Carnegie Reporter, Vol. 2, No. 1

African Women’s Media Center Builds Database for Journalists
The African Women’s Media Center (AWMC), a project of the International Women’s Media Foundation, has received funding to develop the first comprehensive online database of African media, which will be available not only to African journalists but to reporters worldwide.

In addition to the database of African media contacts, AWMC, based in Senegal, will expand its web site to offer resources, skills training and networking opportunities for Africa’s growing pool of women journalists.

For more information, go to www.awmc.com or www.iwmf.org.

Carnegie To Go: World's First Nuclear Database
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, DC, now offers Carnegie to Go, a free service that sends the latest arms proliferation news to handheld computers.

Using information from databases of global nuclear and global ballistic missile arsenals, subscribers can learn the number, names and range of missiles of the world’s largest stockpiles. The service also offers daily news and analysis of critical proliferation issues.

For more information, go to www.ceip.org/weapons.

Ford Foundation Launches GrantCraft: Practical Wisdom For Grantmakers
The Ford Foundation has a new program called GrantCraft that shares tools and techniques for effective grantmaking.

Drawing from Ford’s long history of grantmaking as well as the experiences of other funders and grantees from around the world, GrantCraft is producing an innovative series of guides, videos and case studies. These new materials offer an insider’s look at grantmaking from the practitioner’s perspective on topics that include what to do when projects flounder, using requests for proposals, building community partnerships, scaling up successful work, and amplifying new voices.

Ford has created a Grant-Craft web site from which materials may be downloaded or ordered.

For more information, go to www.grantcraft.org.

Kaiser Foundation Examines Health Care For the Uninsured
A new report from The Henry J. Kaiser Foundation examines community health care centers that serve a disproportionately large number of uninsured patients and reveals the ramifications for the centers’ sustainability.

Not surprisingly, centers with the heaviest concentration of patients without health coverage operate in areas of the country where poverty is greatest. Revenues for these operations are declining, due in part to stagnating government funding levels and declining rates of Medicaid coverage resulting from welfare reform and other factors. In fact, sixty-six percent of all health centers are located in states where a woman with two children who works full time at the minimum wage is not eligible for Medicaid.

On top of these changes, nearly half the centers risk financial instability from trying to provide more services than their budgets can afford, increasing the demand for subsidies from communities with limited revenue bases.

The report, A Profile of Federally Funded Health Centers Serving a Higher Proportion of Uninsured Patients, is available online at www.kff.org.

Kellogg Supports School Readiness Program For Vulnerable Children
Each year, about one-third of the nearly four million U.S. children who start school are not ready to learn. To address this gap, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation has launched an educational program called “Supporting Partnerships to Assure Ready Kids” (SPARK) that targets preschool children who are underserved by existing preschool programs and who are least likely to have access to quality care and school readiness preparation.

Eight community organizations in seven states and the District of Columbia have received initial grants to develop effective learning programs and business models. Upon review and approval of the models, Kellogg will provide implementation funding for at least five years.

For more information about SPARK, go to www.wkkf.org.

Knight Foundation Report Examines U.S. Support For International Journalism
A new report commissioned by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation reveals that a $600 million U.S. investment in building independent media in emerging democracies over the last decade has produced mixed results.

While some countries show positive effects from capacity-building programs that encourage independent reporting, others face economic problems that have left them vulnerable to exploitation by powerful political leaders and oligarchs.

The Media Missionaries: American Support for International Journalism describes the efforts of U.S. government organizations and foundations to support democratic initiatives by promoting a strong, independent press. It offers “15 Commandments of Media Development” based on lessons learned from a range of programs around the world.

For more information, go to www.knightfdn.org.

Rockefellers Offer Service For Managing Global Giving
The Rockefeller family has created the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors (RPA), an independent, nonprofit service that develops and manages giving programs for individuals and families. RPA, located in New York City, is an outgrowth of the philanthropy office of Rockefeller Family Services, which advises Rockefeller family members and other clients on charitable giving in more than 40 countries.

Despite uneasiness about the economy, philanthropy in the United States is experiencing its biggest growth in 50 years, with total giving by independent foundations alone reaching $29 billion in 2001.

With over 100 years of experience and multigenerational giving, RPA is uniquely positioned to offer assistance to individuals and families who are contemplating or have recently begun philanthropic giving.

For more information, go to www.rockpa.org.

Russell Sage Studies Cultural Diversity Within Democracy
As part of its Cultural Contact Program, the Russell Sage Foundation has issued a new report about how democracies accommodate cultural practices that run counter to mainstream beliefs and existing legal systems.

The report, Engaging Cultural Differences: The Multicultural Challenge in Liberal Democracies, details results of a study conducted by an interdisciplinary team funded by Russell Sage called the Law and Culture Working Group

.The group examined how democratic legal systems influence mainstream beliefs and values and how democracies deal with non-Western practices such as child marriage, corporal punishment and female circumcision.

For more information about these and other projects of the Cultural Contact Program, go to www.russellsage.org.

Sports Philanthropy Project Hits The Ground Running
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is supporting a growing area of philanthropy that uses the popularity of sports and athletes to promote community programs. The Sports Philanthropy Project provides technical assistance to professional sports associations to help them develop and improve their philanthropic activities, enhance their impact on community programs and advance best practices in sports philanthropy.

While most teams already support player appearances and charitable causes, the new mode of sports philanthropy is aimed at building strong partnerships between teams and their home communities with the goal of providing increased support to health and social programs.

“Sports have an enormous emotional hook and value to a community,” says Joe Marx of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “These teams can do so much to bring about change if they are focused and concerned about their local community.”

For more information, go to www.sportsphilanthropyproject.com.

Study Finds Arts Industry Is Good For Business
A new report by one of the nation’s leading arts organizations suggests that communities faced with scaled-back budgets and the need to set funding priorities may want to think twice before eliminating support for the arts, often regarded as extraneous and costly. Results from an economic impact study by Americans for the Arts show that America’s nonprofit arts industry generates $134 billion in economic activity every year in addition to $24.4 billion in federal, state and local tax revenues.

The total reflects a combination of direct spending by arts organizations ($53.2 billion) and indirect income from things such as hotels, restaurants, parking and souvenirs ($80.8 billion).

“When communities invest in the arts, there is a tendency to think that they are opting for cultural benefits at the expense of economic benefits,” says Robert Lynch, President of Americans for the Arts. “The arts are an industry that generates extraordinary economic activity. When we say that the arts mean business, that’s not just a slogan; it’s the truth.”

Data for the research were gathered from 3,000 nonprofit arts organizations and 40,000 attendees at arts events in 91 cities and 33 states and the District of Columbia.

For more information, go to www.AmericansForTheArts.org.