Displaying items tagged: Dorothy A Johnson Center for Philanthropy

A major statewide survey of nonprofit organizations highlights significant and persistent racial gaps in the sector as roughly three-quarters of Michigan nonprofits remain white-led.

Since Grand Valley State University’s Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy was founded 30 years ago, the nonprofit industry has seen seismic shifts in the amount of charitable giving, nonprofits’ assets, and the overall number of nonprofit organizations.

KALAMAZOO — The Kalamazoo Foundation for Excellence plans to cut spending on annual “aspirational” projects by more than half in 2023 to protect the endowment from economic headwinds and allow the city’s federal stimulus funding to potentially fill in gaps.

Dr. Teri Behrens, who has served as executive director of Grand Valley State University’s Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy since 2018, has announced that she will retire this year.

Two Grand Rapids youth housing organizations and longtime partners have merged into one organization after years of consideration, aligning with recent consolidation trends among nonprofits.

Mike Goorhouse isn’t a banker, but the coronavirus pandemic has him thinking like one.

GRAND RAPIDS — The ability of many nonprofits to successfully meet their missions can be directly tied to those who sit on their boards.

Industry trends increasingly are blurring the lines between philanthropy and business. As government funding to address issues such as food insecurity, homelessness and poverty continues to shrink, requests to funders are increasing as the nonprofit sector seeks to fill those service gaps. The result from this growing trend is perhaps most visible in philanthropic support of economic development efforts, often through significant investments.

GRAND RAPIDS — If people of color continue to be underrepresented in Michigan’s philanthropic and nonprofit sector, industry leaders fear the funding, programs and services they provide might fail to reach people who most need it.

Philanthropists in Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo give to improve their respective communities, but they go about it in vastly different ways.

With the Affordable Care Act on the chopping block for President-elect Trump’s administration, Kyle Caldwell fears the “tremendous amount of investment by nonprofits and foundations into our health care system” could be all for naught in 2017 unless lawmakers find a suitable replacement. Similarly, “there will be challenges to both foundations and nonprofits as the administration looks to … find efficiencies in government spending, and cuts to services to make way for tax cuts,” he said. On both the state and federal level, lawmakers’ decisions in 2017 have the opportunity to greatly impact nonprofits through bills like SB 960, which clarifies property tax policies.

GRAND RAPIDS — The growth of foundations and an unprecedented transfer of wealth are among trends the nonprofit sector will need to watch in the coming year. 

The Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University has put out a call for more responses to its 2016 VoiceGR survey.

Human-centered design is changing the way nonprofits across Grand Rapids approach complex problems.

There was a time when the Grand Rapids Creative Youth Center only had access to its own data.

Volunteers are becoming more valuable every year as fewer people offer their time and a growing share of the workforce brings otherwise costly skillsets to the nonprofits they serve.