Philanthropy Today

Nonprofit News From Elsewhere Online

A whistleblower says the Mormon Church has amassed a tax-free “clandestine hedge fund” of $100 billion, with charity a distant afterthought. David Nielsen, who worked for a decade as a portfolio manager for the church-held Ensign Peak Advisors, said he saw money from tithing pile up without ever seeing it spent on charity. Instead, he said the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints spent $600 million to bail out a for-profit insurance company it owns and another $1.4 billion to develop a mall. Nielsen and an expert on tax law flagged the insurance company transfer as a violation of IRS rules for tax-exempt organizations. A church official would not disclose details of those deals but said the insurance company has repaid most of the bail-out funds and the mall was a legitimate investment. The church says it spent more than $1 billion last year on humanitarian aid. (60 Minutes)

Nonprofit employment has grown by one-third over the past 15 years, far outpacing growth in other areas of the job market. Those positions tend to be concentrated in Washington, D.C., and the Northeast and are likely to be filled by women who are older than workers in other parts of the economy, according to a dive into Census Bureau data. Nonprofit employees are also more educated, largely because 20 percent of nonprofit jobs are in hospitals and one-third are in health care more broadly. Job markets in Texas, Nevada, and Puerto Rico have the smallest share of nonprofit positions. (Washington Post)

More News

• L.A. County Homeless Services Workers Can’t Afford Housing Themselves, Study Finds (Los Angeles Times)
• Philly, Nonprofit Groups Will Give Community Expansion Grant Program a Second Go to Combat Gun Violence (WHYY)
  Background from the Chronicle: ‘I Found My Peace': To Save Lives From Violence, This Group Aims to Change Lives and Black Faith Groups Have Been Fighting Neighborhood Gun Violence for Decades. They’re Finally Getting Support
• Eric Adams Is Starving New York City’s Universal Pre-K Program (Bloomberg)
  Background from the Chronicle: Big Dollars for Little Kids: Early Childhood Education

Advocacy

• Boston Jewish Organization Launches ‘Face Jewish Hate’ Advocacy Campaign, Raises Awareness of Local Antisemitism (Boston Globe)
• The Activist Who Walks Through California to Help Farmworkers (Los Angeles Times)
• U.S. Marshals Spied on Abortion Protesters Using Dataminr (Intercept)

Opinion

• Protect the Lions, Help the People, Save the Planet (Bloomberg)
• Remember, St. Jude Isn’t the Only Children’s Cancer Charity in Town (Washington Post)

Arts and Culture

• Auschwitz Museum Begins Emotional Work of Conserving 8,000 Shoes of Murdered Children (NPR)
• A Major Denver Art Institution Weighs How It Curates as Museums Around the World Face Increasing Scrutiny (Colorado Sun)
• The Los Angeles Opera, Post-Plácido Domingo, Works to Define Itself on Its Own Terms (New York Times)
• Smithsonian’s Asian Art Museum Celebrates 100 Years and Looks to the Future (Washington Post)