The flood damage from Hurricane Harvey, including this Friendswood, Texas, house, will take years to repair.
AP Photo/David J. Phillip
The urge to provide disaster aid is borne out of the best characteristics of humanity. But it’s important to consider when to donate to disaster survivors, along with what and to whom to give.
Fraud has organizational consequences.
Shutterstock.com/smspsy
Adopting best practices like making it easier for staffers to blow the whistle when they observe wrongdoing can help.
Loading new furniture donated to Hurricane Irma survivors in Chokoloskee, Fla.
AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee
The billions of dollars worth of aid dispatched every year to alleviate the suffering and damage after earthquakes and hurricanes would do more good if it didn’t get clumped up.
Even privately run colleges and universities get money from the federal government.
ITTIGallery/Shutterstock.com
Yet the money spent on student loans, Pell Grants and funding for research is not generally keeping pace with the demand for higher ed.
A homeless man in Times Square.
AP Photo/Julie Jacobson
With such an enormous challenge, where would it make sense to start? We looked into our archives for stories on what it would take to eradicate homelessness in the US today.
Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club.
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
Donations from the Donald J. Trump Foundation to Charities Hosting Events at Mar-a-Lago violate the spirit but not the letter of federal tax law.
Many people in South Sudan live in camps for the internally displaced after years of war.
AP Photo/Sam Mednick
On top of boosting South Sudan’s development, these groups are showcasing what refugees can accomplish in the US.
American and Israeli flags above Jerusalem rooftops prior to President Trump’s May 2017 visit.
Reuters/Ronen Zvulun
Israel’s increasingly conservative policies on social and religious issues appears to be playing a role.
Overcrowding is harder to define than it may appear.
adike/Shutterstock.com
New nonprofits don’t make the same impact everywhere. In most places, there’s enough money to go around to support new ones.
President Trump signed an executive order related to the Johnson Amendment in 2017.
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
Deactivating the tax provision known as the Johnson Amendment could increase the flow of dark money, reducing accountability in campaign finance.
Students and community activists at Northeastern University called on the school to nix an ICE contract.
AP Photo/Sarah Betancourt
Even when federal contractors stir public outrage, the government probably should be under fire.
Maria Butina, founder of a Russian gun group, allegedly infiltrated the Republican Party.
AP Photo
The NRA may fund political candidates but only with cash from U.S. donors. The group could face serious consequences if, as news reports allege, it broke laws and rules.
H.F. ‘Gerry’ Lenfest, left, donated tens of millions of dollars to sustain Philadelphia’s newspapers.
AP Photo/Rich Schultz
Without credible news and information, a healthy democracy is not possible.
Some U.S. nonprofits are praising China’s anti-pollution efforts.
AP Photo/Andy Wong
Just like with Cold War-era red-baiting, there’s an apparent effort to discredit and undermine critics of the US government.
Charitable giving hit record levels in 2017.
pinkomelet/Sshutterstock.com
Total gifts from individual donors are rising, at least for now.
Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, front, after she signed a law that allows pay-for-success funding for projects aiming to reduce female incarceration rates.
AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki
These partnerships between investors, governments and nonprofits are a new way to pay for programs and services that help people in need and address intractable problems like mass incarceration.
Great minds don’t always think alike.
Lightspring/Shutterstock.com
Thinking about philanthropy in a more complex way may help donors do more good.
Few shelters will accommodate homeless people with pets.
Reuters/Lucy Nicholson
People may not have a criminal record before they become homeless, but they likely will afterward due to laws intended to keep people with nowhere to go out of sight.
Eric, Don Jr., Ivanka and Donald Trump.
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
The Donald J. Trump Foundation allegedly violated charitable norms and laws.
Women with children in their arms protested the separation of families seeking protection at U.S. borders, as DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen addressed a Senate subcommittee.
AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais
Simply based on how they are housed, forcibly separating immigrant kids from their families is bound to make a bad situation worse.