Mike Scutari

California, Los Angeles, United States

Staff Writer at Inside Philanthropy

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Articles

A Privately Owned Newspaper Embraced Philanthropy. Here’s What It’s Learning

1 week ago | insidephilanthropy.com | Mike Scutari

In 2014, Minnesota business magnate Glen Taylor finalized his purchase of the Star Tribune, which, at the time, held the seventh-largest Sunday circulation in the U.S. Hopeful commentators framed the move as an example of a civic-minded billionaire putting a treasured outlet on a path to sustainability and rescuing it from the clutches of rapacious venture capitalists. While billionaire ownership has been a mixed blessing for some news outlets, this has so far been a happier story.
How Much Do Foundations Pay Their Endowment Managers?

1 week ago | insidephilanthropy.com | Mike Scutari

A couple of years ago, I chatted with F.B. Heron Foundation President Emerita Clara Miller about the benefits and drawbacks of a perpetual foundation.
Why the Mellon Foundation’s Lifeline for Humanities Councils Is So Important

1 week ago | insidephilanthropy.com | Mike Scutari

Across the past few months, we here at IP have been calling on funders to “fill the gaps” left by the administration’s draconian spending cuts. Many funders have indicated their general willingness to do that, admirably pledging to up their annual payouts. But these are, by and large, commitments in the abstract, and they stop far short of committing specific funding to cover a specific federal cut.
A Deep Dive into an HHS Document Itemizing Billions in Terminated Funding

2 weeks ago | insidephilanthropy.com | Mike Scutari

From day one, the Trump administration’s “flood the zone” strategy has sought to bombard the public with such a relentless barrage of funding cuts and policy decisions that opponents would be left, as theNew York Times put it, “gasping in outrage.”That outrage can yield paralysis, including in philanthropy. A funder could be expected to respond thoughtfully to discrete cuts in a specific area.
How the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation Plans to Spend $1.1 Billion by 2035

3 weeks ago | insidephilanthropy.com | Mike Scutari

Every spend-down foundation has a unique backstory. Some donors launch a foundation with a plan to shutter its doors within a given time frame or during their lifetimes. Others leave it to foundation stakeholders to decide whether to continue or wind down after the donor passes. Then there’s the Detroit-based Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation.
How Arnold Ventures Seeks to Help Policymakers Implement Programs That Work

3 weeks ago | insidephilanthropy.com | Mike Scutari

On March 26, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt and Arnold Ventures, the philanthropic vehicle of Laura and John Arnold, announced a partnership in which AV will match government investments dollar for dollar in the Be A Neighbor initiative, providing up to $10 million in support over the next four years for a total potential investment of up to $20 million.
“Patients Will Suffer.” Cancer Research Funders Respond to Federal Funding Cuts

4 weeks ago | insidephilanthropy.com | Mike Scutari

Cancer research funders and advocates are feeling the effects of March’s continuing resolution, which cut funding for cancer research, and the administration’s termination of approximately 800 National Institutes of Health (NIH) research projects and the mass firings of NIH scientists and grant administrators.
Three Takeaways from a New Report Providing a Penetrating Look at the DAF Industry

1 month ago | insidephilanthropy.com | Mike Scutari

The Institute for Policy Studies’ Independent Report on DAFs, which uses publicly accessible data to “demystify donor-advised funds and their impacts on charitable giving, fair taxation, and our democracy itself,” lands at a time when two trends threaten to dramatically upend the philanthrosphere. The first is growing calls for philanthropy to fill the gaps left by draconian federal cuts.
Journalism Fundraising Program NewsMatch Had Its Most Successful Year Yet. Here’s Why

1 month ago | insidephilanthropy.com | Mike Scutari

I recently contacted nonprofit news funders, editors and analysts to see if the field experienced a post-election “Trump Bump” in funding similar to what we saw in 2016 and early 2017.
The National Civic League’s Matt Leighninger on How to Renovate “the House of Democracy”

1 month ago | insidephilanthropy.com | Mike Scutari

The National Civic League (NCL) was founded as the National Municipal League following an 1894 gathering of civic leaders, including Theodore Roosevelt, Louis Brandeis and Frederick Law Olmsted. Citing “incompetence, inefficiency, patronage and corruption in local governments,” these individuals sought new models for governing and managing the nation’s cities during a time of profound social and economic disruption.