Non-profit news from elsewhere

After a difficult year and months of applications and waiting, performing arts venues are finally receiving federal pandemic relief funds. In Massachusetts, some are using the money for overdue renovations or to adapt spaces to a changed world, installing sophisticated air filtration, safety filter systems and touchless bathroom accessories. . Others are reinstating lost wages and bringing workers back from leave. The $ 16 billion Shuttered Venue Operators grant provides 45% of a site’s earned revenue in 2019, up to $ 10 million, for spaces whose ticket revenue disappeared last year. It got off to a rough start with IT glitches and confusing paperwork, but mid-term reforms got it started. (Boston Globe)

Former husbands Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott continue to trade the spotlight by making great philanthropic gestures with their Amazonian fortunes, but their approaches are markedly different. Bezos pledged a whopping $ 13 billion in freebies, of which he gave $ 1.5 billion publicly. This represents less than 1% of his fortune. He has also fostered larger, better-known organizations, such as the Smithsonian, the World Wildlife Fund, and the Neuroscience Institute at Princeton University. Scott, on the other hand, has given around $ 8.5 billion, or 14% of his fortune, as far as we know, and tends to seek social justice or racial equity causes. Many of its recipients have historically been underfunded at black colleges and universities or local groups, such as the YMCAs, for which multi-million dollar donations can be transformational. (Forbes)

No more news

• These Silicon Valley Nonprofit Executives Won Almost $ 1 Million Or More In Salary (Silicon Valley Business Journal)
• Anonymous donor donates $ 20 million to schools in the Diocese of Greensburg (KDKA Pittsburgh)
• Can auctions save the planet? Christie’s to fundraise for environmental charity by selling artwork by Cecily Brown and Rashid Johnson (art journal)

Opinion

• Giving Nonprofits a Boost When They Need It: Restoring the State Charitable Tax Deduction Is the Right Thing to Do (Boston Globe)
• I take care of my business at a store in Tampa and start charity when I check out (Tampa Bay Times)

Nonprofit innovators

• Could a fleet of affordable and easily accessible electric cars help reduce traffic congestion and climate change? A Boston startup takes the wheel. (Boston Globe)
• This website crashed when hundreds of people were given to foster children after a Reddit post (Washington Post)
• What happens to worn climbing ropes? This teenager turns them into dog leashes and gives all the benefits to animal groups. (Washington Post)