Nonprofit news roundup June 11, 2009

June 11, 2009

The National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities each would get $170 million in fiscal 2010 under a bill approved by the House Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior, The New York Times reported June 10 (see arts spending story). That compares with $155 million each agency now gets and $161 million requested by President Obama.

President Obama's nominees to head the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities are the choices of a president who does not want a political fight or great change at either agency, David A. Smith, author of Money for Art: The Tangled Web of Art and Politics in American Democracy, said in an opinion column in The Wall Street Journal on June 11.

While the estate of McDonald's Corp. heiress Joan Kroc gave $109 million to the Salvation Army in Chicago to build a community center, he charity has raised only $16.4 million of the $50 million it needs to complete the project, The Chicago Tribune reported May 11 (see Salvation Army story).

A $1.5 million campaign by the California Emergency Technology Fund aims to plug low-income households into the internet, the Los Angeles Times reported June 11 (see nonprofit technology story). Roughly half the state's low-income households have no Internet access.

A policy adopted by United Way of Central Carolinas in Charlotte, N.C., at the urging of big companies like Bank of America lets employees at the organization's top corporate donors support more charities than can employees at smaller companies,  the Charlotte Observer reported June 8 (see United Way story). Of roughly $30 million United Way raised in its 2008 drive, $5.6 million will go to charities outside its network of partner agencies.

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