HOUSING
- Last week the Alexandria City Council moved to end a funding guarantee for affordable housing in the city, causing concern among Northern Virginia housing advocates. The guarantee put a certain percentage of property tax revenue toward affordable housing by creating a set-aside that could be used for development: (WaPo, 5/17):

“It’s important as a developer to know there’s a commitment of funds in any form the city can make,” said John Welsh, vice president of multifamily housing for the nonprofit affordable-housing developer AHC. “The expectation the money is going to be there is important to us [because] the local investment of dollars leverage so much capital” from other sources.

- More D.C. Workers Choosing To Live Within City Limits (WAMU, 5/16)

- Related: What Funders Need to Know: Does Housing + Transportation Costs = Affordable Living? 

- Event: Don’t miss the Communications Action Network’s 2013 Parade of Homes tomorrow! This is a great opportunity to see the variety and quality of affordable housing options around the region, and to learn first hand how a robust affordable housing supply benefits the region. [More information]

EDUCATION
- Microsoft is donating $1 million to a CityBridge Foundation led-program called the Education Innovation Fellowship, which helps D.C. teachers incorporate blended learning techniques – that is, a mix of online and face-to-face teaching –  into their classrooms. (WaPo, 5/17)

- Language immersion high school nears approval (Examiner, 5/17)

ECONOMIC SECURITY | A new Pew report paints a pretty grim economic picture for future retirees, thanks to the recession, loss of home values, high levels of debt, and the greater prevalence of 401(k)-type retirement plans, rather than traditional, employer-paid pensions. (WaPo, 5/17)

COMMUNITY | Check out a series of profiles of this year’s winners of the Community Foundation for Prince George’s County Civic Leadership Awards. (CFNCR, 5/15)

BUDGETS | Gov. Martin O’Malley announces $1.2 billion in transportation projects (Examiner, 5/17)

NONPROFITS | Opinion: IRS Should Allow Social-Welfare Groups Unlimited Advocacy (Chronicle, 5/16)

Today would be a great day to be repairing the top of the Washington Monument (fair warning: don’t watch this if you’re scared of heights!). It’s also a great day to listen to some Vampire Weekend. Enjoy!

- Rebekah

EQUITY | Yanique Redwood, CEO of the Consumer Health Foundation, has a powerful op-ed in the current issue of the Chronicle of Philanthropy about the importance of diversity on foundation boards, and the need to overcome our unconscious biases in order to create “equitable social institutions and structures.” She writes about her own experience interviewing before the very diverse CHF board (Chronicle, 5/5):

Unlike token diversity measures that seek to fill quotas, I was experiencing game-changing diversity. This was diversity aimed at ensuring that there were people on the board who come from the communities served by the nonprofits we support. This was diversity that would necessarily change our priorities and enhance our work because diverse perspectives create better ideas.

HOMELESSNESS | Earlier this week, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments released the results from its 2013 point-in-time survey that measures homelessness across the region. The report shows a 2.4 percent decrease from 2012, but some jurisdictions, including Arlington, Montgomery, and Prince George’s counties, saw increases. (COG, 5/8)

Related: The blog ARLNow digs into the data about Arlington County. (ARLNow, 5/9)

FOOD | Yesterday, D.C. launched a project to build a 100,000 square foot hydroponic greenhouse in Ward 8. The greenhouse, located in an area with limited fresh food options, will have the capacity to grow up to a million pounds of produce a year – enough to feed 5,000 people. When it opens in early 2014, it is expected to create 25 full-time jobs. (DC.gov, 8/9)

AGING | WAMU looks at how a home visiting program run by a D.C. hospital enables older adults, often with complicated medical issues, to live in their own homes. The program reduces medical costs while also addressing and preventing elder abuse. (WAMU, 5/10)

HEALTHCARE | Virginia is getting $2.5 million in federal funds to help community health centers enroll uninsured clients in health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. (WTOP, 5/10)

EDUCATION | D.C. Officials And Community Group Go To Court Over D.C. School Closings (WAMU, 5/9)

HOUSING | Median home price hits record highs in Arlington, the District (WaPo, 5/10)

NONPROFITS | ProPublica Launches Online Tool to Search Nonprofit Tax Forms (Chronicle, 5/9)

Here’s a nice distraction for the afternoon: Yesterday TIME and Google released a tool that lets you look at time-lapse videos of satellite images of any point on Earth since 1984. Some of the changes that have happened over time are stunning – and disturbing.

