Philanthropy Daily Digest

Clay Holtzman, who broke the Unitus story, has interesting new details about reactions to Unitus' decision to exit microfinance. At least one board member has resigned because of the decision and some donors are asking for their money back.

The Buffett/Gates Giving Pledge is working…

Research shows that the single best way to make yourself happy is to help others. This is the sort of research that dovetails with the idea that humans are self-interested while also destroying the assumption that self interest makes us selfish.

Full Contact Philanthropy author Dan Elitzer discusses the need for nonprofits to market their services to their beneficiaries. Dan makes a fantastic point that I've never seen raised before. Even if you give a service away for free, how you market it can dramatically affect the outcome. This issue was addressed in the excellent behavioral finance book Nudge in which the authors looked at how school children chose much healthier school lunches if healthy food choices were marketed well.

The Philanthrocapitalism blog reflects on the recent somewhat negative "Grantee Perception Report" that the Gates Foundation publicly released.