Philanthropy This Week

Google

Good morning.

After 20 years of supporting causes like criminal justice, climate change, and a wide range of others, Google.org will now concentrate its mission and its philanthropy on artificial intelligence, reports Sara Herschander.

“Ten years ago, it was 1,000 flowers blooming, maybe 10,000 flowers blooming, in terms of social impact projects going on all around the company,” Google.org’s Maggie Johnson told Sara. “What’s happened over the last year or two is trying to really define a set of focus areas that work for Google.”

The new strategy will be divided among three pillars: scientific advancement; resilient communities; and knowledge, skills, and learning. Among its efforts: $40 million for academic research into responsible A.I. development and $10 million to bring an A.I. learning program to 2 million young people in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East.

In addition, the group’s A.I. Collaboratives will seek innovative approaches to complex problems, and an A.I. Accelerator is already providing support and pro bono help to nonprofits using generative A.I.

Google.org’s artificial intelligence resources for nonprofits will include training in how to use Gemini — the company’s A.I. chatbot — to help find grants and draft social media posts. But it’s also emphasizing the limitations of artificial intelligence, including its inaccuracies.

When you get an answer from a chatbot, “assume it’s not right,” Johnson told Sara. “You have to learn how to take what is really positive, but also understand the risks and apply it in ways that are safe.”

Here’s what else you need to know:

Vadim Ghirda, AP

Slow but steady support and advocacy for women’s sports over 50 years have fueled what is now record-breaking female participation in athletics, from youth leagues to elite competitions. Title IX’s enactment in 1972, which mandated gender equality in federally funded education programs, including athletics, led the way, reports Sara Herschander.

Despite the progress, annual giving to women’s athletics — which peaked at $439 million before a dip during the pandemic — pales in comparison with men’s, which exceeded $2.3 billion in 2023. But today’s athletes, donors, and foundations are continuing the fight for equality for women. Among the contributions: a $50 million commitment this year from investor Michele Kang and $100 million since 1974 from the Women’s Sports Foundation.

Women’s and girls’ participation in sports has wider implications than athletics. Research shows that 94 percent of top women executives participated in sports. As Danette Leighton, CEO of the Women’s Sports Foundation, told Sara: “When girls play, they lead, and leadership is critical for our women to be able to succeed on and off the court — on the field and in the boardroom.”

Getty Images for Eat. Learn. Play.

When the pandemic struck and many children had to attend school remotely, basketball great Steph Curry and his wife, bestselling author Ayesha Curry, did what a lot of wealthy families did — hired tutors to be sure their kids continued to get a quality education (opinion).

Thanks to the CARES Act, many other children had tutors as well, even those in low-income families.

“But now that lifeline is fraying as the relief funds run out and schools scramble to find other sources of money,” writes the couple in an op-ed for the Chronicle.

So the Currys are donating $25 million through their Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation to the Oakland Unified School District to provide literacy tutoring — and urging other philanthropists to follow suit.

Part of their goal is equity in education. “We call on funders, community leaders, and policymakers to come together and find solutions,” they write. “Whether through philanthropic and government support or grassroots efforts, we must make sure that every child has access to the help they need.”

Getty Images

The reason wealthy philanthropists start to donate to charity isn’t usually the reason they continue to do so, a new study has found.

“Focusing on why people give is such a limited and constrained way of thinking about philanthropy, “ Jen Shang, one of the researchers and founder of the Institute for Sustainable Philanthropy, told our Maria Di Mento.

The survey also found that most of the 48 wealthy donors interviewed for the study didn’t feel the need to know about their gift’s expected impact. Many study participants were entrepreneurs, who operate on the edge of what’s possible.

“They have a really high tolerance for the unknown,” Shang told Maria, adding, “When fundraisers talk to philanthropists about projects and impact, the last thing they want to tell the donor is that they’re not sure what the impact of a big gift is going to be. … But for these people, they genuinely love to hear about what you don’t know and what you need.”

