Introducing “Successes of Philanthropy”

This is reprinted from an original post on Washington Monthly.

To view the “Successes of Philanthropy” series, kindly visit Washington Monthly.

Introducing “Successes of Philanthropy”

In America, more so than in other countries, philanthropies play a unique and important role of supporting innovative policy experiments that, when successful, often become the basis of future government actions. These successful innovations, however, tend to be under-covered by the press, and there has been no single place where citizens and public officials can go to read about them.

Today, the Washington Monthly is launching a new sponsored project, Successes of Philanthropy, that aims to fill this gap. It is a one-stop-shop of stories about successful philanthropic investments and innovations as told by the foundations and funders themselves. (A list of the project’s financial sponsors and other partners is available here.)

Over the course of 2016, the Successes of Philanthropy series will aim to publish an average of one new story per week, both here on the Washington Monthly home page and on a new microsite, also launching today. The series will feature an array of stories from private foundations, community foundations, corporate foundations, and individual philanthropists. The pieces will highlight individual success stories as well as collaborative projects in the philanthropic sector in such cutting edge policy areas as impact investing and asset building.

For example, here are a few of the successful initiatives we are featuring:

• The revitalization of Columbus, Ohio’s Weinland Park neighborhood - now a national model for inclusive economic redevelopment - led by The Columbus Foundation in Central Ohio and the Annie E. Casey Foundation in Baltimore.
• The creation of a national network of community based centers by the Robin Hood Foundation - Single Stop USA - that provides legal and financial benefits to low-income workers.
• An innovative, evidence-based initiative by the Merck Foundation’s Merck Childhood Asthma Network (MCAN) to combat childhood asthma, which disproportionately afflicts minority children.
• A successful effort by The Rockefeller Foundation to make “resilience” a priority of federal disaster preparation policy so that cities and states can bounce back more quickly from events like Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy.
• A unique annual event, sponsored by The Chicago Community Trust, that brings together thousands of Chicago-area residents to share a meal and ideas to improve their communities.
• How investments in “supportive housing” - championed by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation - can help end chronic homelessness.

The Successes of Philanthropy series is nonpartisan. Whether supported by a conservative-leaning or liberal-leaning philanthropy, if a project is innovative and successful, the public ought to know about it. If you work at a foundation or philanthropy and you have a great story to tell that you think we should know about, please send it to successes@washingtonmonthly.com.