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1 week ago | 
alliancemagazine.org | Devon Kearney
How I stopped worrying and learned to love giving more than 5 percent.
With the destruction of the United States Agency for International Development and the loss of roughly 80 percent of the funding it provides, a growing crisis for the NGO sector has become considerably more intense. Over the course of 2024, many government donors scaled back. Shifts in the foundation world, likewise, have left human rights groups and others scrambling.
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1 month ago | 
blueavocado.org | Devon Kearney
Strategic philanthropists, big bettors, and effective altruists all lionize the ability to measure problem-solving strategies. But what exactly do they think they are observing when they diagnose a problem? What gives them the confidence to pursue the root cause they think they see? Why privilege one strategy when there are many others at hand?
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Jan 31, 2025 | 
openglobalrights.org | Devon Kearney
It is tempting to see the alarming radicalism of Donald Trump as sui generis. However, it has historical and geopolitical roots that democracy and human rights advocates must recognize if they are to understand the threat to human rights and democracy to come.
In recent years, President Trump has frequently expressed admiration for dictators, and his conservative base is particularly enthusiastic about Viktor Orbán.
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Jan 1, 2025 | 
alliancemagazine.org | Devon Kearney
H.R. 9495, the ‘Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act’, passed in the U.S. House of Representatives on 21 November 2024. It is not expected to make it through the Senate, where it was introduced in early December as S. 4136, or to be signed into law by President Biden. But the margins seem worryingly close: although only 15 House Democrats voted for the bill this time, dozens more have voted for it the past two times it was introduced.
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Nov 19, 2024 | 
blueavocado.org | Devon Kearney
Tagged Funding, Nonprofit Fundraising, Philanthropy, Social Justice
We are facing a future of growing human need. The nonprofit sector is essential to helping to mitigate the impact of climate change on communities around the world. But there are structural problems that create inequality which, in combination with climate change, pose an existential threat to the nonprofit sector itself.
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Oct 9, 2024 | 
alliancemagazine.org | Devon Kearney
The Wellspring Philanthropic Fund recently announced that it would close its doors in 2028. Though much about the Fund’s work has always been conducted in relative obscurity, it is well-known as one of the major funders of human rights.
Dozens of organisations I have worked with have been funded by Wellspring, whose human rights work has a particular impact on women’s rights and especially children’s rights worldwide. The loss of this one funder on the global field will be profound.
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Sep 27, 2024 | 
alliancemagazine.org | Devon Kearney
The Open Society Foundations recently completed a prolonged restructuring, announcing a new initiative to invest in green economies, and a sharp reduction of staff. As the process concludes, the foundation will retain less than 600 employees, a reduction of more than 65 percent from their one-time high.
The process has brought uncertainty and a certain amount of anxiety for those looking from the outside in.
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Aug 8, 2024 | 
alliancemagazine.org | Devon Kearney
Once again, after four years, a choice will be made, and our hopes for a better world are riding on it. I refer, of course, to the call for proposals for ‘100&Change.’This MacArthur Foundation initiative awards a staggering 100 million dollars to a single project with a bold plan. The website states:By funding 100&Change at a level far above what is typical in philanthropy, we seek to address problems and support solutions that are radically different in scale, scope, and complexity.
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Mar 5, 2024 | 
blueavocado.org | Devon Kearney
Over the years, I have worked with many founder-led (or until-recently-founder-led) organizations. There is something exciting about being part of that first wave, when a bold new idea emerges, takes shape, and hopefully improves society around it. But for those toiling away in young nonprofits, it is often grueling and sometimes even cruel. And after all the difficulties of starting a nonprofit, the end of the beginning rarely goes well.
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Jan 28, 2024 | 
alliancemagazine.org | Devon Kearney |Shafi Musaddique
2024 arrives with a sense of urgency on all fronts. At a time when democratic norms are slipping, inequality and human needs are rising, and the climate is dangerously heating up, we are called upon to meet challenges that are stark, and steep. Against this background, we debate how philanthropy should be done, and what it can do to stave off these dire or even existential threats. To know what we ought to do, we must consider first what we can do.