- Rebekah

EQUITY | Mayor Vincent Gray followed the lead of a number of states yesterday by announcing a proposal to allow undocumented immigrants to apply for driver’s licenses in the District. A similar plan was signed into law yesterday in Maryland. (WaPo, 5/2)

YOUTH | A new homeless shelter for youth is opening in Prince George’s County. The shelter will be run by Sasha Bruce Youthwork, and will serve a population that officials assume to be undercounted in the county. (WaPo, 5/3)

COMMUNITY
- The George Washington University Center for Excellence in Public Leadership have announced the winners of the 2012-13 Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Awards for Distinguished DC Government Employees. Among the five winners is Michael Kharfen, Bureau Chief, Partnerships, Capacity Building & Community Outreach at the Department of Health. The Washington AIDS Partnership has partnered with Michael Kharfen and DOH on a number of projects over the years, including the Female Condom Initiative, the HIV drug pipeline, and Positive Pathways.

Says WAP executive director Channing Wickham,

This award is incredibly well-deserved. Michael Kharfen is a wonderful colleague and creative and out-of-the-box thinker. He works quietly behind the scenes, never taking credit while delivering huge results. His ability to create public-private partnerships that deliver real results for District residents is remarkable. Well done.

- Congratulations to Margaret O’Bryon, former CEO of the Consumer Heath Foundation and WRAG board member, for being named the 2013-14 Nielsen Chair in Philanthropy by the Center for Public & Nonprofit Leadership at Georgetown University.

EDUCATION
- The Fairfax County school system is facing even more budget problems over the next couple of years. (WaPo, 5/3)

- Six out of 10 Montgomery County high schoolers flunk algebra final (Examiner, 5/3)

- Charter school waitlists hit 22,000 (Examiner, 5/3)

LOCAL | Chinatown Documentary Explores Past, Future Of Changing Neighborhood (WAMU, 5/3)

PHILANTHROPY | New Google Giving App Promotes Small Gifts (Chronicle, 5/3) Okay, but what about an app that promotes large gifts?

It’s Friday and it’s nice out. If you’re stuck eating lunch inside, you might has well flex your brain with some logic puzzles, right?

-Rebekah

EDUCATION
- A new report finds that half of Maryland’s black students attend schools that are majority-minority. The statistics are especially extreme in Prince George’s County, where “nine of 10 black students attend a school where at least 90 percent of students are minorities. Nearly four of 10 black students go to …[schools] where 99 percent of students are minorities.” (WaPo, 4/19)

Related: Here’s the full report from the Civil Rights Project at UCLA.

- WAMU looks at the social, economic, and health impact of adult illiteracy in the region. (WAMU, 4/18) As one person quoted in the piece poignantly puts it:

“With millions of students dropping out every year, it’s like generations of talent needlessly lost,” she says. “You think about the civic fabric of our communities and what life could have been like. You realize the dropout epidemic is a huge loss to our nation.”

- Opinion: In support of President Obama’s plan to make full-day preschool programs available to low-income families, Arne Duncan writes (WaPo, 4/19):

If the United States is to remain a global economic leader, high-quality preschool must become the norm. The moral case is compelling, too. As President Obama has said, every child should have the opportunity, through hard work, to join the middle class. Children shouldn’t be denied equal educational opportunity at the starting line.

