Issue Highlights
"The Tide Is Turning": Dozens Of Anti-LGBTQ Bills Die In Florida
Over 20 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have died in Florida after the legislature adjourned Sine Die on Friday, leaving some wondering if energy is waning over anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ legislation.
Male dominance isn’t the default in primate societies, new study shows
The pattern held true for apes as well; all five gibbon species studied were classified as non-male-dominant, as were bonobos among the great apes. Experts say that long-held beliefs in male power as the default among primates could have developed due to chance (the earliest studied primate species happen to have male-dominant structures), or due to “who’s been doing the research and publishing.”
LGBTQ Social Justice
Links between Ugandan and U.S. hate groups are clearer than ever
U.S. hate groupos like Family Watch International and Abiding Truth Ministries, reportedly provided not only the funds but also the ideological framework, messaging, and the pseudoscience used to justify and promote AHA 2023.
U.N. agency bashes St. Vincent court ruling. Expect more rulings soon
UNAIDS called the ruling discriminatory and harmful, pointing out that such anti-LGBTQ laws hinder rather than help the fight against HIV/AIDS
El Salvador: "We have removed gender ideology from schools"
Bukele said last week in the US, within the framework of the Conservative Political Action Conference, that for him “it is not only important that the curriculum does not carry this gender ideology and all these things, but also that parents are informed and have a say in what their children will learn.”
Anti-Trans Ballot Measure Dies In Arizona After Republican Senator Breaks With Party
In a stunning defeat for anti-trans activists in Arizona, SCR1013 will not appear on the November ballot in the state. The bill would have targeted trans bathroom usage and pronouns in schools.
Appeals court blocks Fla. ‘Stop Woke Act,’ says it’s a ‘First Amendment sin’ - The Washington Post
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled Monday that the “Stop Woke Act” “exceeds the bounds” of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment right to freedom of speech and expression in its attempts to regulate workplace trainings on race, color, sex and national origin.
University of Florida terminates all DEI employees to comply with state regulation
The decision was made to comply with the Florida Board of Governor’s regulation 9.016 on prohibited expenditures. Approximately $5 million previously allocated to DEI initiatives will be reallocated into a faculty recruitment fund.
Great Apes & Gibbons
These Startups Want to Make Palm Oil. In a Lab. Without Palm Trees. - The New York Times
Palm oil. It’s in your snacks, your soap, pretty much everything. But palm oil plantations have caused vast deforestation. Can these three tech executives help fix things?
CNN reporter goes inside a ‘chimp school’ in Sierra Leone | CNN
CNN's David McKenzie goes inside the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Sierra Leone, which is fighting to save chimpanzee's lives and preserve their habitat.
Scientists Thought Only Humans Learn Complex Behaviors from Others. They Were Wrong | Scientific American
nonhuman animals can teach one another behaviors that are too complex to invent individually, she says, “challenging the idea that this capacity, which is proposed to characterize uniquely human cumulative culture, is a fundamental distinction between humans and other animals.”
Philanthropy
George Soros Human Rights Watch $100 Million Bet
Nowrojee sees Soros’s $100 million gift as achieving an “institutionalization” result for HRW, with its expanded size and influence having gone hand in hand. In particular, she said HRW’s more diverse staff and leadership “brings credibility to the whole endeavor of human rights universalism.”
American Jewish World Service to lay off 10% of staff and exit 3 countries where it has provided aid - New York Jewish Week
The American Jewish World Service, a prominent Jewish international aid group, is set to lay off around 10% of its staff of 120 after it said donors withdrew support from the group.
The organization also plans to withdraw from three of the 17 countries where it currently operates meaning that it will no longer fund causes or development work there.
10 Things Your Grantees Might Be Saying About You - The Center for Effective Philanthropy
These quotes might help you begin measuring the distance between what’s taken for granted and what might be possible in your work this year and beyond.
Beyond the Rhetoric: Why Donors Need to Match Talk with Action When It Comes to Unrestricted Funding | Inside Philanthropy
Philanthropy data hub Candid indicates that general support accounts for a mere 20 percent of overall funding. Other resources suggest that while flexible funding may have once been on the uptick, it has actually declined in recent years.
Trust-Based Philanthropy and Strategic Philanthropy Are Not Mutually Exclusive
The core practices that define a trust-based approach can, through multiple pathways, lead to both increased resource efficiency and outsized impact.
Five Questions We Should Be Asking About Trust-Based Philanthropy | Inside Philanthropy
a conversation that lies at the heart of what we think philanthropy should be doing. After all, billions of grant dollars, not to mention the success or failure of movements and nonprofit missions, are on the line in the debate over whether trust — however that’s defined — should underpin the future of charitable giving.
To bot or not to bot: Using generative AI in grantwriting
what generative AI is, how it can be useful in a grantwriting context, and how to use the content it generates with caution.