Latest Philanthropy News

National grantmakers bet this rural education program can scale

Oct. 07, 2024 15:15 PM EDT

In 2010, Dreama Gentry met Geoffrey Canada, founder of Harlem Children’s Zone, a much-lauded nonprofit that supports youth from birth through college in a roughly 100-block area of central Harlem. The program was an inspiration for Gentry, who had launched a college-access program in rural...

As affordable housing disappears, states scramble to shore up the losses

Oct. 07, 2024 00:18 AM EDT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — For more than two decades, the low rent on Marina Maalouf’s apartment in a blocky affordable housing development in Los Angeles’ Chinatown was a saving grace for her family, including a granddaughter who has autism. But that grace had an expiration date. For...

Takeaways from AP's report on affordable housing disappearing across the U.S.

Oct. 07, 2024 00:17 AM EDT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — While Americans continue to struggle under unrelentingly high rents, as many as 223,000 affordable housing units across the U.S. could disappear in the next five years alone. It leaves low-income tenants facing protracted eviction battles, scrambling to pay a...

Survivors grapple with aid cuts and the Taliban a year after massive Afghan earthquake

Oct. 06, 2024 00:49 AM EDT

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — People had just seconds to flee their homes when the terrifying sound of earth cracking open reverberated across western Afghanistan's Herat province. Nobody knows for sure how many people died in a 6.3 magnitude earthquake on Oct. 7, 2023, or in the...

Bibles that Oklahoma wants for schools match version backed by Trump

Oct. 04, 2024 18:52 PM EDT

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma's top education official is seeking to purchase 55,000 Bibles for public schools and specifying that each copy contain the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution, which are not commonly found in Bibles but are included in one endorsed by former President...

Palestinian, Filipino and Mozambican activists and a London research agency given human rights award

Oct. 03, 2024 02:30 AM EDT

STOCKHOLM (AP) — The Right Livelihood Award was awarded Thursday to three activists from the Palestinian territories, the Philippines and Mozambique and to a U.K. pioneering research agency who “have each made a profound impact on their communities and the global stage.” ...

ChatGPT maker OpenAI raises $6.6 billion in fresh funding as it moves away from its nonprofit roots

Oct. 02, 2024 17:08 PM EDT

OpenAI said Wednesday it has raised $6.6 billion in venture capital investments as part of a broader shift by the ChatGPT maker away from its nonprofit roots. Led by venture capital firm Thrive Capital, the funding round was backed by tech giants Microsoft, Nvidia and SoftBank,...

Mississippi's forensic beds to double in 2025

Oct. 02, 2024 11:57 AM EDT

A new facility for Mississippians with mental illness who are involved in the criminal justice system will open early next year. The 83-bed maximum-security building at Mississippi State Hospital in Whitfield should open in January, Department of Mental Health Executive Director...

Who are the 2024 MacArthur ‘genius grant’ fellows?

Oct. 02, 2024 09:43 AM EDT

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced Tuesday its 2024 class of fellows, often known as recipients of the “genius grant." The 22 fellows will each receive a grant of $800,000 over five years to spend however they want. They were selected from nominations in a...

Sam Schmidt opens paralysis center in Indianapolis to rehabilitate trauma victims

Oct. 01, 2024 15:43 PM EDT

Paralyzed in a racing accident nearly 25 years ago, Sam Schmidt has spent much of the last quarter century trying to prove to others that there is a way to have a meaningful life with a traumatic spinal cord injury. That was the furthest thing from his mind when he crashed at Walt...