Politics & Giving

Should philanthropies be permanent?

Center for Civil Society director, Jack Fowler, sat down with Heather Higgins, Dick DeVos, and John Miller to consider whether philanthropies ought to sunset.

extreme times pandemic precedent
Pandemic precedent: when pandemic ends, what do we keep?

Emergency times call for emergency measures—but not precedent. However, emergency times may help us to see more clearly, including helping foundations improve their giving.


bernie sanders campaign using belongingness to raise money
Bernie Sanders’ victory is due to his strategy to motivate “belongingness”

Bernie Sanders is fighting an uphill battle to emerge as the Democratic frontrunner. His trick is cultivating a sense of belonging to something bigger than oneself.

Using private wealth to place staffers in attorney general offices

Foundations and billionaires are using donations to place privately-funded employees in states offices. Why?


An online program in D.C. creates a random lottery for students applying to charter schools

A new online app in DC levels the playing field for students choosing between public and charter schools.

Poor Americans tend to love America—what does that mean for fighting poverty?

How we understand a problem affects how we try to remedy it. Is our understanding of the working poor accurate?


Success Academy charter schools provide an interesting approach to education

Success Academy charter schools attempt to combine the best of traditional and progressive educational methods in order to provide inner-city New Yorkers the best education available.

How much control should the government have over charter schools?

Charter schools are funded by public and private dollars, raising the question as to how much government control they should be under. The first in a two-part series.


Dear Senator Warren: Don’t Penalize Moms Who Choose to Stay Home with Their Kids

An open letter to Senator Elizabeth Warren: Don’t hurt American families by pushing them farther and farther into the two-income trap. Most of all, please don’t create a system that penalizes moms who choose to stay home with their children.

Does the “social enterprise” model at nonprofits corrupt the mission of nonprofits?

As more nonprofits consider and implement additional revenue streams, one wonders whether this distracts or detracts from a nonprofit’s responsibility to promote social goods.




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