Financial returns on so-called real asset impact investments funds focused on real estate, timber, and infrastructure are comparable to returns on conventional real asset funds, a report from the Global Impact Investing Network finds. The report, The Financial Performance of Real Assets Impact Investments (34 pages, PDF), analyzed fifty-five...

A report from Polaris identifies twenty-five types of human trafficking in the United States — each characterized by its own "business" model, recruitment strategies, and methods of control. Based on an analysis of more than thirty-two thousand cases of labor and sex trafficking cases documented between December 2007 and December 2016, The...

While philanthropic organizations play a crucial role in supporting research that advances our understanding of the world, many face the challenge of assessing the effectiveness of their investments, an issue brief from Mathematica Policy Research and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation finds. According to the brief, Evaluating Basic Science...

Medicaid plays a larger role in providing health coverage to families living in small towns and rural communities than it does in metropolitan areas, a report from Georgetown University's Center for Children and Families and the University of North Carolina's North Carolina Rural Health Research Program finds. Funded by the Pritzker Children's...

The ethic of "giving while living," championed in recent decades by Atlantic Philanthropies founder Chuck Feeney, is a complex phenomenon of intertwined — and sometimes competing — transactional, donor, and institutional imperatives, a report commissioned by the foundation finds. According to the report, The History of the Giving While Living...

The window of opportunity to stabilize marine ecosystems and mitigate the impact on them of climate change, coastal development, shipping, overfishing, and pollution is narrowing, a report commissioned by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation from the California Environmental Associates warns. According to the report, Our Shared Seas: A 2017...

While thirty-five states have progressive school funding formulas designed to target districts serving primarily low-income districts, poorer districts in nearly half of those states still receive less local and state funding per student than richer ones, a report from the Urban Institute finds. The report, Do Poor Kids Get Their Fair Share of...

Globally, some fifty million people currently are affected by conflict in urban areas, where protecting civilians is far more challenging than in less crowded environments, a report from InterAction and the International Committee of the Red Cross argues. The report, When War Moves to Cities: Protection of Civilians in Urban Areas (16 pages, HTML...

Foundation funding for LGBTQ issues totaled a record $160.7 million in 2015, with increases in support for trans communities and for efforts to address criminalization and criminal justice reform, a report from Funders for LGBTQ Issues finds. Based on an analysis of 5,267 grants awarded by 334 foundations to 1,990 grantees, the 2015 Tracking...

Pairing career pathway training for parents with early-childhood education for their children leads to positive outcomes for both generations, an issue brief from the Aspen Institute finds. The brief, What Are the Effects of Pairing Head Start Services for Children With Career Pathway Training for Parents? (8 pages, PDF), found that...

Although culture and the arts contribute to the social well-being of New York City residents and are a bright spot in many disadvantaged neighborhoods, they tend to be unequally distributed across the five boroughs, a report from the University of Pennsylvania's Social Impact of the Arts Project, in collaboration with the Reinvestment Fund,...

Pre-k programs in forty-two states and the District of Columbia now serve nearly 30 percent of the nation’s 4-year-olds and 5 percent of 3-year olds, yet convincing evidence on the longer-term impacts of scaled-up pre-k programs on academic outcomes and school progress is sparse, a report from the Brookings Institution finds. Compiled by a task...

In the fifty years since the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation was founded (originally as the William R. Hewlett Foundation), institutional philanthropy has embraced increased diversity in the sector, yet it remains largely homogeneous, a report commissioned by the foundation finds. The report, Looking Back at 50 Years of U.S. Philanthropy (48...

In the tech sector, unfair treatment is the most common factor in employee turnover, costing the industry $16 billion a year in replacement costs, a report from the Kapor Center for Social Impact and the Ford Foundation finds. Based on a survey of people who have left a job in a tech-related industry in the last three years, the report, Tech...