Tax plan could dampen arts giving, some say...

February 3, 2010

President Obama is proposing to end tax cuts for the wealthy and lower the cap for charitable deductions to 28 percent from 35 percent for high-income filers, policies some worry could dampen donations to arts organizations that already are struggling to recover from the recession, The Los Angeles Times reported Feb. 1 (see arts funding story).

The Atlanta Public School system received a three-year $10 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to continue a program designed to recruit and retain high-quality teachers by providing better evaluation and support, The Associated Press reported Feb. 2 (see Atlanta schools story).

In his proposed federal budget, President Obama recommended $161.3 million for the National Endowment for the Arts in fiscal 2011, the same amount he proposed last year, but $6 million less that the ultimate appropriation it received from Congress, Robin Pogrebin wrote in a blog in the New York Times Feb. 1 (see arts budget story).

Lists that rank foundations are basically "beauty contests," promoting funders based on the personal tastes of the list makers rather than on hard data, a practice that can nudge the allocation of resources away from groups rooted in community organizing or social justice, Michael Edwards wrote in a column in the The Nonprofit Quarterly (see philanthropy rankings story).

In a controversial move, CBS has sold 30 seconds of air time during the 2010 Super Bowl to evangelical group Focus on the Family, whose commercial features college-football star Tim Tebow and his mother discussing their anti-abortion views, The New York Times reported Feb. 1 (see advocacy ad story).

Russian billionaire Vladimir Potanin says he will leave the vast majority of his fortune, estimated recently at $2.1 billion, to charity within the next 10 years, a move that would be the first of its kind in the country, Bloomberg reported Feb. 2 (see Russian pledge story).

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