The challenges facing contemporary society are enormous. Think about helping to solve hunger, homelessness, climate change, disease (including pandemics), gun violence, income inequality, discrimination, threats to democracy, education, environmental degradation and so much more. Traditional philanthropic investments have been working for decades to make a dent in solving these problems. In some cases, much progress…
Our Publications
Bruce DeBoskey is an award winning, nationally-syndicated author of columns and articles in newspapers and magazines such as The Denver Post, The Miami Herald, the Chicago Tribune, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the Albuquerque Journal, the Sacramento Bee, the Kansas City Star, the Lexington Herald-Leader, the Charlotte Observer, the Fort-Worth Star-Telegram, 5280 Magazine, the Costco Connection, Boston College's Corporate Citizen Magazine, The Denver Foundation's Give Magazine, the Boulder Jewish News, Investments & Wealth Monitor, Company Week and many more. Bruce's columns are distributed by the Chicago Tribune News Service to over 600 newspapers and other news outlets across the U.S. and abroad.
Hungry for Change – simple questions to ask about the ongoing problem of food insecurity in the U.S.
The winter holidays are right around the corner. Soon, many Americans will gather around the dinner table with family and friends to give thanks for abundant blessings and freedoms as they indulge in a cornucopia of delicious traditional foods. Leftovers will last for days. Then, in December, people of different faiths and traditions will celebrate…
Charity “Grand Bargain” strained by Religious Nonprofit Tax Exemption
Over a century ago, Mark Twain prophetically cautioned that “no church property is taxed and so the infidel and the atheist and the man without religion are taxed to make up the deficit in the public income.” In 1937, 73% of Americans said they were a member of a church. A Gallup survey in 2020…
Setting New Table for Family Philanthropy Helps Families Thrive
Many of us grew up sitting at the family dinner table. Often, it was rectangular, with the family’s primary bread winner(s) sitting at his or her end of the table. Regardless of the shape, the rest of the family sat at designated seats, night after night, year after year. Sometimes, long after the kids had…
Nonprofit hospitals highlight important questions about the Charity “Grand Bargain”
The charity “Grand Bargain” in the U.S. allows nonprofit organizations to perform charitable, religious, educational and scientific purposes for the “public good,” often relieving government from performing those same functions. In return for their contribution to the public good, nonprofits are deemed tax-exempt organizations, which means they typically don’t pay income, sales or property tax…
Pressure builds to increase giving requirements and expand charitable deductions
Over $1.1 trillion currently sits in private foundations and donor-advised funds (DAFs) in the U.S. These two charitable intermediary tools have grown tremendously in recent years, fueled by tax-deductible contributions for the wealthiest of Americans. By 2019, 12.7% of all individual giving went to DAFs and an additional 15.1% went to private foundations – an…
The case for corporate social purpose and community investment
The need for businesses to focus on corporate social responsibility has never been more urgent, and the case for doing so has never been stronger. The quadruple whammy of the COVID 19 pandemic, expanding income inequality, the racial justice movement, and climate change are driving corporations, large and small, across the U.S. and abroad, to…
Eight Steps for Effective Family Giving
Over the last decade of working with multi-generational families, helping them to become more effective with their philanthropy, I have learned many lessons. The field of strategic philanthropy is more sophisticated and complex than ever and the understanding of philanthropic “best practices” has evolved. Some of the challenges we face in today’s world may seem…
Pandemic Puts Nonprofits in Peril: What Donors Can Do
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a crushing impact on the nonprofit sector that employs about 14% of the U.S. workforce, nearly half of which works for nonprofit hospitals and universities. The remaining half, working mostly for smaller and under- or un-endowed entities, has been severely impacted. In December 2020, the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil…
Potbellied Pig Rescue and Hate Groups: Charities Aiding the “Public Good?”
The charity “deal” in the U.S. goes something like this: Nonprofit organizations are established and approved because they perform a service that is thought to be good for society, often relieving government from performing those same functions. In return for their contribution to the “public good,” they are deemed tax-exempt organizations, which means they usually…