- D.C. rolls out new security measures for standardized tests (Examiner, 4/18)

ARTS | Local organization Life Pieces to Masterpieces, which engages young boys and men through the arts, is profiled on NPR. (NPR, 4/18)

CHILDREN & YOUTH | Candidates for the at-large seat on the D.C. Council are questioning whether the Children & Youth Investment Trust Corporation should continue to exist, given their problems raising private funds. (Examiner, 4/19)

COMMUNITY |
- United Way Worldwide has awarded Deloitte LLP with the Fleur de Lis award for the most employees giving $10,000 or more annually. (PR Newswire, 4/18)

- The  Community Foundation for Northern Virginia has released their 2011-12 annual report.

NONPROFITS | Here’s a deep dive into various areas of President Obama’s FY 2014 budget proposal relevant to the nonprofit sector. (NPQ, 4/18)

This is fascinating.

-Rebekah

REGION | The front page of the Post today has yet another doom-and-gloom story about the impact of federal budget cuts on the region’s economy. The article draws parallels between the Washington area and other regional economies that grew dependent on a single industry, and then suffered when those industries went bust. The next few years won’t be pretty, although we aren’t exactly the next Detroit (WaPo, 3/8):

But economists say there’s reason to believe that Washington’s coming disruption won’t be as bad over the long run as what other regions have experienced. For one thing, the federal spending slowdown doesn’t appear likely to slam the economy as hard as the Great Recession slammed housing or the tech crash hurt Silicon Valley. It’s looking like a slowdown, not a meltdown.

Also, the nature of Washington’s government-fueled growth — particularly the highly educated workers it brought to the area — should help it rebound and diversify in coming years. That’s because highly skilled workers tend to be more adaptable in the labor market when they lose their jobs, able to transition fairly easily into new industries or take the initiative to start innovative companies of their own.

BUDGETS | D.C. officials are starting to pump the brakes on the excitement around the District’s seemingly massive budget surplus for FY 2012, noting that the rising cost of doing business means the city will need to spend an additional $107 million this year just to maintain the same level of service. (WaPo, 3/7)

WORKFORCE | Opinion: In a blow to working parents, Inova Health System is closing three child-care centers (WaPo, 3/7)

ARTS | The blog Createquity has an interesting piece on the impact of the Cultural Data Project on arts organizations, and how it can increase its impact in the future. (Createquity, 3/5)

Related: Why I’m excited about the DC Cultural Data Project (Daily, October 2011)

PHILANTHROPY | Clever Ways to Evaluate Programs Without Spending a Lot (Chronicle, 3/7)

ENVIRONMENT | Maryland might become first to enact statewide 5-cent bag charge (WaPo, 3/8)

Speaking of plastic bags, some American University students made a great video about the untold story behind D.C.’s 5-cent bag fee.

- Rebekah

HEALTH
- A new study has found that, nationwide, children are eating fewer calories, though experts warn that the downward trend isn’t steep enough yet to significantly reduce the rate of childhood obesity. (NY Times, 2/21)

- The Role of Philanthropy and Advocacy in Healthcare Reform Implementation (NPQ, 2/21)

EDUCATION | Montgomery County schools superintendent Joshua Starr has released a revised budget for the school system that includes funding for more school psychologists and counselors, as well as pay raises and teacher training. (Gazette, 2/21)

HOUSING | DCFPI looks at how the $100 million Mayor Gray recently committed to affordable housing should be spent, starting with a focus on the homeless and households that spend more than half of their incomes on housing. (DCFPI, 2/21)

COMMUNITY | On their blog, the Washington Area Women’s Foundation‘s Shae Harris asks, “Where are the Black Women During Black History Month?” (WAWF, 2/20)

PHILANTHROPY
- WRAG’s president, Tamara Copeland, reflects on the first ever meeting between the head of the Council on Foundations and local philanthropic leaders. (Daily WRAG, 2/22)

- Why Program-Related Investments Are Not Risky Business (Forbes, 2/21)

Call me a Luddite, but I kind of hope that Google Glass doesn’t catch on. Because really, ugly glasses that you talk to…? 