— Marilyn Dickey, senior editor for copy

Groups that provide aid to Gaza are increasingly having their bank accounts or payment systems shut down as financial institutions seek to avoid running afoul of sanctions regimes. Leaders of the targeted groups say they carefully vet their partners, and the U.S. Treasury last year reminded banks that providing humanitarian aid is permitted. But banks view these groups’ accounts as too small to justify the expense of due diligence to distinguish between legitimate actors and sanctions-evaders, a lawyer with a Palestinian rights group in Europe said. (Wall Street Journal — subscription)

Seniors at the Cooper Union school in New York City will receive free tuition this year, thanks to a surprise $6 million gift from three alumni. With a typical enrollment of about 1,000, the school for art, architecture, and engineering provided free tuition to its students for most of its 165-year history, until debt and financial missteps over the past 20 years forced it to reinstate tuition. Before the recent gift, Cooper Union had already started giving at least a half-tuition scholarship to every undergraduate, and it has a plan to return to full-tuition scholarships for all undergraduates by 2028. (New York Times)

Several large companies will stop participating in a national gay-rights group’s ranking of LGBTQ-friendly businesses and workplaces. Some of those retreating from the Human Rights Campaign’s annual index had been targeted by a conservative activist who said such policies could result in conservative customers financing practices they find objectionable, including “transition care for transgender children of employees.” Although their employee benefits and hiring practices might not change, Ford, Lowe’s, Harley-Davidson, Tractor Supply, Molson Coors, and distiller Brown-Forman, maker of Jack Daniels, said they will no longer provide HRC with survey information. The companies did not elaborate on why they singled out HRC, but an HRC executive said the decision would hurt the companies’ long-term business. (Wall Street Journal— subscription)

The 19th, a nonprofit newsroom focused on women’s and gender issues, is hiring staff and creating an endowment as it charges into coverage of the country’s first woman of color to lead a major-party ticket for the presidency. Launched in 2020 with one reporter, the 19th has raised nearly $60 million and employs 55 people. Among its backers is Melinda French Gates, and its work has appeared in major outlets, including the Washington Post, Teen Vogue, the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, and PBS News. (Washington Post)

Daunted by paperwork and backlogs, some landlords are pulling out of a transitional housing program in Massachusetts designed to help families move out of shelters. The HomeBASE program faces crushing demand as migrants have streamed into Massachusetts and Gov. Maura Healey has sharply limited overflow shelter stays. Meanwhile, some landlords say the paperwork to participate is byzantine and endless. The Healey administration has put more money into HomeBASE, and at least one of the contractors that administer the program said it is hiring more staff to speed up processing times. (Boston Globe)

Republicans in the House of Representatives have subpoenaed Tim Walz, the Minnesota governor and Democratic vice presidential candidate, over a sprawling Covid-era fraud scheme that took place in his state. Virginia Foxx, GOP chair of the chamber’s Education and the Workforce Committee, has demanded records that show “the extent of your responsibilities and actions addressing” a scheme in which nonprofits siphoned millions of dollars in emergency federal aid while claiming to feed hungry children. Seventy people have been charged in the investigation. A state official said the Trump-era Department of Agriculture, which funded the pandemic-era program, refused to act on the state’s repeated warnings about the fraud scheme. (New York Times)

Las Vegas is set to get a major new art museum in the next few years, thanks to a partnership with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and a major donor. Elaine Wynn, who made a fortune in hotels and casinos with her former husband, Steve Wynn, will donate funds as needed to the $150 million project, which will initially draw on the Los Angeles museum’s collection. Wynn, 82, co-chairs the board of LACMA, where she has been an important benefactor. She calls the museum her “final gift” to Las Vegas, which is the largest U.S. city without a major art museum. (New York Times)

A major donor to Britain’s National Gallery has gotten the last word in a dispute over the building’s design, even though he died in 2022. Workers demolishing the museum’s Sainsbury wing ahead of a reconstruction found tucked inside a false column a note from John Sainsbury, a supermarket magnate whose family reportedly donated millions to build the wing decades ago. “Let it be known that one of the donors of this building is absolutely delighted that your generation has decided to dispense with the unnecessary columns,” wrote Sainsbury, who lost the argument over the column during construction of the wing when then-director Neil MacGregor ruled in the architects’ favor. (New York Times)

Your Chronicle subscription includes free access to GrantStation’s database of grant opportunities.

Cultural Heritage: Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives: Amplifying Unheard Voices, a program of the Council on Library and Information Resources, supports the digitization of rare and unique materials held by collecting organizations in the U.S. and Canada. For the 2024-2025 cycle, up to $4,000,000 in grants will be provided for projects digitizing materials in a variety of formats that enrich the public’s understanding of the histories of underrepresented communities. Grants range from $50,000 to $300,000; initial applications due October 30.

Poverty: The Catholic Campaign for Human Development is committed to supporting nonprofit organizations in the United States that are led by low-income individuals as they work to break the cycle of poverty and improve their communities. The Community Development Grant Program supports organizations led by people living in poverty that work to address the root causes of poverty by nurturing solidarity between the poor and non-poor and facilitating the participation of people living in poverty in decisions that perpetuate poverty in their lives. Grants range from $25,000 to $75,000; initial applications due November 1.