees Express Hope
Walmart has been subject to some very bad press in the build-up to the shopping season this year, with part of that coming from protesting employees and the National Labor Relations Board. Since most...
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What to Make of the Nation’s 50 Most Civic-Minded Corporations
The second year of the Civic 50 list of the nation’s most civic-minded corporations includes well known corporate “good citizens” along with some corporations whose reputations aren’t quite as lauded...
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Cutting to the (JPMorgan) Chase Mortgage Settlement
Due to JPMorgan Chase’s record of intentional sales of “toxic” mortgage-backed securities, the biggest bank in the U.S. (by assets) got hit with the largest single-corporation fine in history. Want to...
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Coke’s “Cap the Tap” Campaign Contradicts Its Social Responsibility Aims
Sometimes it is difficult to totally swallow corporate social responsibility. Observe the apparent conflict between Coca-Cola’s CSR program and its “Cap the Tap” campaign for restaurants to push...
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Walmart “Offended” by Pushback on Charity Aimed at Walmart Employees
The retail giant is saddened by those who found their internal charity program shocking. Other observers are saddened to find that such programs are necessary. It’s an example of the kind of...
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Does Goodwill Discriminate against the People It Serves?
Despite a petition and a boycott, Goodwill Industries continues to pay some workers with disabilities amounts far below the minimum wage.
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Red Sox Clash with Charitable Foundation over “B Strong”
To “B” or not to “B”—that is the question at stake as a Texas memorial foundation considers legal action against Boston’s World Series winners over a rallying cry that they say infringes upon their...
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Coca-Cola Sugar Suppliers Investigated for Land Grabbing
Coca-Cola’s corporate foundation has distributed grant dollars across the country and beyond. When it comes to corporate social responsibility, that’s the easy stuff, compared to trying to get the...
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Comcast’s Influential Corporate Philanthropy in Mergers
Is it a coincidence that Comcast devotes a noticeable share of its foundation grantmaking to funding minority and civil rights organizations that then weigh in with the FCC in support of Comcast...
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Uber App Now Supports NYC Charities and Quells Surge Rage
If you’ve tried using the popular Uber car service app and been stymied by sky-high temporary surge prices, you can at least take comfort in the knowledge that some of that money is going to some very...
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Is Google Anchoring Its Empire through Service Provision?
As with other major billionaire investors into public bodies, Google is now underwriting public systems in San Francisco and cities beyond. Brian Fung of the WaPo asks: When should we begin to worry...
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World Vision Backs Off Same-Sex Marriage Stance
Two days after making the announcement, World Vision has reversed its policy regarding the suitability of employees in same-sex marriages in the face of a massive outcry from donors.
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Dan Snyder’s Redskins Foundation Chief Ran Nonprofit that “Wasted” $1m in...
A Special NPQ Investigation: Dan Snyder has tapped Gary Edwards as CEO of his new Washington Redskins Original Americans Foundation, but why? Edwards’ track record in producing documentable outcomes is...
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Every Business a Social Enterprise?
Writing for the Guardian, Margaret Heffernan asks for a richer discussion about the relationship between business and society. She says she thinks that “every business should be a social enterprise.”
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Bain Capital Buying Up Methadone Clinics
Bain Capital is establishing a behavioral health empire. What will this mean for quality of care?
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TED $1m Prize for Global Witness to Attack Corporate Secrecy
How can the U.S. and the EU sanction Russian and Ukrainian politicians and oligarchs if the likes of Ukraine’s Viktor Yanukovych can hide their booty in anonymous corporations that don’t reveal their...
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OKCupid vs. Mozilla on Marriage Equality
An interesting stakeholder revolt is occurring around Mozilla over its choice for CEO.
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Make General Motors Pay!
It’s hard to buy what General Motors CEO Mary Barra had to say in her televised apology and Congressional testimony. In its wake, GM has recruited disaster lawyer Kenneth Feinberg to help the company...
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Krugman - Public Policy Has Bought Into Skills-Gap Myth
Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman writes in the New York Times that public policy (and, implicitly, nonprofit practice) focused on the notion of a “skills gap” is misguided, counterproductive, and a...
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Graham Crackers and Diversity: A Formula for Surviving and Thriving in...
Honey Maid Graham Crackers was recently faced with hate mail as a result of a marketing campaign that uses images of diversity. Did it bend to pressure? Did it crumble?
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About those (Ahem!) “Benefit” Corporations
What does brewing beer have to do with benefit corporations? This guy rips the lid off!
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When Anonymous People Dominate Billions in Tax-Exempt Resources
A writer for Businessweek uncovered a nest of very low profile donors of hundreds of millions of dollars, operating behind layers of companies, lawyers, and philanthropic advisors. Is the use of...
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World’s Largest Coal Company Says Clean Coal Can Cure Energy Poverty
In the wake of the White House’s climate change report, WWF Europe demonstrates one logical strategy for nonprofit action—challenging statements that look dubious if not completely erroneous, like...
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Does Waltons’ Philanthropy Inoculate Them against Criticism of Walmart?
