GIA Blog

I attended a performance of Merchant of Venice at Seattle Shakespeare Company this weekend, and excellent satisfying performance, btw. The group has taken a wonderful and direct approach to dealing with reduced funding in the recession. Right after the curtain … Continue reading →

Paul Brest on Huffington Post. “In the last post, I described NCRP’s prescriptions for foundation governance in Criteria for Philanthropy at its Best®. Here I’ll discuss its prescriptions for grantmaking practices themselves. I will also discuss NCRP’s literally unbelievable response … Continue reading →

The long economic decline of Detroit has prompted Hudson-Webber and other foundations in the region to change how they operate. Faced with sharply declining resources and exploding need, they are being forced to pick winners and losers, engaging in what … Continue reading →

“The principal argument is that the theatrical establishment in America has lost sight of the values that led to the establishment of regional theaters, and in its place are institutions that value buildings over artists, isolation over engagement and corporate … Continue reading →

Rachel Dry in the Washington Post “There’s nothing like a Great Recession to make people want to read about the Great Depression. Seventy years after John Steinbeck published his best-selling tale of the Joad family’s journey from Oklahoma to California … Continue reading →

In Wednesday’s New York Times. columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote about “The Daily Me” – the tendency for people to seek out and read news (in particular) and information that confirms their existing opinions and prejudices. This piece seemed like a … Continue reading →

Venture capitalists are talking about products that get to market with only the most basic features. These products/services — think iPhone, twitter, Flip video camera — go out to customers in a near raw state and then the developers behind … Continue reading →

This article by Bob Goldfarb on Jewish Philanthropy.com has some great ideas about sharing operating costs, and links to some successful operating nonprofits shared spaces and services. A key finding of the recent Jumpstart study of Jewish startups is that … Continue reading →

Two years ago, almost to the day, Tony Blair addressed a crowd of cultural leaders in the Tate Modern. He talked of the past decade as a “golden age” for the arts. Art, he said, “enlarges a country’s capacity to … Continue reading →

The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy last month riled some foundation feathers by recommending that grant makers spend at least half of their grant dollars to help the poor, minorities, and other disadvantaged people. While some critics said the foundation … Continue reading →