Connections
Every week Connections presents fresh links to the best the Web has to offer on issues related to the changing world of philanthropy. Subscribe to our biweekly Connections newsletter and receive two weeks' worth of links delivered to you by e-mail. If you have an item you'd like to share, drop us a line at connections@foundationcenter.org.

February 28, 2021
As a result of discriminatory institutionalized policies and practices, children of color are less likely to be on track for healthy development than their white peers, a report from the Urban Institute finds. Based on data from the Social Genome Model — which identifies developmental and social mobility patterns from birth through ages 5, 8,...

February 25, 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic and its economic fallout have disproportionately impacted women and girls, especially those of color, and an equitable recovery will require significant investments in improving access to child care, health care, and affordable housing, as well as a commitment to closing gender and racial wage gaps and preventing...

February 22, 2021
Healthcare providers in California are seeing rising levels of weariness and frustration as the COVID-19 pandemic enters its second year, a report from the California Health Care Foundation finds. Based on a survey of more than twelve hundred healthcare workers conducted in January, the report, COVID-19 Tracking Poll, February 2021: Views from...

February 19, 2021
While the educational experience for most students in the U.S. in the fall of 2020 was better than their experience during the spring term, disparities in learning challenges remained, a survey by YouthTruth Student Survey finds. Based on responses from nearly twenty-nine thousand upper-elementary and secondary students, the report, Students...

February 16, 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the vulnerability of independent contractors, including many artists, without access to social insurance programs and worker protections, a report from the Urban Institute finds. Commissioned by the Center for Cultural Innovation, with support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the report, Arts...

February 13, 2021
About one in three Native Americans and one in five Pacific Islanders in California live in neighborhoods considered "highly vulnerable" to adverse health outcomes, a report from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research finds. Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the report, Vulnerability Indicators and At-Risk Smaller Populations in...

February 10, 2021
While the official poverty rate in South Carolina was 16 percent in 2018 — slightly above the national average of 14.1 percent — poverty in the state is shaped by complex, multiple factors that collectively impact nearly every resident, a research brief from the Sisters of Charity Foundation of South Carolina, in partnership with the Rural...

February 7, 2021
As nations work to "build back better" in the wake of COVID-19, the education sector has an opportunity to help address the inequities highlighted by the pandemic and advance climate action, a report from the Brookings Institution argues. Funded by the Malala Fund, the report, A new green learning agenda: Approaches to quality education for...

February 4, 2021
Students who regularly attend high-quality voluntary summer learning programs experience both short- and long-term benefits in language arts and math, a report commissioned from RAND Corporation by the Wallace Foundation finds. Based on student data from five urban school districts, the study, Every Summer Counts: A Longitudinal Analysis of...

February 1, 2021
Nearly seven in ten (69 percent) mayors believe that protests against police violence and racial injustice during the summer of 2020 were drivers of positive change in their cities, a report from the Initiative on Cities at Boston University finds. Funded by Citi Community Development and the Rockefeller Foundation and based on responses...

January 29, 2021
A report from the Joyce Foundation identifies new avenues of inquiry for research on reducing gun deaths and injuries in the United States. The report, The Next 100 Questions: A Research Agenda for Ending Gun Violence (53 pages, PDF), outlines key questions in ten dimensions of gun violence: firearm suicides, community-based gun violence,...

January 26, 2021
Rural Americans are more hesitant than their urban and suburban counterparts to be vaccinated against COVID-19, an issue brief from the Kaiser Family Foundation finds. Based on the KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor survey, the brief, Vaccine Hesitancy in Rural America, found that only 31 percent of respondents living in rural areas said they...

January 23, 2021
Although U.S. foundations are expanding their commitments in response to inequities highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic and the movement for racial justice, they have yet to embrace intersectional approaches, a report from TCC Group finds. Based on interviews with place-based funders and philanthropy-serving organizations, the report,...

January 20, 2021
While arts and culture have an important role to play in building a more equitable and democratic economy, the community development field is fragmented and lacks the local, regional, and federal infrastructure and intermediaries needed to support community wealth-building entities, a report from ArtPlace America finds. Based on a field scan and...