Today’s question is a corollary of a question asked last week: Should charities take donations from individuals perceived as unsavory, or money earned less than honorably?
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NBA Slams Donald Sterling; Will the NFL Do the Same to Dan Snyder?
Not all old rich guys are like octogenarian Donald Sterling, owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, but some younger rich owners of sports teams, particularly 49-year-old Dan Snyder, might start looking...
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Sterling’s Comments Cause Clippers Sponsors to Withdraw
What do the corporations State Farm, CarMax, Virgin America, Kia, and Red Bull have in common? They have all, within the past day, withdrawn from sponsorships and marketing activities with the L.A....
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Reynolds American Makes Grants to Surprisingly Diverse Recipients
It’s time for corporations to reveal exactly when and what they are donating to political nonprofits such as 501(c)(4) social welfare organizations and 501(c)(6) trade associations. The tobacco giant...
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Part of an Unbalanced Breakfast: Oxfam Exhorts Big Food to Do More on Climate...
The new Oxfam report predicts that the costs of staple grains like corn and rice will double by the year 2030, with half of that increase due to climate change. The largest food and beverage...
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Mid-Sized Businesses Often Fail to Connect the Dots on Corporate Philanthropy
Mid-sized companies, which represent about one-fourth of American businesses, are actively engaged in corporate philanthropy, largely with local charities. Yet even as these companies move beyond...
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Google Discloses the White-male-ness of its Workforce; Vows to Do Better
In response to growing pressure about the apparent lack of diversity in the workforce of the high-tech sector, Google has taken the step of revealing just how justified that concern really is.
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Punish J.P. Morgan or Help Detroit: A Justice Department Conundrum
Is $13 billion sufficient punishment for JPMorgan Chase for its acknowledged role in selling securities backed by toxic subprime mortgages? One nonprofit doesn’t think so, but JPMorgan has raised the...
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Scout Challenges Amazon: Funding Boy Scouts Violates Anti-Discrimination Policy
How long will it take for the Boy Scouts to bring that other foot into this century? A 17-year-old pushes Amazon to recognize that the Boy Scouts, as an organization that discriminates against gays,...
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DirecTV/AT&T Newest Players in the Mega-Monopoly Games. Where’s the Innovation?
As we hear of the impending acquisition by AT&T of DirecTV for $49 billion, we wonder at the anti-capitalist bent of it all.
View ArticleMore Divestment: Wal-Mart and Private Prison Operators
Most of the nation’s press attention to divestment campaigns has focused on the recent fossil fuel campaign on university campuses and the very contentious debates around divestment from firms doing...
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Celebrating “Small Batch” Social Enterprise
This article compares two different stories of social enterprise— the heroic and the “small batch”—and outlines the different values that they represent.
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Social Enterprise: Two Churches Open Grocery in Raleigh Food Desert
NPQ is excited about the alternative enterprises popping up all over the country. In this case, it is a grocery sponsored by two churches and aided by a Whole Foods market.
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Sterling’s Racism Pays Off Big for Sports Team Owners
If Donald and Shelley Sterling get to sell the Los Angeles Clippers to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, they will have enriched themselves immensely as a result of Donald’s racist rant to V....
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Socially Responsible Investment Important for Charities Big and Small
Writing for Forbes India, two experts in social investment note the socially responsible investment options available to religious organizations. With investments, they write, there can be no such...
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Keep a Wary Eye on Sallie Mae
If you have a federally issued student loan, you probably deal with Sallie Mae (or a Sallie Mae spinoff called Navient) for your payments and servicing. Young professionals in the nonprofit field...
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First Nations and Corporate CSR: In Need of Shared Assumptions
Calgary’s Impact Society helps corporations create working relationships with First Nations based upon new and different fundamental assumptions.
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Utility’s “Opt-Out” Scheme Uses Customer Funds as Charity Contribution
The North Georgia Electric Membership Corp., which serves seven counties, has a program that rounds all electrical bills up to the next dollar. In March, it “opted in” all of its customers. Not all of...
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The Dangers of Marrying Your Corporate Sponsor and Taking Its Name
Naming rights are often a part of big gifts, but what do you do when your corporate sponsor disappears under another identity?
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Big Donor Presses for Audit of Donations to Joplin’s Tornado Funds
Big corporate donors, individuals in the U.S. and around the world, and even Persian Gulf nations responded to the devastation wrought by tornadoes in Joplin, Missouri three years ago. Now, a...
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Husock on Crony Corporate Philanthropy
The Manhattan Institute’s Howard Husock and this newswire writer have crossed ideological swords at many times over the years and will likely to do so many times more in the future. But Husock’s column...
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Is the Death of Corporate Philanthropy Exaggerated?
Giving USA this year showed a decrease in corporate philanthropy. NPQ has certainly heard an earful about the void left behind with their withdrawal from giving in some communities, but is corporate...
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Twitter’s Diversity Report Looks a Lot Like Google’s and Facebook’s
Social media outlet Twitter has released its diversity figures. Like tech competitors elsewhere, they’re solidly male and largely white and Asian.
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