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.

October 25, 2020
Eighty percent of nonprofits in Pennsylvania have experienced a decline in revenue, while 87 percent have suffered some kind of negative impact as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, a report commissioned by the Pittsburgh Foundation, in partnership with the Pennsylvania Association of Nonprofit Organizations, the Forbes Funds, and the...

October 22, 2020
A publication from Access Smithsonian, the Institute for Human Centered Design, and MuseWeb highlights the need for cultural organizations to integrate accessible and inclusive digital interactive design as an essential component of their work. Inclusive Digital Interactives: Best Practices + Research (407 pages, PDF) compiles case studies and...

October 19, 2020
Financial success and sustainability for arts organizations begins with artistic excellence and cultural relevance, a report from the Wallace Foundation and SMU DataArts finds. Based on in-depth interviews with leaders of twenty high-performing organizations — ten with a long track record of high performance and ten that at one time struggled...

October 16, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll on the physical, emotional, and financial well-being of Californians, especially those living in poverty, a report from the California Health Care Foundation finds. Based on a statewide survey of more than twenty-two hundred adults between the ages of 18 and 64, the report, Listening to Californians With...

October 13, 2020
A report from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences calls for the legal profession, the courts, law schools, tech professionals, and others to help expand access to legal assistance for people in need who cannot afford counsel and face devastating consequences as a result, including eviction, family separation, job loss, and disrupted...

October 10, 2020
Forty-two hundred children in New York State — one in a thousand — lost a parent to the coronavirus pandemic between March and July 2020, a report from the United Hospital Fund and Boston Consulting Group finds. The report, COVID-19 Ripple Effect: The Impact of COVID-19 on Children in New York State (Part 1, 20 pages, PDF; Part 2, pages,...

October 7, 2020
A report from Commonfund and the Commonfund Institute offers guidance for fiduciaries of university endowments — as well as tools, products and best practices — with respect to investing in racial equity. The report, Investing in Racial Equity: A Primer for University & College Endowments (40 pages, PDF), outlines how racial...

October 4, 2020
Some major arts institutions were taking proactive and innovative steps to better engage audiences and benefit local communities well before the COVID-19 pandemic and nationwide protests against systemic racism, a report from TDC finds. Commissioned by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the report, Leveraging Momentum: A Study of...

October 1, 2020
Involvement with the criminal justice system early in life results in significantly lower lifetime earnings, perpetuating a cycle of poverty that disproportionately affects African-American and Latinx individuals, a report from the Brennan Center for Justice finds. Based on 2017 data, the report, Conviction, Imprisonment, and Lost Earnings: How...

September 28, 2020
Efforts to support college students who are also parents should include flexible wraparound services tailored to the multifaceted identities of student-parents, a report from Imaginable Futures and Lumina Foundation finds. The report, The Rise Prize: Fostering Innovation to Support Student Parents (20 pages, PDF), offers key takeaways from the...

September 25, 2020
More than 2.2 million women of childbearing age in the United States live in "maternity care deserts" — areas lacking a hospital that offers obstetric care, a birth center, or an obstetric provider — while another 4.8 million live in counties where only limited maternity care is available, a report from March of Dimes finds. The report,...

September 22, 2020
A majority of funders who run "lean" — including individual donors, families engaged in philanthropy, and foundations with few or no staff — have changed their funding approach in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a report from Exponent Philanthropy and PEAK Grantmaking finds. The report, COVID-19: How Have Funders Changed Their Approach...

September 19, 2020
A report from the Committee for Greater LA, the University of California, Los Angeles Luskin School of Public Affairs, and the University of Southern California Dornsife Equity Research Institute offers a blueprint for addressing structural and systemic racism. Supported by the Ballmer Group, the California Endowment, Southern California...

September 16, 2020
Significant gaps in child well-being can be found in forty-one relatively wealthy European Union and OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries, a report from UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti finds. Based on an analysis of pre-COVID-19 data in areas such as children's mental well-being, physical health, and...