- Rebekah

LOCAL | District CFO Natwar Gandhi has announced that he will be retiring on June 1. (WaPo, 2/1)

AFFORDABLE HOUSING | On the Greater Greater Washington blog, the Coalition for Smarter Growth’s Cheryl Cort outlines three steps the District should take to improve the inclusionary zoning program, which to date has not brought a significant number of affordable housing units to market. (GGW, 2/1)

EDUCATION
- D.C. and Maryland are among the only three states that received Race to the Top funds that haven’t made progress on their education goals (WaPo, 2/1):

Federal officials said the District’s greatest failure was that it moved to improve only one of 13 low-performing schools that it had committed to turn around under the terms of the grant.

In addition, the Office of the State Superintendent of Education…was 10 months late in releasing a Web site and other resources meant to help teachers transition to a new set of rigorous national standards, known as the Common Core.

- Here’s an interview with Cynthia Robinson-Rivers, Director of Teacher Retention and Recognition for D.C. Public Schools, on how DCPS is working to create a career ladder for teachers. (HuffPo, 1/31)

POVERTY | The Washington Area Women’s Foundation outlines the many reasons that Congress should maintain the Earned Income Tax Credit. (WAWF, 1/25)

YOUTH | The DC Alliance for Youth Advocates looks at how ensuring that the operations of the DC Children and Youth Investment Trust Corporation are protected from political influence is necessary in order to preserve the Trust’s critically important role in funding high quality youth-serving programs. (DCAYA, 1/30)

HEALTH | There’s still plenty of disagreement as to how D.C.’s health insurance exchange should be implemented. (Examiner, 2/1)

HOMELESSNESS | A homeless woman in Laurel, MD, drowned after heavy rains caused flash flooding near a homeless camp. (WTOP, 1/31) This is a sad reminder of the importance of knowing just where homeless people live.

REPORTS
- The Aspen Institute released a report yesterday, Information for Impact: Liberating Nonprofit Sector Data, calling for the IRS to make 990 data freely available in order to facilitate sector-wide research that could improve nonprofit effectiveness. (Aspen, 1/31)

- Earlier this week, the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy released Real Results: Why Strategic Philanthropy is Social Justice Philanthropy. (NCRP, 1/29)

The Oscar-nominated Disney animated short Paperman is so grossly sweet it’ll make your teeth hurt, but I still kind of like it. Enjoy.

-Rebekah

FISCAL CLIFF
…aaaand it’s over. Last night the House of Representatives passed the Senate’s bill to avert the fiscal cliff. The bill raises taxes for those earning over $400,000 a year. (WaPo, 1/2) Not even remotely surprisingly, the deal that passed doesn’t include the sequestration budget cuts, which have been delayed two months. Can’t wait.

- The Fiscal Cliff Legislation: A Primer for Nonprofits on its Provisions (NPQ, 1/2)

- Fiscal Cliff Deal Could Hurt Charitable Giving (Chronicle, 1/1)

- Philanthropists write last-minute checks amid cliff uncertainty (WaPo, 1/1)

HOUSING | The new chairman of the Arlington County Board has said that increasing the supply of affordable housing, particularly along Columbia Pike, will be the his top priority. (WaPo, 1/2)

CHILDREN & YOUTH | Late last month, the DC Promise Neighborhood Initiative (DCPNI) in Kenilworth-Parkside received a $25 million grant from the US Department of Education. The five-year grant will allow DCPNI, one of 17 grant winners across the country, to provide cradle-to-career services to children and their families in the neighborhood. (Informer, 12/31)

PHILANTHROPY
- After discounting Warren Buffet’s $3 billion gift of stock to his children’s foundations, American billionaires gave significantly less in 2012 than in 2011. (Chronicle, 1/1)

- Charitable foundations look towards impact investing (Marketplace, 12/28)

- How Giving Became Cool (NY Times, 12/26)

EDUCATION | D.C. parents develop alternatives to chancellor’s school-closure plan (WaPo, 1/1)

DEMOGRAPHICS | This map is really neat. (Atlantic Cities, 12/28)

I can’t decide if these images are cool or creepy: what city skies might look like at night without all the light pollution.

- Rebekah