Nonprofit news roundup for May 5, 2008

May 5, 2008

A Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, Women's Voices Women Vote, has agreed to halt "robocalls" to North Carolina voters that some believe may have been intended to sow confusion before the May 6 primary, The News & Observer of Raleigh, N.C., reported May 1. Calls seem to have been targeted at African-American communities where U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama is expected to garner strong support, and the nonprofit behind the calls, though not reportedly partisan, has ties to his rival Hillary Clinton and her campaign, National Public Radio reported May 1.

Jewish federations are finding it harder to make the case for charitable support to Israel, as Wall Street woes sap discretionary income and an increasingly wealthy Israel touts its economic growth and burgeoning technology industry, Marilyn Henry said in an opinion column in the Jerusalem Post May 3.

Young college graduates in India are migrating to nonprofits, using business and strategic skills acquired in the private sector to professionalize what has been a "largely unorganized" sector, livemint.com reported April 23. The result has been higher salaries, more overseas hires and at least one recruiting firm targeting nonprofits.

Grameen America, the first American outpost of Nobel Prize winner Muhummad Yunus' microfinance bank, has distributed loans ranging from $500 to $3,000 each to 175 borrowers in Jackson Heights, a Queens,-N.Y. neighborhood known for its immigrant population, Amanda M. Fairbanks said in an opinion column in The New York Times April 29. Some doubt the bank's model will work for Americans, many of whom are not in a situation where group lending makes sense, Fairbanks said.

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