Issue Highlights
A Wake-Up Call for Investing in the South
These gains represent strong philanthropic investments in the region, but they will require sustainable commitments over time to keep up with growing need and the compounding effects of historical underinvestment. That said, dollars are not the only force that moves the philanthropic sector: people do, too.
Nature's Rainbow: Same-sex Behavior in Animals
In recent years, a new generation of scientists are helping us to understand more about bonobo sexual activity, including same-sex sexual behavior
LGBTQ Social Justice
Uganda Human Rights Commission asks government to decriminalize homosexuality
“Criminalizing such acts often results in unjust and disproportionate punishment, especially for vulnerable groups in our society,” Mariam Wangadya, who chairs the commission
U.S. expands sanctions against Ugandan human rights abusers
blocking four Ugandan police officials from receiving visas to travel in the U.S.
In Manhattan, LGBTQ activists warn World Bank against funding Uganda
Queer Ugandans, health advocates, and others descended on Uganda’s Permanent Mission to the UN in Manhattan on Sept. 26 to protest the country’s brutal anti-LGBTQ policies and warn the World Bank against financing projects in the African nation.
In Africa, Moscow battles against LGBTQ rights, side by side with U.S. religious conservatives
Russia donated $300,000 for Africa-wide anti-gay conference in Uganda
Faithful America: Progressive Christians enter the culture wars - Philadelphia Gay News
“We raise our collective voices through rapid-response digital campaigns that tap into the grassroots power of Christians across the nation. When corporations and religious institutions invoke a twisted definition of religious freedom to justify bigotry, we speak up. When hate groups purport to speak for Christianity, we act.
Study establishes first causal link between anti-trans laws and suicide attempts
State laws targeting trans people caused up to a 72% increase in suicide attempts among trans and nonbinary youths, the study shows.
NYT Battleground Poll: Swing State Voters Believe Society Should Accept Trans People As Their Gender
According to a New York Times/Siena battleground state poll, voters in the battleground states of Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin overwhelmingly believe that society should accept transgender people as the gender they identify with.
FBI reports increase in anti-LGBTQ hate crimes
a troubling increase that gay and transgender rights advocates believe is linked to ramped-up rhetoric and legislation targeting the community.
Despite Federal Protections, LGBTQ+ People Are Being Mistreated at Work | Them
Despite those federal protections, LGBTQ+ people across the country — especially transgender and nonbinary people — continue to face rampant discrimination at work and don’t feel safe being out, according to research from the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law.
Great Apes & Gibbons
Orangutan habitat and forests in Borneo face imminent destruction, Earthsight and Auriga investigation reveals
Babugus Wahana Lestari, the timber company responsible, plans to convert the area into a timber plantation for bioenergy. The company’s certification for timber legality was suspended in October 2023 after auditors discovered illegal logging outside permitted areas.
Rwanda to name 22 baby gorillas in 2024, 40 years after the apes nearly disappeared | News24
In Rwanda alone there are slightly over 600 gorillas, up by a quarter since 2016.
Alta Live: The Apes of Santa Clarita
Gibbon Conservation Center director Gabriella Skollar explains the plight of gibbons around the world, the steps we can take to help protect them, and why gibbons make horrible pets
Philanthropy
Foundation for a Just Society On Why Democracy Philanthropy Matters | Inside Philanthropy
Foundation for a Just Society also has a U.S. focus. Its domestic programming has been centered on supporting feminist and LGBTQ+ organizations in the American Southeast, an area of the country with a history of injustice and white supremacy that today continues to face challenges — from racist policing and mass incarceration to economic exploitation and environmental disasters.
A key part of that work in recent years has been supporting pro-democracy efforts, broadly defined.
Victoria Vrana, GlobalGiving: There’s no quick fixes for systems change - Alliance magazine
GlobalGiving is a non-profit that connects donors around the world to causes and organisations they care about. We have an online giving platform where anyone can go and find projects and organisations. We also facilitate a lot of grantmaking and vetting of organisations behind the scenes for corporate philanthropists, and increasingly high-net-worth donors.
Philanthropy’s 30 Most Powerful Couples | Inside Philanthropy
Jon Stryker and Slobodan Randjelović
There aren’t many architects in the ranks of the world’s powerful donors, but here are two of them. Stryker is also the heir to a medical technology fortune, which he’s leveraged to become one of the most prominent LGBTQ funders and political donors in the country. He carries out his philanthropy with husband and longtime partner Slobodan Randjelović, also an architect and an author, through the Arcus Foundation, which also supports protection of apes.
Building the Intermediary Ecosystem: Three Core Tenets | The Center for Effective Philanthropy
After reading the report, I walked away with three key implications for funders and leaders of intermediary organizations
How Collaboratives Can Advance Impact at Scale | The Center for Effective Philanthropy
collaboratives achieve and evaluate their impact on multiple levels, including the strengthening of grantees, advances in systems or fields they focus on, and grantmaking practices of donors who give to them, as articulated in The Bridgespan Group’s report, “How Philanthropic Collaboratives Measure, Evaluate, and Learn.”
Prioritizing activist well-being: A call for collective care - Alliance magazine
Why is centering collective care necessary and incorporating healing into social justice agenda a must?
Many Large Private Foundations Fail to Pay Out 5% of Assets. Here's Why | Inside Philanthropy
Seitz attributes the higher payout ratio among living donor foundations to the fact that, unlike older and more established legacy foundations, their namesakes make periodic contributions in cash, stocks or real estate. As a result, these donors “know that there is more money that will be hitting their foundation at some point,” he said, which enables them to confidently eclipse the 5% figure without having to worry about imperiling the foundation’s perpetual status — assuming, of course, they’re concerned about perpetuity in the first place.