How well is your nonprofit’s fundraising program doing?  Take this test that raises some key issues:  https://firedup.infusionsoft.com/app/hostedEmail/16652385/c631663635dd6bca

While all of us are fixated on the shenanigans in Washington, nonprofit leaders must remember that there is plenty of action on the local level—funding decisions are often made by city and county councils, as these charities in Maryland are learning:  http://www.oceancitytoday.net/p/nonprofit-donations-scrutinized-by-county/1651536

In the name of equity, New York City diverts public arts funding from big prestige arts organizations, like the Met and Lincoln Center, to arts and culture nonprofits in underserved communities across the city:  https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/08/arts/design/deblasio-museums-cultural-plan-funding.html?_r=1&WT.mc_id=SmartBriefs-Newsletter&WT.mc_ev=click&ad-keywords=smartbriefsnl

Town & Country’s “Top 50 Philanthropists”—not surprisingly, heavy on celebrity and leisure-class representation: http://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/money-and-power/g9598806/top-50-philanthropists-of-2017/?elqTrackId=552a26a9173542ca8997ef489bd62c57&elq=e450e0060efa43d1b6c823b778a1dc35&elqaid=13846&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=5770&thumbnails

Nonprofit, nonpartisan media is having its moment—a case study in an unlikely town: https://www.cjr.org/local_news/nonprofit-news-local-tulsa-frontier.php

Foundations are turning their attention to a just transition from fossil fuels to a clean-energy economy that does not leave workers and communities behind:  https://nonprofitchronicles.com/2017/05/09/philanthropy-coal-country-and-a-just-transition/#more-23736

The Atlantic looks at the fuzzy transparency and accountability of America’s quasi-public nonprofit urban development corporations: https://www.citylab.com/politics/2017/05/the-private-lives-of-quasi-public-agencies/525747/

The National Association of Nonprofits makes its case against the repeal of the Johnson Amendment: https://www.councilofnonprofits.org/civicrm/mailing/view?reset=1&id=699

Some solid fundraising advice from Janet Levine—why it’s hard to find good fundraisers and more:  http://janetlevineconsulting.com/blog/

Fabulous new tool from the Foundation Center for philanthropists who want to effectively fund nonprofit advocacy—and how one big California Foundation does it: Advocacy Funder Collaboratives What Does It Take to Support Leadership and Effectiveness in...

Nonprofits face headwinds in the Northeast—NYC continues to shortchange its nonprofit contractors, CT wants to force the disclosure of donor names, and a MD city wants to pull funding from local nonprofits that happen to also get county funding: Serious Contracting Problems Place Nonprofits at Risk in New York Controversial donor disclosure bill to get a vote in the House Ocean City’s ‘Double-Donation’ Policy With Nonprofits...

Pres Trump will order the IRS to stop investigating churches and nonprofits that engage in partisan politics—the nonprofit establishment will surely go ballistic, but I am more sanguine about this because it will give nonprofit advocates an additional tool they need to advance their causes:...